“Climate change could punch a hole through the financial system by making 30-year home mortgages — the lifeblood of the American housing market — effectively unobtainable in entire regions across parts of the U.S.”
“Climate change could end mortgages as we know them”
“Natural disasters are being recorded more frequently than ever before. “Since 1970, the number of disasters worldwide has more than quadrupled to around 400 a year,” and “there are six times more hydrological events now than in 1980,” The 10 Most Costly Natural Disasters of the Century
“There is a logistical hurdle: when a catastrophe bond experiences a so-called loss event, the capital in the investment is suspended until the full cost of a disaster is pinned down. The phenomenon of “loss creep”, where initial estimates of a loss balloon months or even years after the event, has also spooked some investors. The cost of Typhoon Jebi in Japan last year rose from initial expectations of $6bn to $15bn.”
“Over two years, natural catastrophes caused a record $225bn of insured losses”.
Why climate change is the new 9/11 for insurance companies
“For the insurance industry, global warming has advanced from a future ecological challenge to a present financial shock. Together, total losses to the economy from natural catastrophes and “man-made disasters” reached $165 billion in 2018; that followed a 2017 that, at $350 billion, cost more than twice as much. As a result, according to the Swiss Re Institute, the company’s research arm, 2017 and 2018 were for insurers the most-expensive two-year period of such catastrophes on record, requiring them to fork over $219 billion globally in checks.”
Climate Change Is Hitting the Insurance Industry Hard
“Regulators are starting to worry about climate change.”
“Jenkins points out that the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority is leading the way on stress-testing insurers against the risk that the world misses its carbon reduction targets.”
“In such a scenario, insurers, especially in the U.S. where price increases are restricted by regulators, may find it increasingly unattractive to offer coverage,” he writes. “Greater lay-off of risk to reinsurers is one option. But more restrictive policies or wholesale withdrawal of cover are also possible. At some juncture underwriters will need to remove their blinkers and acknowledge that a world awash with worsening climate change risks is not necessarily just bad for the planet. It could be bad for the insurance industry too. A bit like 9/11.” Climate Change Tops List of World’s ‘Extreme Risks’
“Venice is on its knees,” said Brugnaro. “The damage will run into hundreds of millions of euros.” Flood, fire and plague: climate change blamed for disasters
“Last year, insurance payouts caused by climate-related events totaled $2.4 trillion worldwide.” Can Insurance Companies Weather The Storm? What Climate Change Means For The Industry
Clearly the cost of disasters is on the same Hockey Stick trajectory as our climate crisis yet “Business as Usual” carries on as if nothing has changed. All ponzi schemes eventually implode and this one will be no different except in scale. There is no previous analogue to remotely compare with the coming collapse.
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
I would rather have been proven wrong.
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Every day the Ponzi scheme struggles along surprises me.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/billion-dollar-disasters-in-the-us/?fbclid=IwAR0b-2asEckjSEKYHd6xIVLkqtFTDJ3LSUbPVM9wjA4F_Cf49H4JhhsxvrQ
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The largest property insurer left in Florida is capable of paying out $16 billion in claims. Hurricane Ian alone inflicted $100 billion in damages.
Florida’s ‘Last Resort’ Property Insurer Is Now State’s Biggest
• Private insurers have folded, left or curbed Florida business
• ‘We’re all last resort here,’ Miami Beach mayor Gelber says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-10/hurricane-season-2023-florida-s-biggest-property-insurer-is-nonprofit-citizens#xj4y7vzkg
seal
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FEMA is broke.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/30/fema-disaster-low-funds-00113468?fbclid=IwAR3D5sg4urNgZFk87dY2nFDGTaf8475R4idjX77P9yNbeLn0ZGWawHpkUZ8
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The momentum builds relentlessly.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/03/natural-disaster-climate-insurance/?fbclid=IwAR2Ea2DHb0CLWnBtoRuWJxi65KLzsy83s9pTwdPrBY0t-TylQF8CrbVfKUw
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“US sets new record for billion-dollar climate disasters in single year
Country has experienced 23 extreme weather events costing $1bn or more already this year, passing previous mark of 22 in 2020”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/11/us-record-billion-dollar-climate-disasters?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco&fbclid=IwAR1M8bbqCwpasoly7kCvIRtclg86a7h6xlXotwifJSO9UjQlA8s4hXyRJC8
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U.S. Sets Record for Billion-Dollar Disasters in a Single Year, With Almost Four Months to Go
https://www.ecowatch.com/billion-dollar-natural-disasters-us.html?fbclid=IwAR0T19yG-aGcj-6U6OFJRGvmzgTqcNYzJW0G6a9Fp4QHPc1SQGbmRW1z2Vs
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Homeowners losing insurance, the extraction industry fully insured!!!!!!
https://www.commondreams.org/news/insurers-underwriting-coal?fbclid=IwAR07vc8ON1zioPQzyuYl_jYot9qbioT-gypnULZvU5vhwsFoCA7C5bHd6Tk
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Nationwide drops over 10,500 N.C. homeowners policies, including some on the Outer Banks.
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Therre are heaps of links embedded below confirming my analysis.
https://www.joboneforhumanity.org/why_are_a_massive_third_wave_of_climate_change_driven_insurance_cancelations_and_skyrocketing_rate_increases_about_to_happen_worldwide?fbclid=IwAR1f4prxvZghzY5V1LCcj9saIgGmxBBwSMpAX35ydxuCCjs1R3OXatxnQ7o
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New York Becomes the Latest State to Require Flood Risk Disclosure for Home Sales
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26092023/todays-climate-new-york-law-requires-flood-risk-disclosure-for-home-sales/
sealintheSelkirks
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From sealintheSelkirks
Again, nothing I’m posting is coming up but the ‘reply’ tab goes dark and stays that way.
This is under: the-insurance-industry-soon-to-be-the-first-pillar
Boy are they going to miss the graft and squeeze they steal from everybody. And when people get pissed enough, how do they get even?
They don’t.
The System Isn’t Designed to Help You
Climate Survivor
View at Medium.com
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Thunderstorms Caused Record $60 Billion in Insured Losses in 2023
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-07/thunderstorms-caused-record-60-billion-in-insured-losses-in-2023?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=twitter&fbclid=IwAR2Nj3oSUSRDTWN7jBxU3_2Xr6yxFqdfeMlrKn0vQeWB0bvCq8OKa3avtcs&leadSource=uverify%20wall
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But wait, there’s more:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/the-top-10-most-impactful-weather-events-of-2023/1603146?fbclid=IwAR1J-Cf9XdPKpQb6t6OAqDNAuL7l956KieiFD7292h3u6vijdJZHyiGFec8
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The BBC have caught up to me:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0h0r5kg?fbclid=IwAR0BvZhaX7PcCifBY4BU-Ks2lkGzYlpBQoivIno7QkPKQW-UWlQq4cQLzPA
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This was an interesting audio, especially the moves made by the UK politicians to keep their insurance industry going and thereby the banks who hold mortgages on places that repeatedly flood and would be condemned and not marketable. So the flood barriers, etc etc. are a way for the gov to subsidize a losing battle.
But this ‘Flood Re’ insurance thing is just a band-aide, as the narrator mentioned. And doesn’t cover businesses. So keeping the houses valuable in the flood plains is okay but not the businesses that serve them?
The floods are going to keep coming, and probably dangerously worse, so eventually (after that 2039 end of Flood Re). And the Aussies are in the same sinking boat…but they are doing a buy-back on houses that makes people get the hell out which is going to make over-population in marginal areas ever more visible.
Piece by piece the parts of industrial civilization are breaking off, aren’t they?
sealintheSelkirks
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Now it’s Hawaii’s turn!
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/01/29/hawaii-news/bills-aim-to-assist-hawaii-property-owners-with-policy-costs/?fbclid=IwAR1jXpaQzQ8JUp3lpHMkFAmLZWW1Hqqk3zi2xNhf3K6XzMBRPA0n6UG2_9U
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And it is ALWAYS Floridiotland’s turn but now the lenders are looking at it, too:
https://weather.com/news/climate/video/hurricanes-and-flooding-impacting-mortgage-payments-in-florida
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My oldest friend is damned aware of this living on Windward Side of O’ahu, Crouching Lion area. It’s up from sea level, above Kamehameha Hwy which regularly gets washed by the ocean in storms or king tides, and is tucked into a crack/canyon zone that USED to be a creek there flowing down from the steep Pali according to the old timer local people. It’s a condo complex of course but an older one, with a HOA that he was on the board of for a few years. They are both retired, both have a pension and Social Security, so they are definitely fixed incomes but the yearly insurance continues to climb. And Windward doesn’t get hurricanes all that often due to the blocking of the storm track by the Big Island (which your article is about), but insure costs are going up on all the Islands as high tide damage and the Pacific storms get worse.
Just like the dead hurricane turned tropical storm that went by way to the south of the island chain that suddenly roared back to life and caused the winds that burned down Lahiana. There are still 800 +/- supposedly missing…
Everything we see with weather is aiming a large caliber gun at the head of the insurance industry. Worldwide of course.
But the US now has a year-round tornado season! And flash floods over and over keep showing up, and meaner hurricanes, and heat wave after heat wave then deluge downpours. Hotter droughts, massive windstorms that are ‘unusual’ in ferocity. But the US corporate media is really bad about looking at the entire picture of what is happening around the world but occasionally one sees something like this link above, so I thought I’d post that short clip. There is some awareness I guess…
But it’s mostly ignored by the majority.
Like the groups who are trying to change the incredible violence of the militarized police in this country over 1300 shot by cops last year alone) countering that ‘Back the Blue’ no matter what they do,
The new snarky satire motto t-shirt is “Back the Blue…Until It Happens to You’ with a stick figure cop shooting somebody on the ground. Since climate will happen to us all I’m wondering if a stick figure of the planet would work.
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Sure am NOT looking forward to what’s coming soon. The heat is going to come back and probably earlier than ever…since last year is now the hottest on record I’m sure this summer will do the same damned thing. Like every other year recently that seems to always break the record.
Today it was 10’C under broken cloud skies. What little snow I have is melting off very very fast. The atmospheric river that is about to slam into California/Oregon will probably throw something my way due to a 2nd low pressure storm coming in a bit more northerly after this first one comes in, but not really expecting much but some rain up here. Maybe a bit of high elevation snow?
It’s 31January and I was walking with the dogs (new adoption yesterday) across the property in snowboots this afternoon but it wasn’t cold enough to wear a coat. On the last day of January! So much for living in the mountains next to the Canadian Border, eh?
But with the way this winter has gone, it could flip a switch and do damn near anything I’m thinking.
sealintheSelkirks
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More evidence:
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/reinsurance/insurers-brace-for-impact-as-seasurface-temperatures-soar-475545.aspx
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Over 300 mudslides in California as deadly storm damage may reach $11 billion
https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/state-of-emergency-as-deadly-storm-pummels-california-with-160-mph-winds-and-flooding/1619169?fbclid=IwAR34_BxQeqzo43nakrVJU5KVA41mJ81eJWzNvLPCtGEfPTwPD_UbNXGso7c#google_vignette
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Oh yeah, been watching it and hearing from friends down there about the effects. My hometown of Ocean Beach/Mission Beach in San Diego have not been affected that much other than winds and large wave action on the coast from both of the low pressure storms that have come in to combine with this monster atmospheric river flow as it is mostly centered slightly to the north. The ocean heaved itself up and flooded the streets right on the beach of course, Abbot St. flooded again as usual and the sand is disappearing rather quickly, too. But up in the LA Basin and north through Ventura etc etc? Holy shit, a total of 12 inches/30.5 centimeters of rain overnight in different places? That’s 12 feet/4 meters of snow in the Sierras! With falling down hills and radical floods roaring down every narrow canyon and waterway heading for the ocean, every burn scar down there is letting go.
One stormchaser vid (Dr. Reed Timmer) posted a video of the concreted-in LA River that was just raging with 18,000+ cfs blowing down that channel under the bridge he was standing on. Being a pioneer riversurfer there would have been no way I would have been in that because it was death. I have surfed the Snake in Wyoming at 14,000 but there was a get-out behind the wave and slack water for another mile behind it to be able to paddle to shore. But what I was seeing was freaking awesome…and frightening to look at knowing the power on the screen.
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It’s almost 50’F, quit sprinkling about an hour ago, and the sun has just made an appearance. What little snow I had has disappeared turning the property into soft dirt or very squishy mud on the track to the gate. My ski hill claims a couple inches of snow last night so they have gone back up to 116 cm of base on the Peak which, as always, they are inflating since that’s what ski hills do. It
Tomorrow I go for the latest Covid booster the Novavax non-mRNA one, but I have to drive 50 miles to Costco in Spokane for it. And it is no longer being given out for free paid by the government. Corporate market rules have come back into force. I just called and they are costing $116US. And the cost to produce them is $2.85.
The government can’t pay those costs to keep its citizens from being sick or dying, but billions more to Israel and Ukraine and bomb Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Madness, Kevin, utter fucking madness.
The US had only ‘85,000’ deaths from Covid (officially which is an undercount due to deaths by associated diseases caused by the Sequelae Long Covid). About 9,000 by all other strains of influenza circulating in this country, but it’s all about wealth generation and transfer of that wealth to the top of the corporate market pyramid, isn’t it? Hell of a profit being made.
sealintheSelkirks
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“Thirty-six years ago, a fierce storm hit England and France, killing at least 22 people and causing over $35 billion in damages.”
Embrace Chaos? – by Guy R McPherson (substack.com)
Embrace Chaos? (youtube.com)
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No one, absolutely no one could have predicted this 🙂
California State Farm customers in Palisades lose home insurance (sfchronicle.com)
Bel-Air, Pacific Palisades residents lose insurance as State Farm exits – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
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