Munich Re: 2017 Record-Smashing Natural Disaster Payouts "Not An Outlier" But New Normal

[hatrack]

It turns out 2017 was a uniquely disastrous year in more ways than one, evidenced by German reinsurer Munich Re’s recently released review of the year’s global catastrophes.

Led by massive, climate change-fueled hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, 2017’s natural disasters will cost insurers a record $135 billion. Adding in uninsured losses brings the total global damages to $330 billion, which is second only to 2011.

“We have a new normal,” Munich Re’s Ernst Rauch told Reuters. Rauch, who runs the group tracking climate change risks, pointed out that “2017 was not an outlier” in having more than $100 billion in insured losses (see chart below). “We must have on our radar the trend of new magnitudes,” Rauch said.

The big reinsurers like Munich Re make their money by insuring the companies that directly insure your property. Those smaller companies are often required by law to buy reinsurance because they lack the capital resources to pay out if there is a major disaster, like superstorm Harvey for instance. Since the reinsurers must pay out billions and billions of dollars for such mega-disasters, they have a unique incentive to understand and predict trends in mega-disasters. That’s why companies like Munich Re and Swiss Re have been at the forefront of warning businesses and the public about the rise in extreme weather events due to climate change.

EDIT

https://thinkprogress.org/weather-disaster-record-cost-4948070d8e53/

[MarkMakers]

1. And as long as uncontrolled breeding and population explosion continues

And the unregulated expansion of that overgrown population into areas that are historically prone to those natural disasters, the situation is only going to get worse.

But nothing can be done, the earth will reach its carrying capacity, and human population will collapse.

Its happened to every species in nature through out the history of the world.

Oh BTW, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[DBoon]

2. Insurance premiums are reality-based

climate change deniers are not.

Sort of like oil companies not using young earth creationist geology to find new resources