Why Climate-Exacerbated Wildfires Are Causing an Insurance Crisis
11/05/19
“What are climate-exacerbated wildfires doing to the home insurance market?”
How would you feel if your home no longer had any financial security?
Home insurance is vital for providing families a financial safety net in case of a disaster. Usually, the cost and availability of insurance will vary by how prone a certain area is to external disasters. But with the advent of climate change, zones once considered safe to live in are now a precipitous liability. And one has to look no further than simple wildfires to see an illustration of this.
With no doubt, climate change is exacerbating rain-parched forested area’s wildfire problem. The increasing heat and dryness are causing wildfire season to grow longer and flammable areas to extend beyond their historic boundary. As a result, insurance companies are reevaluating homes all over such places, increasing resident’s premiums and even sometimes removing coverage altogether! This is leading to an insurance crisis, where a multitude of homeowners can either no longer pay for their insurance or are unable to sell their homes, turning it into a sunken financial asset. Only through smart policy, economics, and wildfire prevention protocol can this ever have any hopes of being solved. This is Why Climate-Exacerbated Wildfires Are Causing an Insurance Crisis.
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