HAZLETON — There’s too much traffic and too little recycling, people said when asked what worried them most about climate change.

Air pollution is getting worse, too, while distribution centers and other industrial buildings open, they said at the forum on Wednesday at Hazleton Integration Project.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is holding events in Hazleton and seven other locations around the state this month while taking comments on a climate action plan and strategies to reduce greenhouse gases.

Nate Eachus of Butler Twp. said a department map shows Hazleton is an environmental justice area that is vulnerable to climate change, a reason why he thought the department held the forum here.

His father, Todd Eachus, former majority leader of the state House of Representatives, noted that business groups from Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre and Schuylkill County didn’t attend.

They make plans for economic development that also affect community development, he said. Later he mentioned that server farms, such as the one that Northpoint Development proposes in Hazle Twp., have huge energy requirements.

“We’re never told about development until they come,” he said.

Anne Marie Shelby said the air quality already is horrible around her home in Hazle Twp. near where nine industrial buildings are going up on either side Route 424 at the junction of Route 309.

“How many trucks will be going into these?” Shelby said.

Mike Korb, a mining engineer, said everyone expects rainfall and floods to get worse because of climate change, but no one is doing anything to mitigate their effects.

Korb’s remarks tied into an introduction that Naimal Islam, an energy program specialist for the department, gave to start the forum.

“Our climate is already changing,” Islam said before presenting state maps colored to show areas where more days with extreme heat or extreme rainfall are projected as the century continues.

He also showed slides outlining greenhouse gas emissions by the following economic sectors: industry, power generation, transportation, agriculture and residential.

The climate action plan contains strategies for reducing emissions by 80% at mid-century compared to 2005. Also the plan discusses the effects on jobs, weather, health and safety when walking or bicycling.

Strategies include ways that residents can share in community solar and wind projects, cleanup of coal lands, construction codes that make buildings more energy efficient and support for electric vehicles.

Discussions within the plan also cover environmental justice communities. Typically they are places that have been subject to pollution, have populations with low incomes and other traits that might impede their response to climate change. Hazleton rates vulnerable because of land and water polluted by mining as well as demographic and income traits.

“Offering clean energy job training, especially within environmental justice areas, both supports resilient and clean infrastructure and generates economic opportunities,” the action plan says.

After discussing climate issues with each other, people walked around the gymnasium where posters were set up.

“Which hazards most impact you?” said a line said at the top of one poster, which listed increasing temperatures, rainfall, flooding, extreme weather and heat waves.

People put colored stickers next to the hazard they were most concerned about.

As people read posters, they continued their conversations.

Ana Diaz and David Dominguez discovered that they share an interest in recycling.

Dominguez, a teacher, said classes about recycling might boost interest in Hazleton as it has in other cities and countries.

“In Germany or Korea, throw a bottle into the trash. That’s a fine,” Dominguez said.