Hey, it's Flor Lictman and you are listening to Science Friday.

Today in the podcast, a climate change consequence many people cannot ignore.

The changing home insurance market.

This has led to many homeowners I talk to being priced out or they're being dropped altogether.

If they're found to be a risk, if the insurance company doesn't like how long it's been since they've changed their roof, they say, hey, we're not going to renew your policy.

You cannot get a mortgage without home insurance.

But in some parts of the country, it's becoming harder and harder to find a

plan. Insurance companies are dropping homeowners, even pulling out of entire states as flooding,

wildfires, and storms become more frequent and intense. In Florida, for example, one in five people

don't have home insurance right now.

And in counties across the Mountain West, insurance cancellation rates have tripled since 2018.

My next guests have both reported on how climate change is impacting home insurance in their states.

Rachel Cohen, Mountain West News Bureau reporter for KUNC in Greeley, Colorado, and Jessica

Mazzaros, Climate Change and Environment Reporter for WUSF in Tampa, Florida.

Welcome to you both to Science Friday.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Rachel, how is access to home insurance changing out West?

Yeah, what we're seeing in the West is that a crisis

that was, you know, really once thought to be largely limited to places like Florida or California

is now really hitting states like Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and this has really developed in

the past few years. One consumer report out this year found

...