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Even as climate change deniers continue to claim we have a problem, the rise in extreme weather phenomena has scientists and the general public alike concerned. 2025 has had its fair share of bad weather, with earthquakes, tornadoes, and wildfires ravaging Mother Earth.
This year got off to a bad start when 'perfect' conditions helped the Palisades wildfires spread, while Alaska's capital was nearly flooded by glacier meltwater, and what about fears of a 1,000 ft 'mega tsunami'?
You don't need the soothsaying of Nostradamus or Baba Vanga to see climate change is getting worse.
We recently covered how the after-effects of a Japanese super typhoon were destined to rock the USA, but over in the United Kingdom, the water levels could soon be rising. In the aftermath of scientists warning that up to 70% of the world's population will be slammed by extreme weather in the next 20 years, an investigation from The Guardian has warned UK residents that millions could soon be homeless. Looking at the insurance industry, the outlet reports how the market town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire has already been 'abandoned' by insurers.
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Experts have suggested that whole towns could be left behind as homeowners and businesses struggle to insure buildings there. With raging storms and rising sea levels, even major cities like London and Manchester are expected to be hit hard.
Then again, with the Sahara Desert flooding for the first time in 50 years, flood warnings are becoming far more frequent. Most worryingly, London's flood defences are said to need urgent upgrades to save the country's capital from going underwater.
Jason Storah, chief executive for UK & Ireland general insurance at Aviva, explained: "The findings are stark. Millions more properties will be at risk from flooding, with rising temperatures, increased urbanisation and inadequate drainage."
Aviva claimed that by 2050, the number of buildings at risk of flooding is set to spike from 6.3 million to 8 million. It's harder to predict against flash flooding, but buildings affected by that phenomenon are also set to leap up to 66% by the middle of the century.
Areas including Bermondsey and Old Southwark in London, and Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire, are said to have 90% of their homes at risk from river and coastal flooding before the end of 2050.
As for Tenbury Wells, it's gone from facing floods about once a decade to four times in the past six years. Lesley Davies, the deputy mayor of Tenbury council, said: "We do feel abandoned. We are the blueprint for what could happen in the future – there may be other towns getting towards that situation, there are a lot of vulnerable towns on rivers all over."
In the past decade, 110,000 new homes were apparently built in flood zones with the highest risk, which equals one in 13 of all new builds.
Emma Boyd, the former chair of the Environment Agency, foreshadowed that we might not have the time or money to put flood protections in place for every region they're needed: "I think particularly when money is constrained, resources are constrained, some of those very difficult decisions are going to have to be made by government to make sure that the money that is available for flood prevention is having the most impact given fiscal constraints, but that is a very difficult political decision for our leaders to make."
Storah concluded: "We are not talking about this because we are waving a flag about climate or sustainability – it’s nothing to do with that, our business is totally correlated with what happens in the environment…we are in this and we cannot avoid it.”
