Community leaders across the country are sounding the alarm about a nascent, but growing, crisis — one that’s likely to get worse as climate change drives more severe hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
“The risk of many weather-related extreme events is growing as the planet warms, and some of those impacts are coming fast and furious now,” says Carolyn Kousky, an economic policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund and longtime property insurance researcher.
The fact of the matter is that most Republicans don’t care.
The wealthy don’t need insurance, they can buy it if it makes sense but they can just rebuild out of pocket (and likely take a tax advantage for doing so). So all the rising rates do is chase people out who had lived there for decades, which makes it easier for the wealthy to build exclusive communities. Big win for them! Yeah the planet may be going to hell, but they’ll be dead before it gets brutal (or so they think).
Now, most people voting for Republicans aren’t wealthy, but for some reason they like voting against their own interests to prop up the wealthy. Maybe they do consider themselves to be temporarily embarrassed millionaires after all.
On top of that insurance is a requirement to get a mortgage so people who can’t pay cash are forced to pay a ton more monthly