• Sustainability

COVID Pandemic Stalls NYC Resilience Funding Bill — Minorities Stand to Lose The Most

• #COVID19
• flood
• insurance
• minority communities
• New York City
• sea level rise
• storm surge

Eight years ago Superstorm Sandy killed 44 people in New York City, cost the City approximately $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity according to city officials, and left more than 69,000 residences damaged.  Inside Climate News’ Kristoffer Tigue reported that earlier this year the New York state legislature was poised to pass a $3b bill called the “Restore Mother Nature Bond Act,” which would have allowed the state to issued bonds to help fund projects specifically geared toward reducing New York’s flood risk.  

Why This Matters:  Advocates argue that this delay in climate adaptation funding will hurt New York City’s low-income communities of color, which already bear a disproportionate burden of climate impacts.

• Climate Change

Small Businesses Hit Hard By Climate Change, Struggle To Recover

• Fire
• flood
• insurance
• small businesses

The Houston Chronicle published an eye-opening story about how extreme weather events are leaving many small businesses in ruins.  The paper reported that, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly 40 percent of small businesses never reopen following a natural disaster, and another 25 percent fail within months.

Why This Matters:  Big companies can recover from extreme weather events, but small businesses with slim profit margins will struggle to stay afloat.  Red states along the Gulf of Mexico may be ground zero of this phenomenon, along with California.  Helping small businesses recover is another climate impact we will need to deal with in the years to come given the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events.  

• Sustainability

Insurance companies setting houses on fire in the name of research

• insurance
• natural disaster
• preparedness

Recent natural disasters forced the insurance industry to recalculate its risks–and quickly. As NPR reported, “The past two years have been particularly costly for insurance companies that are on the hook for billions of dollars in damage done by hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters. As these disasters become more frequent and expensive, in part […]