Climate Disasters: The New Normal

It’s tempting to think of climate disasters as isolated events, a freak flood here, a heatwave there. But let’s be honest: this isn’t new. And it’s not going away. In fact, it’s getting worse, and fast.

In a one-week period, we have seen record-breaking early-summer heatwave scorching Europe’s pavements and warping railway tracks, flash flooding taking lives in Texas, and the creeping, consistent rise in temperatures across New Zealand’s cities, the trend is unmistakable. What we once called “extreme” weather is now just… weather.

Science has been telling us this for decades. But for anyone still unsure, the numbers speak for themselves. According to NOAA and other global climate bodies, every decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the last, and 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded, until 2025 started smashing those records all over again.

These aren’t just inconvenient weather stats. They’re a very serious, very real crisis that affects everything: food systems, housing stability, global health, and political security.

Just this year, the World Economic Forum reported that climate disasters now cost the global economy more than $145 billion annually, and that figure is only expected to rise. Droughts are crippling harvests. Wildfires are destroying homes and ecosystems. Floods are sweeping through cities ill-equipped to handle them. The climate is changing, and our world is buckling under the pressure.

That’s why tools like the newly launched Global Climate Security Atlas are so important. Developed by researchers at Penn State and featured in Phys.org, the Atlas combines climate projections with socioeconomic data to map which regions are most vulnerable to risks like heat, drought, and flooding. It shows us what we’re facing, not in 50 years, but now.

The takeaway is clear: climate breakdown is no longer a far-off threat, it’s the backdrop to our everyday lives. And the more we delay meaningful action, the more “unprecedented” events become annual headlines.

But it’s not all doom. There are still choices we can make. Local councils in Aotearoa are exploring practical steps to reduce heat in urban areas. Coastal towns are reassessing infrastructure. And conscious consumers are questioning companies that greenwash harmful products, from plastics to reef-wrecking sunscreens.

So yes, the weather is getting worse. But what’s really dangerous is if we start to accept this chaos as inevitable. It’s not. It’s a signal, and it’s one we ignore at our peril.