Roaring rivers sweeping away cars, houses, even caskets. Splintered trees blocking washed out roads. At least 191 people are dead and hundreds more missing from a storm fueled by climate change.
The images of Hurricane Helene’s devastation of the southeastern US are searing but by no means unique. Catastrophic flooding in Nepal over the weekend killed at least 200 people. This spring and summer, deadly floods struck Thailand, eastern Africa, central and western Africa, and parts of Europe. Ferocious wildfires scorched Greece, Portugal, and California.
All this is happening after “only” 1.3 degrees Celsius of global warming. And things will only get worse, scientists say, until humans stop burning the oil, coal, and gas that are the main drivers of climate change.
Two upcoming news events — the US elections (November 5) and COP29 climate summit (November 11–22) — will shape whether the world’s governments finally take commensurate action. Meanwhile, the spiraling economic costs of such disasters, to say nothing of their human toll, raise questions that demand journalists’ attention: Who pays for all this? Where does the money come from for the emergency rescues and food, water, and shelter for survivors? Who pays to rebuild collapsed bridges and mud-caked highways? Who subsidizes the grants that help flooded-out small businesses get back on their feet?
At the moment, in the US, it’s taxpayers, mostly. Humanitarian organizations play a vital short-term role, and insurance companies sometimes help (though less than 1% of households had federal flood insurance in hard-hit western North Carolina, where the now-ravaged town of Asheville was thought to be a “haven” from the effects of a warming Earth). Climate change in the US costs at least $150 billion a year in damages, the Fifth National Climate Assessment concluded last November. Taking into account the economic losses, the actual number is quite a bit higher: Helene’s total damages and economic losses are estimated at $145 to $160 billion. It’s mainly public money that covers those costs — for example, in the form of the budgets of the US Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and state and local government agencies.
That could change, however, if new “Make Polluters Pay” bills in the US Congress and states including New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland become law.
These bills, like legislation already passed in Vermont, are grounded in a core principle of modern environmental regulation: The cost of cleaning up pollution should be borne by the polluter. It’s the same principal Congress applied in 1980 when it passed the “Superfund” law, which taxed petroleum and chemical companies to create a fund to cover the clean-up costs for toxic waste sites abandoned by their owners.
These “Make Polluters Pay” bills offer journalists news pegs for connecting Hurricane Helene and the climate crisis with the upcoming elections. The bills have been sponsored by Democrats, but polling indicates that the majority of voters favor making polluters pay. Reporters can test how true that is by interviewing people and asking them.
We can also ask candidates whether, if elected, they would vote for or against such legislation. And we can pair such questions with queries about the mirror opposite approach elaborated in Project 2025, the blueprint for a potential second Donald Trump administration produced by advisers to the former president. Project 2025 calls for the gutting of the FEMA, the National Weather Service, and disaster payments to small businesses.
“Who pays for Helene” means addressing who pays for climate change more broadly. It’s a storyline that will remain relevant well beyond Election Day, no matter who wins, and well beyond the US. The disasters triggered by climate change have, alas, only just begun.
From Us
Blueprint released! The Climate Blueprint for Media Transformation, released at the beginning of Climate Week 2024, tackles 14 areas where journalists and newsrooms around the world can make tangible changes to improve their climate coverage. This project is the result of conversations started at the 2023 “Climate Changes Everything” conference hosted by Solutions Journalism Network and CCNow.
Weather attribution explained. How do scientists know that climate change fueled a particular storm or weather event? Watch a recording of our recent webinar digging into weather attribution science, co-sponsored by Climate Central and World Weather Attribution. Dr. Friederike Otto and Bernadette Woods Placky spoke with CCNow’s Mark Hertsgaard.
Noteworthy Stories
Flooding in Nepal. Monsoon rains resulted in deadly floods in Nepal, killing hundreds of people; dozens of people are still missing. Scientists said the storms were exacerbated by climate change and a low-pressure weather system over the Bay of Bengal, calling on the government to “urgently” invest in climate-resilient infrastructure. From Al Jazeera…
Voting accessibility. In western North Carolina, Hurricane Helene has displaced thousands and ravaged roads, buildings, and public services, including mail delivery and election offices. Some fear the damage will hinder voters’ ability to cast mail-in ballots and get to polling stations on Election Day, just weeks away. By Zoya Teirstein and Jake Bittle for Grist…
Inland flooding. After making landfall in Florida, Hurricane Helene brought severe flooding and landslides to Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where one resident noted that “a lot of people here felt like they were safe from [extreme weather].” Reports show that FEMA failed to designate many inland areas as special flood zones, causing property owners to underestimate their risk of climate disasters. By Kiley Price for Inside Climate News…
Green bank. Climate United, a nonprofit coalition in charge of $7 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act–created Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, has announced its investment in the first-ever project financed by the fund. Tapped by the federal government to help pull private-sector investment into climate projects, the consortium will provide a $31.8 million loan to the Arkansas-based solar developer Scenic Hill. By Jeff St. John for Canary Media…
300-plus days of sunshine. The island of Cyprus has long embraced rooftop solar for heating and cooling buildings, dating back, in fact, to the 1970s. More than 93% of Cypriot homes use solar for heating and cooling, far outpacing other European states’ solar usage, a logical move for an island that gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year. By Helena Smith for the Guardian…
Via Social
Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, kicked off Climate Week with CCNow talking about positive tipping points and necessary transformation the world must see.
“The fact that the fossil fuel industry takes advantage of the messiness of the transition to distort the facts and turn the narrative around shouldn’t be surprising, because frankly, they’re fighting for their dear life,” she said.
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Industry News
Local journalists in western North Carolina are helping to gather news and fill in information gaps for people impacted by Hurricane Helene, as they themselves make sense of and deal with the damage wrought in their own lives. More on Poynter…
Resources & Events
World Weather Attribution is hosting a virtual event to reveal the influence climate change had on Hurricane Helene on October 8, at 12pm US Eastern Time. To sign up for WWA’s mailing list, email wwamedia@imperial.ac.uk.
The Uproot Project, in partnership with Solutions Journalism Network, is hosting a webinar, “Solutions in Our Community,” on October 8, at 8pm US Eastern Time.
World Resources Institute is hosting a webinar, “Civil Society and COP16: How Can Organizations Make the Most of the CBD COP?,” on October 9, at 9:30am US Eastern Time.
- Coverage opportunity: The upcoming UN conference on biodiversity will take place in Cali, Colombia, from October 21–November 1.
Climate Central is hosting a webinar, “Building Climate-Resilient Schools: The Impact of Climate Change on Children’s Health, Education, and Well-being,” on October 10, at 2pm US Eastern Time.
Jobs, Etc.
Jobs. The Washington Post is hiring a Justice Reporter (Washington, D.C.). The South Carolina Daily Gazette is seeking a Reporter (Columbia, S.C.). Rest of World is recruiting a Visual Editor (remote). Rocky Mountain Community Radio is hiring a Rural Climate Reporter (Colorado). High Country News is seeking three fellows for 2025: Virginia Spencer Davis Fellow, Indigenous Affairs Fellow, and Climate and Science Fellow (remote, but open to candidates living in the American West). The BBC is recruiting a Audience Engagement Editor (part time; London, UK). Crooked Media is hiring a Reporting Fellow, Climate (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Fellowship. The Reuters Institute’s Oxford Climate Journalism Network is now accepting applications for its 2025 cohorts. The first cohort begins in January, and the second begins in July. Deadline to apply for both is October 13.