Category: Archive

Climate change still treated as peripheral by insurers

admin /7 June, 2006

Insurers should stop treating climate change as a peripheral field of work and put it at the centre of their operations, Lloyds of London warned in a report “Climate change: Adapt or bust”.

The report said understanding and responding to climate change must become “business as usual" for insurers and those they worked with, reported The Guardian on Tuesday, 6 June.

More research investment urged: In the short-term, the insurance industry would have to invest more time and money in academic research as well as convert scientific predictions into practical guidance for the sector.

Most natural perils insurable: Lloyds said that, in the long-term, strategists would want to consider the future insurability of weather-related risk. Based on long experience, Lloyd’s believed the vast majority of natural perils were currently insurable.

Some have different view: However, it recognised some industry participants took an alternative view.

Effect of high sea temperatures: Lloyd’s said high sea temperatures were a key ingredient in wind storms, and that over the past century overall sea water temperature had risen by between 0.2 and 0.6 degrees.

2001 warning of weather pattern: Increased hurricanes, such as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans last year, should not have been a surprise since academics had warned in 2001 of this kind of weather pattern.

Upward cycle likely for some time: "Recent temperatures are probably outside the range of past oscillations and seem to suggest we will be caught in an upward cycle for some time to come," Lloyd’s said.

Every coastal city could be in danger: The report also noted the speculation about the polar ice cap melting and warned that a four-metre rise in water levels worldwide would inundate almost every coastal city.

Withdrawal of cover in flood prone areas: Rising sea levels should encourage insurers to consider how much business they wanted to have connected to vulnerable coastal areas. They might consider withdrawing or restricting cover in flood-prone "hotspots".

Reference: Digest of latest news reported on website of Climate Change Secretariat of United Nations Framework on Climate Change Control (UNFCCC). 6 June 2006. Address: PO Box 260 124, D-53153 Bonn. Germany. Phone: : (49-228) 815-1005, Fax: (49-228) 815-1999. Email: press@unfccc.int
http://www.unfccc.int

Erisk Net, 7/6/2006

Big UK firms urge tougher greenhouse emission targets

admin /7 June, 2006

Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest companies believed tougher government targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions would encourage industry to develop new technologies to tackle climate change, reported the Daily Telegraph internet edition on Tuesday, 6 June. The companies were also concerned that countries such as Germany and Denmark were cornering the market in technologies Continue Reading →

Chinese spends $200b on pollution

admin /6 June, 2006

A distressed family yesterday take out dead fish from their pond in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province. The fish were first found floating on Friday afternoon, possibly due to pollution from a nearby factory, according to Yin, the owner of the fishpond. Fish, shrimps, crabs and tortoises weighing 50,000 kilograms were dead by yesterday, causing a loss of 300,000 yuan (US$37,500), Yin said. The local environment authorities are investigating the case.

 

History of Oil – the comedy

admin /6 June, 2006

  Robert Newman’s History of Oil – a must see British comedian Robert Newman has released the funniest, most incisive account of the history of oil yet. It ties together the realities of global economics and twentieth century history to provide a background for the Iraq war, peak oil, global warming and individual responsibility that Continue Reading →

Eurasia outflanks US

admin /5 June, 2006

By F. William Engdahl

from Global Research

Curiously and quietly the United States is being out-flanked in its now-obvious strategy of controlling major oil and energy sources of the Persian Gulf, Central Asia Caspian Basin, Africa and beyond.

The US’s global energy control strategy, it’s now clear to most, was the actual reason for the highly costly regime change in Iraq, euphemistically dubbed ‘democracy’ by Washington. George W. Bush restated his democracy mantra as recently as May 28 at the West Point military graduating ceremony where he declared that America’s safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East. ‘This is only the beginning,’ Bush said. ‘The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation.’

Arctic air temperatures warmer than previous 400 years

admin /4 June, 2006

In the remote Arctic village of Puvirnituq, in Northern Quebec, just south of Baffin Island, they know a good deal more than most about global warming, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (27/5/2006, p.23). Spring has come ever earlier for 6 years; igloos collapse: In April they experienced temperatures normal for June, and visiting Canadian officials Continue Reading →