World’s Oldest Insurer: Global Warming Is Real
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Environment, Money
This could be the single most significant thing to happen to the global warming debate ever.
See, Lloyd’s of London isn’t a former presidential candidate trying to keep himself in the public eye because he couldn’t get over his defeat. This is an insurance company. All they do is try to make money. And they wouldn’t be so transparent with their views about global warming unless they were damn sure that it could cost them big time.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest insurer, offered a gloomy forecast of floods, droughts and disastrous storms over the next 50 years in a recently published report on impending climate changes.“These things are fact, not hypothesis,” said Wendy Baker, the president of Lloyd’s America in an interview on Monday. “You don’t have to be a believer in global warming to recognize the climate is changing. The industry has to get ready for the changes that are coming.”
In a report on catastrophe trends Lloyd’s is disseminating to the insurance industry, a bevy of British climate experts, including Sir David King, chief scientist to the British government, warn of increased flooding in coastal areas and a rapid rise in sea level as ice caps melt in Greenland and Antarctica. [...]
Baker said Lloyd’s has formed a partnership with American International Group, the world’s biggest insurer, Harvard University’s Center for Health and the Global Environment and the Insurance Information Institute, a research group.
The four will hold a forum in the fall of 2007 to look at the severity and consequences of future natural catastrophes.
By the way, the company was founded in 1688, so they have a little bit of experience.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 and is filed under Environment, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
[...] Worlds Oldest Insurer States Global Warming Is Real [...]
May 8th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Obviously, house insurance along the East and Gulf coast is going through the roof-it is now more expensive than the morgage payment.
What is little known is that the IPCC is calling for cuts of 80% from 2007 levels by 2050, with then only a 50% chance of avoiding dangerous warming. Worse, because developing countries have to catch up on per person emissions, developed countries will have to cut over 90%!
I suggest improving nature’s ability to remove CO2 from the air using genetic engineering-perhaps seeding a GMO into the ocean. It is a low-cost, highly scalable, and technically feasible solution to global warming.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am
global warming will always be an issue
May 8th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Or maybe they are damn sure that a lot of people who are afraid of global warming will start buying insurance against natural disasters, which Lloyds wouldn’t have to pay back as claims, if in fact global warming turns out to be hype. All they do is try to make money.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Jimmy has a point, a cynical point and thus one that is applicable to an insurance company. The only questions here is: Why did Loyd’s make a public announcement of it? Perhaps to pre-empt a premium hike along coastal areas. Look, insurance companies are based on risk management and fear — global warming is good business.
May 9th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Good point, although their succinct public announcement is not in character for a very, very conservative business entity. Usually these companies just offer products and that’s that. I guess we’ll see if they start offering global warming policies then, eh?