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Warmer winters, more extreme weather are making seasonal recreation harder to insure

Feb 6, 2025
Premiums and claims for ski resorts and outdoor ice rinks — places that depend on cold weather to operate safely — have both gotten higher. Some insurers will no longer take chances on them.
Insurance premiums for ski resorts and skating rinks have skyrocketed as weather events become more extreme.
THEPALMER/Getty Images

From satellites to AI, tech has a role to play in battling blazes

Jan 13, 2025
Kate Dargan Marquis of the Moore Foundation discusses spurring research and development to keep up with the growing impact of wildfires.
Firefighters work to contain the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles County.
Ali Matin/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Cities can't be made fireproof, but they can be made fire-resilient

Jan 8, 2025
As the California blazes demonstrate, the concentration of homes in urban areas raises risks and costs.
"The more people you have concentrated in an area, the harder it is to make evacuations succeed quickly," said Roy Wright of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. Above, a home burns in the Pacific Palisades.
Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Ground rules for carbon markets

Nov 15, 2024
In this week's "Make Me Smart" newsletter, we explain the latest moves to establish a credible global market for carbon credits. Plus, we do the numbers on open enrollment and the rising cost of health care.
Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Home insurance premiums are surging. That's bad news for low-income housing — and its residents.

Jul 3, 2024
The more low-income housing nonprofits have to pay for insurance, the less they have leftover to build new units to ease the housing shortage.
Nearly a third of affordable housing providers saw premiums spike at least 25% from 2022 to 2023. Climate change has played a role in the rising cost.
Leila Macor/AFP via Getty Images

The Mexico City water crisis, explained

May 27, 2024
The most populated North American metro area is facing a "Day Zero" scenario, and longstanding issues with infrastructure and water management are part of the problem.
"One of the things that really jumps out to me about Mexico City is the way this is exacerbating inequality," said Vox's Caroline Houck. "There's obvious tensions around who does get water, whose pipes regularly work, but also when they don't work, who has the money to pay for that increasingly expensive use of water."
Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. banks remain the world's largest funders of fossil fuels

May 16, 2024
Banks have invested trillions of dollars since the Paris Agreement went into effect.
JPMorgan Chase was the number one fossil fuel financier in the world last year, according to the 15th Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

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Rising insurance costs are making homeownership even more expensive

Mar 21, 2024
Climate risk and inflation are making insurance harder to find and mortgages harder to afford.
The main reason for higher home insurance costs is climate change, which is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images

Skijoring brings cowboys and skiers to Western towns, but warm weather leaves the sport in flux

Mar 7, 2024
Many small towns across the Rocky Mountain West depend on the sport for an economic boost during an otherwise slow winter, but this year it's been tricky with unseasonably warm temperatures.
A cowboy and his horse pull a skier off a jump on the Pinedale skijoring course. The fastest time wins.
Caitlin Tan/Wyoming Public Radio

SEC adopts rule making companies disclose climate risks

Mar 7, 2024
The rules are softer than those initially proposed.
New SEC rules are intended to standardize reporting requirements on things like emissions and exposure to climate change-related disasters.
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