Follow the insurance companies

In my view, if you want to get a sense of whether global warming is a serious risk, or, to put in more neutral verbiage, if we're heading into a multi-decadal or century-scale period of severe weather, watch the insurance companies carefully.

From the Guardian (London):

Lloyd's noted that high sea temperatures are a key ingredient in wind storms, and that over the past century overall sea water temperature had risen by between 0.2ºC and 0.6ºC. Increased hurricanes, such as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans last year, should not have been a surprise since academics had warned in 2001 of this kind of weather pattern. "Recent temperatures are probably outside the range of past oscillations and seem to suggest we will be caught in an upward cycle for some time to come," Lloyd's predicted.

If it's something you gotta pay for, then it's something you gotta take seriously.

The NewsHour had an interesting story on insurance companies and climate change this evening.

(Image here)