Climate Change Consequence - Raising Insurance Costs

Ironic, but what may finally create action on climate change is that it is increasing the costs of INSURANCE companies! Check out this article:

http://energy.aol.com/2011/11/21/mitigating-climate-change-from-wall-street/

""In the last few years, weather related events have multiplied by five," said Swiss Re's Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability Americas Mark Way. He said that as insurance companies shelled out more money due to natural disaster events, premiums would increase."

They also point out: ""The cost of these extreme weather events will keep ballooning. Cost as well as human impact will be profound..."

In 2011 we have had 14 Extreme Weather events that have cost almost $50 billion dollars!

And note this: "David Friedberg, founder and CEO of The Climate Corporation, agreed that as insurance premiums rise throughout the supply chain, commodity prices will rise, ultimately snowballing expenses.

"Because we are insuring our customers against extreme weather events, we model our services based on probability of events occurring," he said. "We've charged more over the last two seasons than we have historically."

"Lubber cited the recent Hurricane Irene, which some attribute to climate change, that caused over $7 billion in damages across the economy.

"The costs are being driven to all the parts of our economy," she said. She said it was time for business leaders, not only environmental leaders, to call for real change."

Recently a climate skeptic who was paid by the Koch climate change deniers ran a series of tests - and confirmed that climate change was indeed occurring.

Apparently the only way it will be taken seriously is when the insurance companies raise their premiums to pay for the consequences of more extreme weather caused by these changes.

Ironic indeed. But if that's what it takes to get us moving in the right direction before its too late for our planet, then its a good thing.