You run into them in ordinary places – your local gym, at work, in restaurants, in college classrooms. You hear them a lot on TV and talk radio, too, the climate change deniers. The world isn’t getting warmer, just look at all the snow we’ve had this year. Their arguments usually start along those lines. But when insurance companies start noticing that something is going on, maybe even the climate change deniers won’t be denying quite so loudly.
According to a recent article in Scientific American, the U.S. was struck by more natural disasters in 2010 than ever before, “with 247 blizzards, thunderstorms and floods accounting for a record level of frequency partly attributable to climate change, according to a major reinsurance company.”
About 150 of these storms were due to rain and storm. As a means of comparison, in 1980 there were fewer than 60 disasters and slightly more than 50 damaging storms. Nearly 190 Americans died in 2010 in blizzards, thunderstorms and floods, and the damages cost insurance companies billions. For just thunderstorm damage alone, insurance companies paid out more than nine billion, a 500 percent rise since 1980.
“We believe we see indications that weather patterns — so the frequency and intensity of convective storms — in some parts of the United States has already changed,” said Ernst Rauch, head of Munich Reinsurance. “So we believe we have indications that climate change is already, at least to some extent, visible.”
Here’s a rundown on the facts:
In just 30 years, disasters worldwide have doubled . In 1980, there were less than 400; in 2010, there were 950.
The human toll is enormous. The earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 killed more than 222,000 people and caused $8 billion in economic losses.
A heat wave in Russian killed 56,000 people, torrential rains in Pakistan killed 1,760 people, heavy rains inundated Pakistan with floodwater, killing 1,760 people.Then there were the devastating floods in Brisbane, Australia and Brazil.
2010 began and ended with blizzards blanketing the eastern seaboard and then New York. The cost? 64 people and $2.6 billion in insured losses.
According to the National Climatic Data Center in North Carolina, 2010 was the warmest year on record.
Yet, because the U.S. wasn’t struck by a major hurricane last year, the insured losses for the first six months of 2010 were about $13.6 billion, says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. “That’s 19 percent below the figures for a year earlier. But that’s all due to change eventually, when Miami or another city is struck by a mega-hurricane, causing perhaps $100 billion in damage. Quite frankly, I think the United States dodged a bullet last year.”
The point the article seems to be missing – it’s Scientific American, after all – is the effect of mass consciousness on the weather in any part of the world. “As mind moves, so does matter,” said author, physician, and research Dean Radin.
And yet, how can mass consciousness change this tidbit of news? Sunrise arrived two days early in Greenland. The polar night usually ends on January 13, but this year, it arrived on January 11. The reason? Some scientists believe that melting glaciers have lowered the horizon.
This was in June, 2007, Ray. It was mid winter here, but Newcastle is a temperate zone, not usually known for snow fall . Occasionally, there will be snow on the Barrington Tops, but our temps for mid winter are about 5 -16C usually.
Ray – I noticed that guy's comment!
At the time I read the Scientific American article there was a denier as the first commenter. "Except its been three years in a row without a particularly destructive hurricane in the US not just one. Its getting to be a trend. And of course the first one we do have in the future will for sure, by the author, be blamed on global warming. You think?"
The Pasha Bulker is a bulk cargo carrier as opposed to a container ship by its appearance and name.
Natalie,
Isn't it summer in Australia? Is the snow at a high enough altitude for summer snow or is this an anomaly of the rain storm in Australia? I recall a hurricane in the Caribbean causing snow in New Orleans and another one causing snow in the Bahamas.
Hi this is a bit on a different tune (or tone) Last night similarly as a few nights before I woke up with a sense the Earth moved. Then in the morning I read my emails.. and the first night event was [maybe] due to EQ on Myanmar/Indian border ( 5 MHZ) and last night event was [maybe] due to 7.2 EQ on Pakistan/Iran border….. Well well well. .that also is a lot of EQ in 1 week. Plus if you go on n
National geographic or NASA website this week there was an article on ' The Other Big One" a major storm expected for California soon…. Sorry I can't remember which site it was but it is either one or the other…or maybe Accuweather….
i don't know how people can still ignore this phenomena when the facts are so clear to see…
The answer my friend….blowing in the wind….
https://pierredutoit.blogspot.com/
https://wn.com/Newcastle_floods_pasha_bulka
I was caught in it directly (5 mins away from the Pasha)and it was horrific. Mark was at home in the western suburbs where our rental house was filling up with water. The kids were stranded at school at 3 different schools, one was in much danger. We personally lost $10 000 worth of personal possessions, plus rental was damaged. We were one of the luckier ones.
Nat – what is the pasha bulker??A ship?
Glad these rains will miss you!
More floods expected today, this time in Victoria . 🙁
Missed me both times, but we(Newcastle) copped a beauty in 2007, when the Pasha Bulker ran aground.
The figures are staggering when they are all collated. I have got to find some time to read that D.R. book.He sounds like one interesting fellow.
And may the hurricane continue to miss us!
Very interesting post! "The times, they are a changing", for sure. Those statistics are scary, and the melting glaciers, with all of the implications of what that means, are the scariest part. But at least we had a year off from the hurricanes.
Would sure love to hear him speak. If you clock on the global consciousness project dot at the top of the blog, right hand side, you can see what the random # generators recorded about Tucson and brazilian mudslides. Really interesting. A few minutes ago, the dot turned red, indicating some sort of mass consciousness event.
Those statistics are really scary. I think we are definitely in the midst of something huge. On an aside, Radin will be speaking at the IONS conference in SF in July. I
Gypsy – fixed the link.
You're absolutely right, Mike. In South Florida, for example, there used to be mangroves and dunes of sea oats that offered a buffer from hurricanes. No longer. Development got rid of them.
I don't think there can be any doubt about Climate Change, it has always happened. The Romans in England grew grapes, the River Thames froze in the 1800s and so on.
There will likey be more tragic news but we don't always help ourselves. We build on flood planes, we pollute the world and a myriad of other things.
I'll leave it there, it's an interesting post with lots to think about.
oops – meant to mention that i was unable to get the "news" link to work –
these events/figures are staggering! seeing them all together in a few paragraphs is just mind-boggling –
and in seeing these disasters in that regard, you know, trish, the horrendous dream i had of the raging muddy flood waters i think was related to the overall global flooding rather than to one flooding event in particular – with each flood, i saw [via the media] a bit here and a bit there of the components of my dream –
regardless, just seeing these global disasters described here is truly mind-boggling!
thanks so much for such an in-depth and informative post – great!
wv – unical – universal ?