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1/6 Business & Economy
NPR News • 18h ago

Are wildfires making the future uninsurable? : Planet Money

Over the past decade, increasingly catastrophic wildfires have wrought unprecedented destruction and upended the basic math of the insurance industry. In some of the riskiest parts of the country, homeowners have seen spiking premiums or lost their coverage altogether.Today on the show, we travel to the forested foothills of Northern California to see how communities in wildfire-prone areas are trying to conjure the private insurance market back into existence. What actually happens when a megafire comes knocking at your door. And what all this means for the biggest question: In the age of climate change, could the future simply become uninsurable?For more about how natural disasters are changing the insurance industry: Insurance in the time of climate changeInside the insurance industry’s destruction labEpisode 797: Flood Money Episode 570: The Fine Print Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletterOur weekly Indicator round-up newsletterFollow: InstagramTikTokYouTubeFacebookThis episode was produced by Vito Emanuel and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Travis Hagan and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. Music: NPR Source Audio - "FasterFasterBrighter," "Country Butter," and "Chrome and Wax"Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

Climate Change Science & Climate
The Verge • 3w ago

Climate Change

Climate change is already shaping what the future will look like and plunging the world into crisis. Cities are adapting to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, like superstorms and heatwaves. People are already battling more destructive wildfires, salvaging flooded homes, or migrating to escape sea level rise. Policies and economies are also changing as world leaders and businesses try to cut down global greenhouse gas emissions. How energy is produced is shifting, too — from fossil fuels to carbon-free renewable alternatives like solar and wind power. New technologies, from next-generation nuclear energy to devices that capture carbon from the atmosphere, are in development as potential solutions. The Verge is following it all as the world reckons with the climate crisis.

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