In this story we hear from Pete Paragreen, a retired electrician and long-time resident of Burstwick, a small village just outside Hull that was hit hard during the devastating 2007 floods. While Pete’s home was spared, the experience of seeing his village submerged - a place that had never flooded before - fundamentally changed the way he sees climate change.

Pete describes the shock of witnessing floodwaters in streets he’d always assumed were safe, and how that moment forced him to confront a new reality: that nowhere is truly immune. He shares how the village pulled together in the aftermath, building its own flood defence system with embankments, pumps, and a community-run response plan.

Reflecting on rising sea levels and the limits of man-made protection, Pete voices a growing anxiety about the future. His message is clear: we can build barriers, but we also have to tackle the root causes of the crisis. As he puts it, “Tackle climate change, or live up a hill.”