Jan
Insurance aftershock in the wake of climategate
Politicians and academics can play games with climate change, but there is one group that cannot afford to do so–and that is the insurance industry. They must weigh the risks accurately in order to formulate the premiums. And now there is a fight within the industry over how real climate change risks actually are.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)’s Climate Change and Global Warming (EX) Task Force has requested comments by the influential National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) on verbiage in a prototype cover letter that they want state insurance departments to use that will discuss the “Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survey.” The NAIC describes that the purpose of the survey is to “assist regulators in assessing insurers’ risk assessment and management efforts relate to climate risk.”
But in a stinging rebuke to climate change proponents, the NAMIC tells the NAIC, HOLD ONE JUST ONE MINUTE!
Hat trick to Evan Lehmann of ClimateWire, who revealed the NAMIC letter of reply (PDF) to the NAIC. Penned by Robert Detlefsen, Ph.D., Vice President of Public Policy at NAMIC has rebuked alarmists for, “facilely dismissing the email scandal as a plot hatched by malevolent ‘contrarians.’”
Mr. Detlefsen sets the table with this:
“In the months leading up to its adoption by the NAIC, NAMIC presented several arguments opposing the survey. One of these was that there is simply too much uncertainty about the nature of climate change—e.g., the rate at which it is occurring, the extent to which it is caused by human activity, its relationship to natural catastrophes such as hurricanes and droughts, and the economic trade-offs that would be entailed by various actions that might be taken to prevent further warming—for regulators to assume that all insurers have a material exposure to “climate risk” sufficient to justify mandatory ‘disclosure’ of this purported risk to regulators and the public.”
Detlefsen goes on to say the “emails show that a close-knit group of the world’s most influential climate scientists actively colluded to subvert the peer-review process … manufactured pre-determined conclusions through the use of contrived analytic techniques; and discussed destroying data to avoid government freedom-of-information requests.”
He added, “Viewed collectively, the CRU e-mails reveal a scientific community in which a group of scientists promoting what has become, through their efforts, the dominant climate-change paradigm are at war with other scientists derisively labeled as ‘skeptics,’ ‘deniers,’ and ‘contrarians…’”
Dr. Detlefson then criticises alarmists who, “personified the doctrinaire partisanship and intolerance toward dissent that is so clearly displayed in the CRU e-mails.”
Detlefsen then refers to the 2006 report to Congress, prepared by a committee of statisticians led by Dr. Eugene Wegman of George Mason University. The Wegman Report examined the body of research behind the widely publicized “hockey stick” graph, which purported to show a dramatic and unprecedented increase in average global temperature during the twentieth century.
After thoroughly discrediting the hockey stick graph, the report observed that “authors in the area of paleoclimate studies are closely connected and thus ‘independent studies’ may not be as independent as they might appear on the surface.” The report further noted “the isolation of the paleoclimate community,” concluding “even though they rely heavily on statistical methods, they do not seem to be interacting with the statistical community.”
For more than a century, NAMIC (who underwrites more than 40 percent of the property/casualty insurance premium in the United States) has been respected for making a significant and lasting impact on the property/casualty insurance industry. In the real world of finance, hard headed NAMIC have had no other choice than to find that the science of climate change is far from “settled.”
Possibly related posts:
- ABC News asks, “Can Climate Forecasts Still Be Trusted?”
- Sweden’s historical temperatures higher than previously reported
- DEVASTATING REPORT: The Institute of Physics condemns junk climate science
- Follow the money: BBC exposed in biggest climate racket on planet
- Now Ireland’s media picking up on global warming scam
Frankly, if those worried about insurer exposure to “climate” force the insurers to disclose any “climate risk”, it should be risks associated with global cooling/the next Ice Age, not warming. Empirical data over history shows us there is more storminess and weather damage during periods of global cooling than during periods of global warming. Kudos to NAMIC for standing up to the eco-socialists sticking their grubby gaiarrhea-stained fingers into the insurance business.
Yes, I saw a reference and link to a study by an insurance group intended to quantify warming’s financial loss risks that surprisingly turned up the cooling/storm connection. But I’ve lost it — do you know it?
The usually pro-alarmist Channel 4 (UK) has put out whats is an
prolonged excuse for the Glacier debacle (Himalayan)
tonight:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573111
-very disappointing to see this low standard of journalism.
Note the use of the word ‘deniers’ at the beginning of the segment.
PS. Not sure but those outside the UK may need to use a proxy to view.
Here is the video embedded, to view here:
Thanks for putting it up. There is a long way to go if this is
anything to go by. C4 News did a big special in the run up to Copenhagen, which amounted to its own ‘save the world’ thing.
So what will be the effect of this move? Are insurers simply not going to accept risk based on AGW fraud (and what will happen as a result), or will it trickle into governments and thence into the IPCC, having to concede? I can imagine the latter would be too much of an embarrassment to bear for the both of them, and I forsee staunch resistance.
http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20100120_former_dot_head_says_cap_and_trade_dead/
The AGW debate was settled on January 19 and Cap and Trade is now dead in the USA! That of course means that the man-caused global warming (AGW) debate is therefore settled from any practical perspective. Some of the die hard Kool Aid drinkers will continue to flail about making their ridiculous claims of dying Polar Bears, rising oceans and melting ice caps, but most Americans now realize that the AGW hype has all been just a big lie. Reality is … water vapor exists at 50 times the concentration of CO2 and water vapor is by far the most influential greenhouse gas. H2O also absorbs two of the three Infra Red energy spectra that are absorbed by CO2. For a minute, just think for yourself. CO2 is capable of absorbing less than 8% of the IR spectrum that is responsible for the greenhouse effect, and CO2 exists as only .038% of the atmosphere! What thinking person could possible be led to believe that this is a formula for a climate catastrophe? Since many apparently do believe this, my conclusion is that a lot of people go through life with minds that are so open that their brains have fallen out. They think they do good, but they do great damage. This is not just innocent intellectual debate! Just consider the DDT and bio-fuel fiasco’s! Wake up and do your homework. These ridiculous ultra liberal political programs kill millions of poor children and cause untold other millions to live their lives in misery and poverty!
Anyway … as I said earlier, trom any practical perspective the AGW debate is now history.
It was ended Tuesday night with the Massachusetts landslide election of a Republican Senator in the home state of “The Kennedy’s”. The meaning of this election can not be overstated. Mass. is the Fatherland of the Democratic party, and yet a Republican won the election by over 5%. This was accomplished despite the fact that only 12% of Mass. voters are registered Republicans. That is amazing! The message sent was: “We are mad as hell and we want our damned country back!”
Our Congress heard the message loud and clear and Democrats are already changing their positions on both the Health Care issue and on Cap and Trade and here is now ZERO chance for a trillion dollar Cap and Trade bill to pass in America this year. Just Bing or Google “election cap and trade” and you’ll see about a million hits which explain clearly why this is true.
As for the the future, well don’t hold your breath. 2010 is an election year for Congress and many Democrats in the House and a few Senators will loose at the polls this fall. The Democrats have lost their hold in both the House and in the Senate for at least three years. And, since it now looks as though Obama is likely to loose in 2012, Cap and Trade in the USA is probably dead and buried forever. We should erect a Grave Stone for AGW… Born 1988 died Jan. 19, 2010!
With no Cap and Trade system in America, and no commitment to reduce CO2 production from India, China, Mexico, Indonesia or Africa; soon both Europe and Developed Asia will also give up on their futile and failed Kyoto fantasy.
The AGW debate is history, and this is the end of this ridiculous hysteria over our use of fossil fuels. Now that this silliness is behind us, we can hopefully focus on solving real problems in America and the rest of the World. Here’s a thought. Why don’t we try to bring electricity to rural Africa, India and China so that the poorest people of the world can have some hope for a decent life and a future for their children?
Great points, T. Luxe – And how I wish it were true that the alarmist beast is beaten. But the climate lobby is a juggernaut not easily turned. This farce is not over yet – not by a long way.
One up for the hard headed insurance types who must be certain of the “facts”.
Under proper scientific scrutiny the climate conspiritors will fail,but the UN and powerful government lobbys ,together with cap and trade guru’s are sitting on the truth.
The infrastucture of climate taxes,cap and trade, propoganda. black climate tv programs.correspondants,energy production, government literature,etc.has been engineered over one or two decades.
as Hitler said “All propoganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent
of those towards whom it intends to direct itself”.
Like all villains and monsters these climate change advocates set out to frighten the young and the weak,radicalising the poor, pretending “they” bring salvation to the world ,in reality they are bringing destruction to the industrialised nations and economic slavery to the poor nations.
Pernicious marxism in the name of Green World Politics is on the march.