Oh, there are also still untold tonnes and tonnes of ammunition, chemical and conventional, from WW I on the bottom of the Baltic sea. Quietly rusting away for just a bit over 100 years now. But hey, what’s the worst that could happen, right?
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Ah, thanks for the reminder, meant to post this but forgot:
“Climate change, predominantly the result of human activity, is real and has a major influence on weather-related natural disasters. It can dramatically alter a region’s risk situation in terms of severe storms, thunderstorms, floods or droughts.”
– Munich Re - the company where your insurer buys their insurance
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Let’s not forget that insurance companies COULD be putting their lobbying/political donations to work by campaigning for Democratic candidates who support efforts to mitigate climate change, but instead they support Republican candidates who allow them to carve out exceptions anywhere they aren’t guaranteed to make lots of money because of the very real likelihood of large claims thanks to unmitigated climate change.
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You know who isn’t in denial about climate change? The entire insurance industry.
I’ll put an asterisk on that one, just personal experience with my insurance “cousins”…
I think conventional insurance people, particularly those underwriting at a retail level and probably at the level of retail-facing companies, are likely struggling to come up with anything that looks like an affordable policy. I have to doubt that this is leading to any collective insights, they’re just trying to do an increasingly difficult job without the resources to really form effective policies to cope.
The re-insurance industry, however, has been on the ball on this one for a while, as @FGD135 notes. In my experience they do have the resources to fully analyze the situation, and their survival really does depend on understanding and accepting the reality of what is going on.
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Apparently there is profit to be made in making up an alternate reality - one in which flood zone risks are flexible. I’m really hoping the National Flood Insurance Program has been protected against fraud and manipulation like this:
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As a former flood map analyst, I’ve had several of my decisions reversed in places like this, and I always assumed money was behind it. I hope they find the truth.
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Seems like they’re still working on that 
:
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Oh, for sure, although I’d say that local political games are less relevant at the re-insurance level. Those policies tend to trigger in the many billions of loss; they are on the hook when things really get bad, with exposure over many jurisdictions. At that point the retail-level political games have probably also failed, and risk of those political failures will also be priced into the re-insurance policy.
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How many times does it have to be said, stop growing almonds in a fucking desert.
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Just got in some almond trees to plant here. Which is not, i hasten to add, a desert. We don’t even irrigate most years other than at initial planting. Insisting on growing water-demanding crops in the desert is just beyond stupid.
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