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Insurance payouts point to climate change
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337368/title/Insurance_payouts_point_to_climate_change[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif][font size=5]Insurance payouts point to climate change [/font]
[font size=4]A three-decade trend shows a steady global increase in weather and climate related disasters.[/font]
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
[font size=3]Natural disasters in 2011 exerted the costliest toll in history — a whopping $380 billion worth of losses from earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis and more. Only a third of those costs were covered by insurance. And the tally ignores completely any expenses associated with sickness or injuries triggered by the disasters.
…
Known as Munich RE, his firm is among a handful of major international corporations that insure insurance companies against failing. So it’s crucial that reinsurers know natural disasters intimately — where they’ve happened, how often, what’s caused them, how much damage they wreak and what recovery from them will cost. Munich RE has compiled one of the largest databases of natural catastrophes going back to 1980 globally, and to 1970 for U.S. and select European events.
After sifting through it, on Jan. 4 Rauch and a few others professional disaster analysts attempted to put 2011 in context. Costly as the Asian quakes were, they don’t point to any huge up-tick in geological activity, Rauch noted. Earth’s tremors in 2011 were on a par with most years over the past three decades. Last year’s in Asia just proved especially costly because they occurred within wealthy nations at densely populated sites — many of them well-indemnified.
In contrast, he noted, what hasn’t maintained a constant pace over time have been the numbers of storms, droughts and wildfires. These weather and climate-related events have been climbing steadily since 1980, increasing in number, severity (such as average wind intensity) and often in lives lost. That trend, Rauch said, provides strong evidence that climate change is already impacting human suffering and the world’s economies.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]A three-decade trend shows a steady global increase in weather and climate related disasters.[/font]
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
[font size=3]Natural disasters in 2011 exerted the costliest toll in history — a whopping $380 billion worth of losses from earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis and more. Only a third of those costs were covered by insurance. And the tally ignores completely any expenses associated with sickness or injuries triggered by the disasters.
…
Known as Munich RE, his firm is among a handful of major international corporations that insure insurance companies against failing. So it’s crucial that reinsurers know natural disasters intimately — where they’ve happened, how often, what’s caused them, how much damage they wreak and what recovery from them will cost. Munich RE has compiled one of the largest databases of natural catastrophes going back to 1980 globally, and to 1970 for U.S. and select European events.
After sifting through it, on Jan. 4 Rauch and a few others professional disaster analysts attempted to put 2011 in context. Costly as the Asian quakes were, they don’t point to any huge up-tick in geological activity, Rauch noted. Earth’s tremors in 2011 were on a par with most years over the past three decades. Last year’s in Asia just proved especially costly because they occurred within wealthy nations at densely populated sites — many of them well-indemnified.
In contrast, he noted, what hasn’t maintained a constant pace over time have been the numbers of storms, droughts and wildfires. These weather and climate-related events have been climbing steadily since 1980, increasing in number, severity (such as average wind intensity) and often in lives lost. That trend, Rauch said, provides strong evidence that climate change is already impacting human suffering and the world’s economies.
…[/font][/font]