Weather disaster insurance

Weather problems are becoming mighty expensive for insurers. North America was hit particularly hard in recent years, led by Hurricane Katrina:

The study showed the number of weather-related loss events in North America nearly quintupled in the past three decades, compared with an increase factor of four in Asia, 2.5 in Africa, two in Europe and 1.5 in South America.

Reinsurer Munich Re sees climate change as the problem:

Munich Re said that until now socio-economic factors such as population growth in urban areas had accounted for rising insured losses, but their records showed evidence that climate change was leading to an increase in natural catastrophes

This is the case particularly in North America, where the climate is ripe for tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, winter storms, tornadoes, wildfires, drought and flood.

Over the last 31 years, 43 percent of insured property windstorm losses ($180 billion) were caused by severe thunderstorms – triggered by climate change, said Munich Re.

That reminds me, I read recently that acceptance of climate change as a fact of life is growing even among conservatives, however, many still don’t belief that human activity is involved in any way.