IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v178y2025i1d10.1007_s10584-024-03819-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Little floods everywhere: what will climate change mean for you?

Author

Listed:
  • Raphael Calel

    (Georgetown University
    London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • David A. Stainforth

    (London School of Economics and Political Science
    University of Warwick)

Abstract

The consequences of climate change are often conceptualised in terms of the changing risks of natural disasters, or as reductions in future economic output. When understood in these terms, it is all too easy to believe that one might “get lucky”—that the floods won’t affect those of us who don’t live by the waterfront, and that the heatwaves won’t affect the salaries or job security of those of us who go to work in air conditioned offices. The consequences of climate change, serious though they may be, seem far away. Contrary to this perspective, we argue that changing risk profiles, even marginal or distant changes, are likely to strain the underlying fabric of societies, and thus have profound consequences for everyone. Even for individuals who are relatively insulated from the direct physical consequences of climate change, it may well be that there is little chance of “getting lucky.” This has important implications for how we perceive and assess the benefits of climate action. We therefore call for greater efforts to understand the system-wide social consequences of increasing disaster risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael Calel & David A. Stainforth, 2025. "Little floods everywhere: what will climate change mean for you?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 1-9, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:178:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-024-03819-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-024-03819-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-024-03819-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-024-03819-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:178:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-024-03819-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.