Extreme weather

Don’t Let Insurance Companies Fleece Homeowners

March 4, 2025 Kelsey Condon, Counter Punch. Strategize! Disaster Recovery, Extreme weather, Housing, Insurance Companies

As climate-fueled disasters escalate, insurers are getting richer while leaving Americans in the lurch. Citing climate-related losses, many insurance companies are exorbitantly inflating rates, refusing to renew policies, and delaying, denying, or underpaying claims. The latest of many examples is Los Angeles, where wildfires devoured over 40,000 acres and left thousands unhoused and unemployed. Many families were dropped by their insurers or struggled to find affordable options before the fires. Some turned to the state’s coverage plan, which costs more and covers less.

Dispatch: Through The Fire

January 26, 2025 Carlos Sirah, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Black America, California, climate crisis, Extreme weather, Fires, Mutual Aid

Unprecedented January wildfires devastate Los Angeles, as communities face both natural disaster and militarized state response. The Eaton Fire displaces numerous families in the Pasadena-Altadena area, including multigenerational Black households who have built lives in these neighborhoods for decades. Among them, the Edwards family stands displaced from their home of 32 years. For those seeking to support impacted community members, the Edwards family’s GoFundMe, provides direct aid to one of many displaced households fighting to survive. A broader directory of displaced Black families seeking support can be found here.

The Coming Climate Uncertainty Conundrum

January 25, 2025 Rupert Read, DeSmog. Strategize! Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, Biodiversity, climate crisis, Extreme weather

This piece is about what we talk about when we talk about ‘climate change.’ Mostly, whether in the campaigning world or the policy world, the tech world or the business world, the everyday world or the world of international summitry, we mainly talk about cutting carbon emissions. And if we talk about impacts, we talk about the impacts of global heating, plus the impacts of the growing chaos. But we don’t talk enough about climate impacts, our vulnerability to them, let alone how to prepare adequately for them, or to tackle them ‘upstream’ before they land or get worse.

New York Climate Activists Show A Powerful Path Forward

January 25, 2025 Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Accountability, climate crisis, Extreme weather, Fossil Fuels, New York (NY)

On the evening of Dec. 10, 12 self-identified elder climate activists sat around the Christmas tree in the New York State Capitol, in Albany, singing carols as they waited to be arrested. The protesters, who were there to support New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, had been told by police they would face criminal misdemeanor trespass charges if they stayed put. “Normally, for a protest like this, we’d expect to be written a citation rather than charged with a misdemeanor,” said Michael Richardson of Third Act Upstate New York, which helped plan the civil disobedience.

A Public Model For Home Insurance

January 20, 2025 Moira Birss and MacKenzie Marcelin, Dissent Magazine. Create! Extreme weather, Florida, Housing, Insurance, Public ownership

With every extreme weather event, housing is damaged and belongings are lost. Insurance is supposed to be the safety net that helps people to recover and restart their lives. But as major disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and hailstorms increase in frequency and severity thanks to climate change, more insurance companies are cutting back on policies, jacking up premium rates, or refusing to cover whole areas of the country. This change is leaving people who live in affected homes—including everything from single-family houses to multifamily rental buildings—facing financial hardship and even homelessness, among other ruinous consequences.

How Federal Disaster Funding Can Slow Rent Increases

January 20, 2025 Robert Davis, Next City. Educate! Affordable Housing, Disaster Recovery, Extreme weather, Flooding, Housing, Housing Crisis, Rent, Wildfires

Coloradans often welcome rain storms with the refrain, “We need the moisture.” After the deadly floods in September 2013, many Coloradans sang a different tune. Over five days, a slow-moving storm covered some areas of the Front Range with up to 20 inches of rain. Overall, the floods killed 10 people, displaced 18,000, and caused more than $4 billion in damage to more than 17,000 structures, of which 1,882 were completely destroyed, according to the Colorado Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management’s after-action report.

Mutual Aid Networks Are Mobilizing Amid Los Angeles Fires

January 18, 2025 Schuyler Mitchell, Truthout. Organize! Extreme weather, Housing Crisis, Los Angeles, Mutual Aid, Wildfires

I’ve always said that Los Angeles is a mirror: Whatever you’re seeking, you’ll find it reflected back to you. Sure, the city has its ugly parts — celebrity worship and diet fads and smog that blots out the sky — but Los Angeles’ true core is multitudinous. Home to about 13 million people, the sprawling metropolis brims with countless communities and enclaves, neighborhoods and histories. If the ugly is all you see, then you’re not looking hard enough. Since the Palisades and Eaton fires roared to life last week, Los Angeles residents have shown how much strength and solidarity lies in their communities.

Fire Weather

January 14, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Extreme weather, Wildfires

The apocalyptic wildfires that have erupted in the boreal forest in Siberia, the Russian Far East and Canada, climate scientists repeatedly warned, would inevitably move southwards as rising global temperatures created hotter, more fire-prone landscapes. Now they have. The failures in California, where Los Angeles has had no significant rainfall in eight months, are not only failures of preparedness — the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, decreased funds for the fire department by $17 million — but a failure globally to halt the extraction of fossil fuel.

‘Weather Whiplash’ Is Fueling The Los Angeles Fires

January 10, 2025 Kate Yoder, Grist. Educate! California, climate crisis, Extreme weather, Fires, Los Angeles

It’s supposed to be the rainy season in Southern California, but the last time Los Angeles measured more than a tenth-inch of rain was eight months ago, after the city logged one of the soggiest periods in its recorded history. Since then, bone-dry conditions have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfires now descending upon the metropolis from multiple directions. This quick cycling between very wet and very dry periods — one example of what scientists have come to call “weather whiplash” — creates prime conditions for wildfires: The rain encourages an abundance of brush and grass, and once all that vegetation dries out, it only takes a spark and a gust of wind to fuel a deadly fire.

Most Costly Climate Disasters Of 2024 Killed 2,000 People

December 31, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! 2024, climate crisis, disaster relief, Extreme weather

The most financially costly climate disasters around the world in 2024 produced $229 billion in damages and killed 2,000 people, according to Counting the Cost 2024: A year of climate breakdown, the most recent analysis of insurance payouts by nonprofit Christian Aid. Three-quarters of these calamities occurred in the United States, reported The Guardian. “Behind the billion-dollar figures are countless lost lives and livelihoods,” said Dr. Mariam Zachariah, a researcher for World Weather Attribution at Imperial College London, in a press release from Christian Aid.

New York To Charge Biggest Emitters For Climate Damages Under New Law

December 28, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Create! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Extreme weather, New York (NY), Oil and Gas Industry

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires major emitters, such as fossil fuel companies, to compensate for damages by helping to fund climate-resilient infrastructure projects. “By signing the Climate Change Superfund Act, Gov. Hochul is addressing the financial burden placed on New Yorkers by the fossil fuel companies,” Richard Schrader, director of New York Government Affairs at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement. “It’s a key example of what putting fiscal fairness and environmental justice front and center looks like.

What Mutual Aid Groups Are Doing To Help Hurricane Survivors

November 19, 2024 Damon Orion, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Educate! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Hurricane Helene, Hurricanes, Mutual Aid, North Carolina

Hurricane Helene, which was a Category 4 hurricane, hit on September 26 and claimed around 227 lives as of October 5, 2024. The hurricane is now considered one of the deadliest “of the modern era.” Besides destroying homes, businesses, roads, and bridges, it caused power outages for millions and left countless survivors without food and water. The hurricane has become a source of conflict and division, particularly concerning the federal government’s response to the catastrophe. Media outlets like PBS, U.S. News & World Report, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Hurricane Rumor Response page have addressed what National Public Radio (NPR) called, “[r]umors, misinformation and lies” about this issue on October 7.

Climate Finance Is Central To COP29 Negotiations In Azerbaijan

November 14, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! climate crisis, Climate finance, COP29, Donald Trump, Extreme weather, Flooding

This year’s Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) opened in Baku in Azerbaijan on Monday, November 11 amid the growing concerns of rising global temperatures and failures of the developed countries to fulfill their existing pledges to mitigate the climate crisis. The urgency of the COP29 discussions has not been determined by moving speeches and demands, but from the reality facing countries across the globe, such as Spain, Nepal, the US, and others, struggling to respond to floods, fires, hurricanes, and drought which have exacted devastating tolls in recent months.

Extreme Weather Events Have Cost $2 Trillion Over The Past Decade

November 12, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Climate finance, Extreme weather, Report

According to a new report by the International Chamber of Commerce and consultancy firm Oxera, extreme weather events over the past 10 years have cost a total of $2 trillion globally. The countries that have faced the biggest losses include the U.S., China and India. The report tracked nearly 4,000 extreme weather events from 2014 through 2023. In total, the results found that these events affected more than 1.6 billion people and cost around $2 trillion in economic losses. Over just the past two years, losses linked to extreme weather cost the world $451 billion.

Our Fragile Infrastructure: Lessons From Hurricane Helene

November 5, 2024 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Educate! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Hurricane Helene, Infrastructure, North Carolina, Public Banks

Asheville, North Carolina is known for its historic architecture, vibrant arts scene and as a gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a favorite escape for “climate migrants” moving from California, Arizona, and other climate-challenged vicinities, until a “500 year flood” ravaged the city this fall. Hurricane Helene was a wakeup call not just for stricken North Carolina residents but for people across the country following their tragic stories in the media and in the podcasts now favored by young voters for news. “Preppers” well equipped with supplies watched in helpless disbelief as homes washed away in a wall of water and mud, taking emergency supplies in the storm.

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