Insurance Talk

Roger Coppock · Guest

Insurers Claim Global Warming Makes Some Regions Too Hot to Handle
As the nation braces for an active hurricane season, private insurers
jump ship, leaving federal and state governments liable for ever
increasing payouts
By Victoria Schlesinger and Meredith Knight, in Scientific American,
August 01, 2007

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.

Weather-related insurance losses rose to $50 billion in 2005 from less
than $10 billion a decade earlier, according to a study by Ceres, a
Boston-based nonprofit group that lobbies corporations to be
environmentally responsible. The bulk of these losses can be
attributed to sprawl in regions prone to catastrophe-the total area of
coastal development in Florida has increased over 30 percent since
1990.
A Warmer Earth, and Fewer Insured

Private insurers also point fingers at a changing climate, citing a
report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
earlier this year that concluded global warming is to blame for a
doubling over the past five years of natural disasters-and that the
situation will worsen if nothing is done to stop it. (The often-touted
link between climate change and increased hurricane strength, however,
has yet to be firmly established.)

"If circumstances change due to global warming that alter the level of
risk, insurance companies need to be free to reflect that risk," says
David Snyder, vice president and assistant general counsel for the
American Insurance Association (AIA). "The reality is that in some
places the risk is so severe that [these locations] are uninsurable."

Over the past year alone, insurance companies have dramatically raised
homeowners' annual premiums in parts of Texas, Louisiana, the
Carolinas, Massachusetts and New York State. In the Florida Keys, for
instance, windstorm insurance rates for a 1,900-square-foot home in
Monroe County soared from $3,000 in 2004 to nearly $16,000 in 2007. In
South Carolina private companies have stopped insuring homes valued at
less than $500,000. In Rhode Island some agencies have refused to
cover any coastal properties. Allstate, one of the largest residential
property insurers on the east coast, elected not to renew 30,000
policies covering coastal properties in New York City, Long Island,
Westchester County and Connecticut, and is considering reducing
coastal area coverage in Massachusetts and along the Gulf.

Predictable Risk or Idle Speculation?

Consumers are up in arms about these trends. "I think [insurance
companies] are speculating on the fear of global warming and using it
as an opportunity to raise rates," says Bill Newton, executive
director of the Florida Consumer Action Network.

[ . . . ]

The rest:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=DFD4AF1F-E7F2-99DF-3D55D40569285929

mrbawana2u · Guest

On Aug 2, 8:37 am, Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote:

Guest

On Aug 2, 8:37 am, Roger Coppock <rcopp...@adnc.com> wrote:

ExterminateAllRepubliKKKa · Guest

<talk-n-dog@TALK-N-dog.com> wrote