(Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

“We are homeowners whose entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by fires and we’re fighting our insurance companies while continuing to pay rate hike after rate hike.”

“We are small business owners who have lost our stores, our restaurants, to the way we pay our bills for flooding.”

These are samples of quotes from victims of extreme weather events who have survived floods, fires, droughts, extreme heat, deadly air pollution, superstorms and more. Extreme weather events are becoming more commonplace in recent years given the undeniable scientific evidence of climate change, which has resulted in higher temperatures worldwide, warming oceans, and shifting weather patterns. Warmer air holds more moisture than cool air; this has resulted in more intense storms with more rainfall, resulting in greater devastation than we have seen in previous decades. Extreme weather events in 2024 will ultimately cost Americans more than $500 billion in total damage, according to a new estimate from AccuWeather.

Unprecedented and deadly heat waves have stricken metro areas in the past year. California saw its fourth-largest wildfire, torrential rains pounded the West Coast and Pacific Northwest over the winter, and more than 100 people were rescued in Arizona after flash floods left them stranded near the Grand Canyon. The Northeast experienced a historic period of dry weather and drought, leading to wildfires in New York City and New Jersey. Hurricane Helene hit Florida a year ago, and Hurricane Milton struck North Carolina.

There is “…ample scientific evidence showing a relationship between the cost of natural disasters and climate change,” U.S. News and World Report noted (Sept. 8, 2025). In 2024 alone extreme weather cost $58 billion in property damage–the highest number in history from 17 severe storms, five hurricanes, one wildfire and one drought.

So, what are insurance companies doing in response to this increasingly massive property damage and human misery? Denying claims, raising premiums, cancelling coverage, limiting coverage, overcompensating CEOs, and investing in fossil-fuel companies. From 2021-2024 insurance premiums rose $648 per policy, and insurance companies are raising deductibles, and limiting coverage (US News & World Report, Sept. 8, 2025). The same article reports that all insurers dropped 1.9 million households since 2018 and raised their rates 40% over six years. Insurance companies are trying to spread the risk of their losses due to extreme weather; that means that everyone is paying higher premiums, even those of us in the Mid-Ohio Valley, who do not experience hurricanes or tornadoes. Among the 42 top insurance company executives the total salary was $310 million; the CEO of Allstate was paid $26.1 million last year (Palm Beach Post, July 30, 2025).

In a striking example of irony insurance companies are investing in the fossil-fuel industry. Berkshire Hathaway, which owns GEICO and General, invested $95 million in fossil-fuel industries. In 2019 property insurance companies invested $582 million in fossil-fuel companies (Palm Beach Post, July 30, 2025), and Liberty Mutual invested $1.8 billion in similar companies. These oil and gas corporations are the very companies that are producing greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing climate change, which is causing extreme weather. This phenomenon would be like a hospital treating an alcoholic for his physical ailments, then at discharge giving him a bottle of whisky because the hospital has investments in a distillery!

Consumers of property insurance need not purchase policies from the big-name insurance companies despite their cute and annoyingly ubiquitous TV advertisements. Mutual insurance companies are owned by policy holders and can be a preferred choice. Smaller insurance companies that operate in Ohio and West Virginia are a better and more responsible source of coverage, which are not as tied to fossil-fuel companies as the big-name companies. An all-hazards insurance plan would avoid the need for separate policies for each kind of extreme event. Consumers should also check the Climate Smart Insurance Directory and investingclimatchange.org/data for information about fossil-fuel investments of their insurance companies. Companies might also consider reducing premium rates for prevention practices that homeowners pursue on their own to reduce their risk.

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communications has reported that 67% of Americans are concerned about extreme weather and that 68% support a national insurance fund for victims of extreme weather events.

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George Banziger, Ph.D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. He is a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, of Citizens Climate Lobby, and a contributor to the Climate Corner series of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.