Insurance Companies Worry About Climate CHange

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=insurers-claim-global-warming-makes-some-uninsurable

In the wake of skyrocketing insurance claims due to natural disasters—hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, blizzards and the like—insurers have been imposing steep rate hikes and, in some cases, fleeing high-risk areas, leaving consumers out in the cold. It's gotten so out of hand, consumer advocates say, that insurers now are even crying climate change as a factor in raising premiums or dumping clients.

As the crisis mounts, hard hit states such as Florida and Louisiana are increasingly stepping up as insurance companies check out, providing coverage for residents dropped by their insurers. And signs are things will get worse before they get better: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting that this year's hurricane season—which officially began June 1—will be "very active," with three to five major hurricanes in the Atlantic.

Hmmmmnnn - insurance companies are worried about business risks created by climate change.   Are  climate change deniers going to refuse to buy insurance or  insurance company shares? Are deniers going to heap abuse upon inusrance companies?  Call insurers liars?  Accuse them of falsifying data?  Of course not - their denials are not based upon fact.

More Destructive Hurricanes Predicted

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/22/tech-climate-change-storm.html#socialcomments

Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to face stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming.... Overall strength of storms as measured in wind speed would rise by two to 11 per cent, but there would be between six and 34 per cent fewer storms in number. Essentially, there would be fewer weak and moderate storms and more of the big damaging ones, which also are projected to be stronger due to warming.  An 11 per cent increase in wind speed translates to roughly a 60 per cent increase in damage, said study co-author Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Interestingly, the article's commenters include climate change deniers.  Examples: "Oh here we go again - more alarmist poppycock.  " and  "Once again, "settled science" on a matter than cannot currently be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Someone tell these people that an example of "settled science" is a round earth. Another example is gravity."  Of course, both commenters have Phds in climatology.   And could someone point out to the second person I quoted that the theory of gravity has been revised and amended.  Or does he think Einstein  was a fraud?

Climate change deniers cannot be reached with reason and evidence:  activists must create a culture where community pressure forces deniers to act.  It can be done - think of how our view of smoking has changed  - smokers don't smoke inside anymore . (Interestingly, many big name climate deniers worked on denying that smoking kills.)