Why climate change may cost you big bucks — and what to do about it

cnbc.com:

The following is an excerpt from «This week, your wallet,» an audio program produced by CNBC's Personal Finance team. Listen to the latest episode here . [Editor's note: Audio clip begins at the 2:33 minute mark.]

Climate change has been described as a ticking time bomb, the threats of which extend beyond ecosystems and biodiversity to big financial impacts on households and the U.S. economy.

Those financial costs are largely the result of extreme weather events.

The White House issued a report last week — the Fifth National Climate Assessment, issued every four to five years by the federal government — warning that heat waves, heavy rains, drought, hurricanes, floods and wildfires «are becoming more frequent and/or severe,» with a «cascade of effects» in all areas of the U.S.

«It's no longer just a problem for Florida, or just a problem for Louisiana and New Orleans,» said Andrew Rumbach, senior fellow and co-lead of the climate and communities program at the Urban Institute. «More and more people are experiencing these extreme events and they carry all kinds of different costs, both direct and indirect, for those families.»

Here's what to know, according to Rumbach and David Pogue, host of the podcast «Unsung Science» and author of «How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos.» Both experts were interviewed by CNBC during a recent discussion about climate change and its impact on personal finance.

Weather-related disasters cost the U.S. at least $150 billion a year, according to the White House report, which calls that estimate «conservative.»

The U.S. now experiences a billion-dollar disaster every three weeks, on average; during the 1980s, that happened every four months, the report