A great piece by Marc Gunther in GreenBiz: ..."Who’s on the hook when a wall of water hits the coast of south Florida? You and me," says Sharlene Leurig, senior manager of the insurance program at Ceres, a nonprofit alliance of investors and environmental groups. Her job is to raise awareness of climate risk within the insurance industry, and to prod the industry to respond.It's not just a problem in Florida -- many states are assuming the risk of natural disasters, despite the rising costs of extreme weather events, which are more frequent and more severe because of climate change, scientists say. So is the federal government: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has $1 trillion in exposure, according to Ceres, and it's $20 billion in debt. Although no individual storm can be attributed to climate change, the rising prevalence and intensity of storms, floods, droughts and wildfires are consistent with what scientists say can be expected as global temperatures rise.
...The most pressing worry is the federal flood insurance program, which insures about 5.5 million homes, and the state-backed insurance pools that are underwriting seashore development. They're under political pressure to make insurance affordable and available. If this sounds familiar, it should: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac felt political pressure to make housing affordable and available, and that didn't turn out so well.
More broadly, we depend upon insurance companies, acting in their own self-interest, to make the world a safer place. To avoid losses, insurers helped bring about fire safety codes for buildings and seat-belt laws.
They could be performing a similar service, by sounding an alarm on climate change, but they're not, at least not in the U.S. By contrast, big European reinsurance companies like Munich Re and Swiss Re have been among the loudest voices in the corporate world, calling attention to climate risks and urging action....
Not the only risky behavior in Miami. Shot by Berk Celikyurek
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