Before the Kyoto Treaty of 1997, before the Rio Conference of 1992, before the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s first report in 1990 or even its creation in 1988, even before the first ever World Climate Conference in 1979 expressed concern that “continued expansion of man’s activities on Earth” may lead to climate change, the reinsurance industry spotted the potential that climate change had for its bottom line.
[…]
Since those early days, when manmade climate change was a virtually unknown theory, other far-sighted reinsurers, chiefly giant Swiss Re, have joined Munich Re in aggressively warning of climate-change dangers. In doing so, the reinsurers have been doing their duty in maximizing shareholder profit.
Fear of climate change, in fact, has been the biggest boon in insurance industry history. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the insurance industry has no interest in minimizing future risks to the public, in climate change or in any other field. To the contrary, the more that risks exist and the more that the insurance industry can charge to insure against those risks, the larger the potential market for insurance industry products.
The rest is here.
network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/06/06/lawrence-solomon-climate-insurance.aspx
Is the proper address. There’s a bonus “%3Cbr%20/%3E” in the middle of the author’s name.
I think the insurance industry , which is larger than the oil industry is behind lots of crap in this world, and they always manage to fly under the radar.
Thanks, link fixed.
It’s all about the money. Just look how fat and wealthy Big Al is. There’s too much at “steak” for these snake-oil salesmen to give up now.
A friend of mine’s wife works for a large insurance company. He says she doesn’t dare mention her skepticism about “global warming” in the office for fear of catching a lot of flak. Maybe this article explains why?
Hysterical. The Greenpeacers, anti-capitalists to the core, are willing dupes of the richest group of capitalists on Earth!
I pray that China and India will send them packing, but I’m sure “incentives” will be provided to “authorities” to see they’re allowed to sell their policies.
Soon every Asian will be as insured as we in the developed world, as they cover everything from industrial plants to mud huts.
Make sure you read the “fine print” folks.
From CTV;
Would a tax break entice you to consider installing a ‘green’ roof’?
Yes 560 votes (39 %)
No 883 votes (61 %)
Total Votes: 1443
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/05/burger-king-global-warming-us
‘Global warming is baloney’ signs put the heat on Burger King
hehehe
h/t drudge
The profit of doom never has a best-before date.
Well well. You go looking long enough and surely you find the money behind these large scale scams, eh? Insurance industry makes sense.
I’ve always thought the Greenies as a group were too dumb to organize a two man rush on a three hole outhouse, there had to be a bunch of capitalists quietly doing the hard part behind all the birkenstocked doofi at the front waving the signs.
I seeeeee you!
Fear is the ultimate survival instinct of the individual. While breeding is the ultimate survival instinct of a species, for the individual its fear that allows the indiviudual to survive to breed.
Small wonder then that in a socially advanced species like man, that fear management would elevate to have the highest social venture capital of all of our natual proclivities.
Fear drives EVERYTHING we do, and its at the root of virtually every endeavour we undertake. Business, dictators and Liberals understand this; its why its the most commonly used tool in the their arsenal.
Those on the right, on the other hand, maximize the ability of the individual to deal with that which will reduce fear, and why there will always be a discord betweeen the right and the left.
Kind of goes against your free market ideology, doesn’t it, Kate?
A green roof? I thought we were supposed to be painting them white.
A poll at QR77: Do you agree with Canadian car makers who urge the gov’t to give people $3500 when they trade in a clunker and buy a new vehicle?
Yes – 31.3%
No – 68.7%
Maybe people are starting to figure out that we can’t afford all these pie-in-the-sky ideas.
Aaron has an such impressive understanding of ‘free market ideology.
Yes, Aaron, that’s why Kate is criticising it. Are you criticizing Greenpeace over working with big insurance?
Criticizing reins industry goes against free market ideology, does it not?
Kind of goes against your free market ideology, doesn’t it, Kate?
posted by Aaron
What an inane thing to say! Free market is NOT an ideology, it is a common sense concept. At one time, in this sorry nation, people were not forced to buy insurance – for anything! Think of all the money that people could choose to save if this were still the case. Living is risky and life ALWAYS ends in death but people have been brainwashed into thinking that they can ‘shield’ themselves from death and disaster by buying insurance – this is hardly ever effective – you are better off to save some $$ for bad times…but the level playing field for common sense people is undermined by the fact that many stampede to the insurance companies and unions to insulate themselves and their families from the consequences of death and disaster by jumping into the arms of shysters in the insurance business. Unions are an extension of this mindset.
Life insurance is the ultimate joke on the foolish sheeple. The ultimate denial of the love of life – putting monetary value on the human soul. I read ‘Dead Souls’ by the Russian writer Gogol (is that name associated with google? who knows!), he was criticising Landowners in Czarist Russia for registering dead peasants so he could get a gov’t stipend for the latters ‘existence’. Some landowners even sold some of their dead souls to other landowners when they were hard up. Nothing is new in the world of ideas, it seems; ideas are almost always recycled and this article proves that the Insurance outfits are really good at recycling corrupt ideas from the past. What could be more corrupt than forcing people to buy and sell hot air? Hence, to insure against potential hot air that could be produced by human existance? Like insuring oneself against death; this is a common sense non starter; not an ideaology!
Thanks for posting this excellent article, Kate.
We can only hope there’s a storm gathering with enough force to blow Big Al and his like into oblivion. Biggest farce ever perpetrated on man is this Global warming cum Climate Change money grab.
Since records have been kept the earth has been cooling and warming in cyclical fashion. Trying to outsmart Mother Nature is a costly experiment that’s making a few people rich.
So many mindless followers, so few independent thinkers is all part of the equation. Big Ass Al and David Suzkooki are counting on the latter.
Sadly many of the followers are in our school systems teaching/brainwashing our children. No differing opinions allowed.
No one is really capable of understanding simple things today.
Kate usually is in favour of free enterpise. Reinsurance is one of the elements of free enterprise, is it not? Why all of a sudden reinsurance companies riding on fear of global warming is not free enterprise in its pure form? People are buying!
“Kind of goes against your free market ideology, doesn’t it, Kate?”
Aaron – This is perfectly illustrative of the moronic identy politics of the left. Just because we support free markets does not mean we support everything about free markets. We are constantly raising criticisms of those aspects we find hypocritical or dangerous. Fearmongering based on junk science is both. Too often the left will give a complete free pass based upon not what is proposed, but who proposes it. Witness the current non-debate over rendition or military trials because the One is now advocating them.
So, going to ignore Greenpeace working with the greedy capitalists, eh, Aaron. Isn’t that them, and you, selling out?
Bob, does it mean that only some free enterprise should be free, while other should be what, controlled? Confiscated? Banned? Next thing you know, gun industry will be pronounced fearmongering. Who needs a gun if there is police?
Aaroon if they had not let dumb drivers out there and if they never had little social engineered kids run loose I wouldn’t need insurance. If your house does not burn down in the first couple of years, the wiring is probably ok. If I just pay when I am in the wrong that is ok. When courts say I am responsible for some hooligan doing an illegal activity on my property then I need insurance. If they let me re-educate them then I don’t. But it is illegal for me to re-educate them so I need insurance to protect me from the stupidity of others and the legal system. Kinda goes against ‘the greater good’ doesn’t it?
Okay, maybe I’m missing something, but it appears Aaron has hijacked the thread, taking it on a left turn.
When I read the article, all I got was an indication of why there might be a lot of money invested in the climate change scare. As so many are wont to say, “follow the money!”
Aaron – so you ‘trap’ a Grizzly with pepper spray and then run through the forest to hire a policeman/woman to shoot the bear! Do you and your ilk have death insurance? (that is a redundant term BW – death (a sure thing) insurance?) You do not argue your opinions with any conviction – are you leaning right but ‘afraid’ to come out of the straw man closet? If my suspicions are justified then I am happy, we see hope for humanity casting rays into dark areas.
If you are from NS Aaron, fear not, you can move if the Dippers take over and run that charming province into the dirt. You can always move back later…
What amuses me is that the Russians have little or no support for KYOTO/AGW/CC. They signed onto KYOTO only when the baksheesh Carbon Credits (for the collapse of the USSR) were given them .
So, it was the Jews, after all. I suspected as much.
Sorry, I was just watching the Sopranos. What a great source of ethnic humour.
A-ha, Speedy! Now we are talking. So, maybe in the end reinsurance is not a problem – it’s the big government that mandates all sorts of insurance and pushes it down our throats?
No, the insurance industry is not a free market. It might be a free market if insurance companies were allowed to fail, and in olden days they did fail regularly. But today there is much Gov’t. regulation, as you would expect, to ‘protect’ the usual suspects: “the women and children” etc. Chief among these is the ability for companies to legally compare notes and share loss information. I understand it’s all rather organized and formulized…this sharing of what should be competitive info. Kinda like general construction contractors getting together and divvying up the upcoming slate of giant federal stimulus projects. Whoops! A surprising amount of that goes on already, so I’m told – all highly illegal. A trust – busting Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave. Nobody gives a damn about anti trust anymore, even if they’ve even heard about it – today the passion is for Government regulation…..history be damned, right Aaron? Piss on it. Stalin, Lenin, show us the way!
Jems 54 – sorry to be so petty, and I don’t actually care, but the Ukrainians think Gogol is one of theirs.
“Who needs a gun if there is police?” (sic)@2:06 – Aaron, my spoilt little troll, what if you live in the kind of neighborhood where the police don’t respond to emergency calls for 2 or 10 hours?
Then again, imagine being a woman who isn’t unduly reckless but also doesn’t like to lock herself indoors come sunset.
Someone is always paying the piper; better a private company than the State. The free market if FREEDOM, just that; people abuse freedom. It still beats slavery.
Aaron in a way yes it is government that is wrong headed. If a kid is smashing your windows out and hurts himself you are responsible. That is why it is prudent to have insurance. What happens if you catch the kid smashing your windows? Does he have to pay? We paid PAID kids to paint over their graffiti and hired someone to drive them around. There’s a lesson.
Aaron’s the Euro-transplant who thinks there should be no such thing as V8s.
Aaron, you do realize it isn’t anti-capitalist to scold a company which does things to reduce your personal freedom. Which is what the Greenies are all about.
Insurance companies pay people to create scenarios and the means exploit the circumstances that may arise. Consumers get stuck paying for things that only exist in the fevered imaginations of the strategic planners.
Bad enough … but then …. ignorant tools jump in to insist that governments follow.
The field of actuarial science must pay well.
These are the same bunch of jokers that created the concept of an unfunded liability….all based on statistical data models…..sound familiar?
I think the insurance companies have been brought in to expose a certain hypocrisy in the pro-AGW crowd. How many times have they sneered that AGW skeptics were (allegedly) in the pay of Big Oil? Now that the insurance-company influence has been brought to light, how do they look now? Like the pot in the proverb?
Some people’s appreciation of scandal seems to begin and end with Jimmy Bakker, fer Gawd’s sake. [Ref. if you need it.]
Ommag, did you catch any names?
Black Mamba – the Ukraine was part of Russia in the early 1800’s – all regions (and there were many) controlled by the Tsar, produced Russian citizens (subjects) – in those days, there were no hyphenated citizens (subjects).
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scot, Scotland was controlled by Great Britain, Bell moved to Canada which was then a colony of Great Britain: today Great Britain, Canada and Scotland claim him as one of their own…how many Dervish’s can twirl on the head of a Minaret?
Jema54 – Surely. But when you explain that to the rabid Uke nationalists, leave out the “the” in “the Ukraine”. They’ll FREAK.
I wouldn’t call them “little Russians”, either. I mean, unless you’re really bored, or something.