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Archive for Extreme Weather

Enviro News Wrap Up: 400 PPM CO2 Threshold Reached; Winters and Global Warming; Innovative Solar Financing a Game Changer, and more…

The Latest Environmental News HeadlinesGlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

Video Friday: Extreme Weather, Insurance Companies and the American Taxpayer

This NRDC video discusses the costs of extreme weather events, which in 2012 totaled one percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Insurance companies are “under water” in more ways than one and the US taxpayer ended up paying what is essentially a “climate disruption” of 2.7 percent more than the total collected in sales taxes for 2012.

Enviro News Wrap: Growth in US Solar; Changing Perceptions of Global Warming; US Plays Catch-Up in Enviro Policy, and more…

The Latest Environmental News HeadlinesGlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

US Insurance Industry Ill-Prepared to Deal with Climate Change Risk, Impacts

Insurance companies need to prepare for climate change risksEleven extreme weather events took place in the US in 2012. Each left at least $1 billion in damages in their wake. Besides the cost in human life, Superstorm Sandy left behind some $50 billion in economic losses, along with insured losses by property & casulty (P&C) insurers in the tens of billions of dollars.

US insurance companies are well aware of the rising costs of increasingly frequent and more intense extreme weather events, as well as those associated with less sudden and intense shifts in weather patterns and climate. Yet most are ill-prepared and “only just beginning to address the effects climate change may have on their businesses,” according to a new report from Ceres, a coalition of investors, companies and public interest groups advocating from sustainability leadership.

“Climate change is potentially a serious financial threat to the insurance industry, and needs to be on insurers’ and regulators’ radar,” Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, a leading advocate for stronger climate risk disclosure and action by insurance companies, was quoted in a Ceres press release. “If insurance is to remain available and affordable, companies will need to adapt. The last thing we want to see are unprepared companies simply pulling out of markets or seeking unreasonable rate hikes.”

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Enviro News Wrap: Black Carbon; Climate Change and Obama’s Second Term; Extreme Weather and Adaptation, more…

The Latest Environmental News HeadlinesGlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week: