The evidence for widespread climate change havoc - after two back-to-back major hurricanes - has now nailed the reality except to hard core pseudo-skeptics and denialists. Such as, alas, remain ensconced in many of the high IQ societies such as Mensa and Intertel. These deniers, most with little or no climate science background, remain determined to blow "hot air" never mind they lack any qualifications to be taken as credible sources.
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found that rising temperatures could add as much as 1.2 percentage points to annual global inflation by 2035. The effects are taking shape already: Drought in Europe is devastating olive harvests. Heavy rains and extreme heat in West Africa are causing cocoa plants to rot. Wildfires, floods and more frequent weather disasters are pushing insurance costs up, too.
As human-created greenhouse gas emissions wreak planetary chaos, researchers forecast even more economic effects, driving temporary price increases — and raising risks for longer-term inflation, especially as spikes become more frequent.
Soaring temperatures will create unbearable conditions for crops and workers. Severe storms and prolonged droughts will batter supply chains and disrupt the flow of trade. Escalating risk and uncertainty will make it more difficult to insure everything from a home to a new business venture.
To fix ideas, a 2023 report by the Colorado Dept. of Insurance, casts an adverse pall over all of us - especially seniors- who live in the state. According to one insurance specialist quoted in The Denver Post:
"I hate to say it but we will likely have to adjust to higher premiums over the long term."
Not mentioned enough, is that homeowners must not only pay for their own weather repairs- like hail stones crashing on the roof in our case- but also help pay for the calamities happening to other residents. Such as the Stone Canyon and Lakeshore fires this past year, near Boulder and other areas. It's not fair, but that is the template. I.e. Peter pays for Paul, and himself.
In line with this the Post piece goes on to note:
"The effects of the mounting risks are being felt by a lesser known link to the chain that connects to homeowners: the reinsurance market. Reinsurers are typically large, global companies that provide insurance to insurance companies to help spread the risk."
In the words of Vince Plymell, spokesman for the Colorado Insurance division:
"The international impact of climate change, of increasing climate disasters, and the severity of those disasters, is causing reinsurers to reconsider their risk. That means they are reducing their exposure or increasing their premiums."
As a direct result, the effects of hurricanes and earthquakes in other parts of the country or the world can eventually show up in a Colorado homeowner's insurance bill. That somber news according to Jason Lapham, the state's deputy commissioner for property and casualty insurance.
To top it off, a recent WSJ Financial Analysis report ('Why Insurance Bills Won't Come Down', Sept. 28-29, p. B 11) notes:
"In general, insurers for houses and businesses also have to consider what is broadly referred to as 'exposure'. Higher exposure can be driven by much bigger trends such as economic growth, population shifts and increases in the values of what is being insured.
A major factor in the U.S., particularly for home insurance, has been patterns in population growth. Faster growth has come in parts of the country more susceptible not just to hurricanes, but also to a range of so-called secondary perils such as floods, tornadoes, hail storms and wildfires in the U.S. south and west."
The piece ending with this little tidbit:
"But even as profitability for reinsurers has jumped, and as interest rates have come down, providers aren't expected to start giving dramatic concessions, having struggled in the past to keep up with rising loss costs."
So given all this, you can bet your sweet bippy that whatever the billions in damage Hurricane Milton wreaks when it strikes Florida today, we here in Colorado will be forced to pay for a portion of it. Just as you will, dear readers, wherever you reside. That said, we may not see the increase when our insurance bills come due next month - but we can surely expect to see whatever increase the reinsurance markets have in store next year. That in addition to repairing any roof damage that comes from local hail storms over the same time period.
I’ve been watching global trends for a few decades, and have never before seen so many warning lights flash at once. That’s just one reason I’ve concluded that, as of 2024, humanity is at a make-or-break crossroads in its economic, social, and environmental history.
Let’s take a quick look at those warning lights, and see if we can grasp why so many risks are converging at once.
Things Are Deteriorating Fast
Nearly everyone knows that the climate is heating up. But a flurry of alarming recent studies about rapidly warming oceans, climate feedbacks, and tipping points suggest that the rate of warming is suddenly accelerating. Last year was the warmest on record “by far” according to NASA, with the global average temperature leaping above the next-warmest year, 2016, by an unprecedented 0.27 degree F (0.15 degree C). And it’s been revealed that the international community of climate experts, rather than fear-mongering, has actually downplayed the severity of the crisis.
Two Florida congressmen — Reps. Greg Steube (R) and Byron Donalds (R) — co-sponsored a bill that "would bar U.S. presidents from declaring a climate emergency," according to Rolling Stone.
Per the report, the legislation refers to "the climate crisis as a 'false emergency.'"
Steube, who "represents Sarasota and Charlotte counties, both south of Tampa," Rolling Stone notes, has voted "against environmental measures, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to set cleaner car and truck standardsand efforts to reduce pollution and climate threats impacting communities on the front line of environmental and health hazards."
Donalds, on the other hand, "voted against $20 billion in disaster relief funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a stopgap spending bill that passed both chambers."
Both of the GOP leaders' districts face evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton approaches the Sunshine State.
The human cost from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, with over 230 people dead in six states and hundreds still missing within a 500-mile path of destruction. Helene has had a devastating impact on poor, low-income, and rural people in underserved communities, where access to food, water, and emergency services has been cut off.
As the director of a national network of grassroots organizations, our members in groups like Down Home North Carolina and Hometown Action are on the ground in many of these small communities, connecting people with the help they need. It always warms my heart to see neighbors help neighbors in the wake of a natural disaster.
But the truth is, devastating floods and hurricanes like Helene, which destroy the lives of more and more people, are anything but natural. They are the direct result of the warming temperatures and rising sea levels which are caused by our dependence on burning oil and gas. And this dependence, in turn, is caused by the insatiable greed of fossil fuel companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment