Climate Intelligence?
Recently a friend of mine asked me
to talk to another friend about climate change. Friend X, a highly educated
individual does not believe that humans impact our weather. So my
response was three-fold. First, I would challenge friend X to see what
our military has observed in the last few years. Secondly talk to the
other experts where roughly 97% of the scientific community agreed on such a
thing in the past. Finally, let’s see what the insurance and
financial industry experts say about this warming.
Several years ago a number of
retired generals and security experts presented national-security study. Using
the military's risk-assessment practices, 11 retired generals and admirals
issued a report saying that climate change creates massive instability around
the world.
"The impacts of climate change
will be huge — deserts move north, coastal areas threatened, the dislocation of
people," said retired Adm. T. Joseph Lopez, who commanded peacekeeping
forces in Bosnia. "I'm a student of instability, and instability is the
enemy.”1
Below is what NASA writes regarding scientific opinion on climate change;
Ninety-seven
percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past
century are very likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific
organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.
The following is a partial list of these organizations, along with links to
their published statements and a selection of related resources.2
Finally,
insurance actuaries and underwriters document the increased property damage and
challenges to provide coverage to their clients. A LA Times June op-ed
opinion states;
A
number of recent studies by the Insurance Information Institute have singled out
Florida as having the most exposure to the combined impacts of climate change,
but its governor, Rick Scott, and Sen. Marco Rubio are on record dismissing the
threat. And yet everyone can see that sea levels are rising.3
I challenge
anyone to explore what the military, scientist and the finance community is
doing. Just read in Forbes magazine in May below;
“The heavy losses caused by weather-related natural catastrophes in the USA showed
that greater loss-prevention efforts are needed,” says Munich Reboard member
Torsen Jeworrek.
He says that the United States suffered $400
billion in weather-related damages in 2011 and insured losses of $119 billion,
which were record amounts. In 2012 — and despite Superstorm Sandy — losses were
well above the 10-year averages at $165 billion total, of which insurers paid
$50 billion. In 2013, insurance companies paid out, globally, $45 billion in
claims, says Zurich, adding that the United States accounted for $19 billion of
that.4
Climate change is no longer a question
of “if” rather how much and what it “will” cost us.
2
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
4
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2014/05/18/rift-widening-between-energy-and-insurance-industries-over-climate-change/
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