Contributor(s): Rebecca Elliott | Climate change is making the planet we inhabit a more dangerous place to live. After several devastating hurricane seasons in recent years, it has become easier, and more frightening, to comprehend what a world of increasingly extreme weather might mean for us. But when policymakers, officials and experts aim to map and quantify the ‘value at risk’ from these threats, what does this mean in practice for the residents of the affected communities? Dr Rebecca Elliott from the Department of Sociology examines how the people of New York City responded to a new ‘flood insurance rate map’ in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012