Insurer Warns of Global Warming Catastrophe

[G_j]

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0303-07.htm

Reuters

Insurer Warns of Global Warming Catastrophe
by Thomas Atkins

 GENEVA - The world's second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threatened to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.

In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs of such disasters threatened to double to $150 billion (82 billion pounds) a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30-40 billion in claims, or the equivalent of one World Trade Center attack annually.

"There is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such a point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time," Swiss Re said in the report.

"The human race can lead itself into this climatic catastrophe -- or it can avert it."
..more..

[htuttle]

1. Come on now

We all know how alarmist the Swiss reinsurance industry can be!

:eyes:

(sarcasm, if you didn't catch it...)

[Stone_Spirits]

2. Do you think people

will wake up before it's to late? or will they continue to call us alarmist? mother earth will only take so much abuse. Thank you for posting this G_j

[RandomKoolzip]

3. To quote a republican acquaintance:

"Hell, I wouldn't mind if the temper-chure went up a few degrees: more tank-top days in the fall! Yee-hah!"

Me: But what about future generations of humans, whose lives will be adversely affected by global warming?

"Man, I don't care. I'll be dead by then. Plus, all them scientists who say there's global warming are commie liberals gettin' paid to say that (editor's note: yes, he was smart enough to touch on that forgotten, rarely mentioned aspect of textbook authoritarian communism: untrammelled greed!) so I don't believe 'em. And how can you tell me there's global warming when the last couple winters have been cold as fuck?"

Me: So you think it's okay to hand your grandchildren a burnt-out, charred, nearly-destroyed shell of a world to live in?

"Are those fries done yet? This burger's ready to go out."

We were both at work at the time of this exchange. The mundane reality of laboring in our shared shitty kitchen for just above minimum wage snapped me out of my "angry space" for a second (but just a second....) I realized there was no getting through to him. I couldn't reason why I had to share a planet with someone hell-bent on destroying it through aggressive apathy. And I still don't.

[snippy]

8. "Man, I don't care. I'll be dead by then." How very republican.

[kodi]

4. gracious, "free market" forces to the rescue?

by then it will be to little too late.

[librechik]

6. They's better--they will lose their market under the ice!

And they are the ones who are blocking all progress on this issue. I hope we can convince corporations that this is an emergency and their interests are at stake--we need their help!

[MrPrax]

5. The Insurance Industry tends to be a tunnel canary

If the actuaries are starting to develop 'risk models' then this is startling proof...

So the guy in trailer park who thinks 'global warming' is a conspiracy by the Rockefeller's , 'tree huggers' and the UN, should take his concerns to the Insurance Industry...

Copy, cut and pasted...THX

[Bandit]

7. Just remember where insurance companies get their money.

We are the ones who always end up paying. Bush* is dooming the world as he fiddles around raising campaign funds.

[snippy]

9. Swiss Re is not the only reinsurer to raise these concerns.

Most others have also. The real push may come when these companies start refusing to underwrite directors' liability insurance for companies without plans to address global warming. That will get the attention of the boards of directors.