Episode 34

Climate One - Risky Business: Underinsured Against Climate Disaster

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Carbon Connection, we learn about insurance and its role in recovering after a climate disaster. Host Greg Dalton speaks with guests with deep knowledge about how US emergency services and the insurance industry work. They discuss how FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) distributes aid and offer insight into the needs-based aid system in the United States. They also consider big questions such as:

  • What might disaster aid look like if those impacted received a flat amount?
  • Why does climate disruption make it more difficult to be insured?
  • What role should insurance play in aiding recovery?

LINKS

Climate One podcast

FEMA

The Carbon Almanac

Connect-the-Dots, an interactive resource by The Carbon Almanac Network linking issues to actions.

CONTRIBUTORS

Special Acknowledgment: Greg Dalton, Climate One

Production Team: Dr. Lynda Ulrich

Senior Producer: Tania Marien

Supervising Producer: Jennifer Myers Chua

Music: Cool Carbon Instrumental, Paul Russell, Musicbed

Episode Art: Jennifer Myers Chua

Network Voiceover: Olabanji Stephen

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Carbon Almanac

When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.

The climate is the fundamental issue of our time, and now we face a critical decision. Whether to be optimistic or fatalistic, whether to profess skepticism or to take action. Yet it seems we can barely agree on what is really going on, let alone what needs to be done. We urgently need facts, not opinions. Insights, not statistics. And a shift from thinking about climate change as a “me” problem to a “we” problem.

The Carbon Almanac is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers, and illustrators that focuses on what we know, what has come before, and what might happen next. Drawing on over 1,000 data points, the book uses cartoons, quotes, illustrations, tables, histories, and articles to lay out carbon’s impact on our food system, ocean acidity, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, extreme weather events, the economy, human health, and best and worst-case scenarios. Visually engaging and built to share, The Carbon Almanac is the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.

This isn’t what the oil companies, marketers, activists, or politicians want you to believe. This is what’s really happening, right now. Our planet is in trouble, and no one concerned group, corporation, country, or hemisphere can address this on its own. Self-interest only increases the problem. We are in this together. And it’s not too late to for concerted, collective action for change.