The $5 trillion insurance industry faces a reckoning. Blame climate change.

[al bupp]

From https://www.vox.com/22686124/climate-change-insurance-flood-wildfire-hurricane-risk

Insurers are getting rocked by climate disasters. They’re also shaping how we prepare for the next one.

The water has receded and the embers have died down from many of the disasters in the United States this year — leaving insurance companies that cover floods, fires, hail, and extreme cold on the hook for staggering losses. If current trends continue, they could suffer one of the costliest years in recent memory.

In the first half of 2021, disasters inflicted a staggering $42 billion in losses covered by insurance, a 10-year high. Then in September, Hurricane Ida cut a path of destruction through the Gulf Coast and flooded neighborhoods from Louisiana to New Jersey, causing between $31 billion and $44 billion in insured losses. Ida now ranks among the top five costliest storms in US history.

The Atlantic hurricane season still isn’t over, and California’s autumn fire season has yet to enter its peak, so the total damages are poised to rise even higher. Insurers are still tallying damage totals from wildfires in the US West this year, but last year’s fires cost insurers $13 billion.

The human costs of these disasters in terms of lost lives and livelihoods are the most profound, but dollar-value losses have a huge impact on the economy that can linger for years. They reveal where risks are growing and could shape transformative policy decisions, such as where to rebuild, where to erect defenses, and where the costs of staying might be too high to bear. Here, the insurance industry plays a critical role, not just in the recovery from disasters but in shaping preparations for the next one.

This may be what actually moves the I-now-give-damn needle among the GOP and "centrist" Democrats in our capitalist economy.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "staggering $42 billion in losses covered by insurance, a 10-year high. - if it is only....

a "10-year high" it isn't really "staggering".

[al bupp]

2. One person's stagger is another's mere trend, I suppose

But just wait a few years when coastal land starts to disappear under regular inundations, the insurance impacts may then qualify as staggering.

[PoliticAverse]

4. A graph showing a strong upward trend in costs would have been good. n/t

[al bupp]

5. Good point

I found this:

2020 natural catastrophes

Aon defines a catastrophe as a natural event that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses, or 10 deaths; or 50 people injured; or 2,000 filed claims or homes and structures damaged. Aon’s natural catastrophe estimates include Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and include losses sustained by private insurers and government-sponsored programs such as the National Flood Insurance Program. They are subject to change as loss estimates are further developed. Natural catastrophe losses in the United States rose to an historic high in 2017 of $133 billion in 2020 dollars, the year of Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma and costly California wildfires. Natural catastrophe losses fell in 2018 and 2019, but rose to $74.4 billion in 2020, up 88 percent from $39.6 billion in 2019.

From: https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-us-catastrophes

which includes some graphs from 1980 - 2018, and the following chart of losses over the last 10 years:

Estimated Insured Property Losses, U.S. Natural Catastrophes, 2011-2020 (1)
($ billions)

Year | In dollars when occurred | In 2020 dollars
2011 | 48.4 | 56.3
2012 | 63.5 | 72.3
2013 | 24.1 | 27.2
2014 | 23.2 | 25.6
2015 | 22.9 | 25.3
2016 | 31.6 | 34.5
2017 | 130.9 | 133.1
2018 | 60.4 | 62.7
2019 | 38.7 | 39.6
2020 | 74.4 | 74.4

[JoeOtterbein]

3. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[multigraincracker]

6. Insurance companies are like the casino.

The know they odds and that makes them the winners in the long run.
I'm retired and have raise my deductible on the house and cars. A recent storm dropped a tree on my new dog yard fence. My deduction was at $1,400 so I did the work myself and it cost me $40 and a few weeks work. Great exercise cutting up a 4 trunk 70 ft aspen tree and was able to use lots of the damaged fence to repair and make the the fence a little smaller. Agent said it would raise my rates next time a I renewed. I had the time so it was worth it. My newest vehicle is 17 years old, so I'm dropping full coverage on the one that has it and will self insure on it saving me several hundred per year. That just makes me more careful driving.
I have nothing against insurance companies or casinos. I just try to play the odds in my favor. I have more time than money.