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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