If getting old was easy everyone would do it.
It's Climate Change I tell'ya!! IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!!
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I think we are going to see a lot more of this in the coming year
Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Rosa Saba
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies and potentially increasing premiums for consumers, experts say.
Extreme weather losses, inflation and reinsurance costs have all helped drive insurance premiums higher in recent years, said Craig Stewart, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s vice-president of climate change and federal issues.
Severe weather caused more than $3.1 billion in insured damage in 2023, the bureau said, making it the fourth-worst year on record for insured losses.
“This grim statistic highlights the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers, governments and taxpayers,” the bureau said in a release.
The Okanagan and Shuswap-area wildfires in B.C. cost $720 million in insured damage, the bureau said, while severe summer storms in Ontario and spring ice storms in Ontario and Quebec cost a combined $670 million.
Rising building costs for materials and labour have also contributed to higher premiums over time, Stewart said.
“As we build more and more homes to address the affordability crisis, ironically, what we’re seeing is that materials and labour costs are going up,” he said — “because of inflation, but also because of increased demand.”
Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to European climate agency Copernicus.
Extreme weather events like wildfires and storm surge flooding tend to result in a higher volume of insurance claims, Ratehub.ca vice-president of insurance Matt Hands said in a statement.
“Climate change, along with the natural disasters, such as wildfires and flooding, continue to hit the insurance industry hard,” he said. “The insurance providers will need to balance these losses on their books, potentially leading to a rise in premiums for everyone.”
Canada is warming faster than the rest of the world and its insured losses are also growing faster than the rest of the world, said Nadja Dreff, senior vice-president and head of Canadian insurance at Morningstar DBRS.
Despite this, the underwriting profitability of Canadian insurers has held up pretty well in recent years, she said, “especially if you compare it to some of the global reinsurance players who have been absorbing the brunt of these extreme weather losses.”
But alongside severe weather losses and mounting costs to rebuild, there’s a third major factor influencing premiums: reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers.
Canada is a higher-risk area for reinsurers than many other parts of the world, Stewart said.
For some regions, particularly Alberta and B.C., “reinsurers have raised their premiums for insurers operating in those areas,” he said.
“Insurers have absorbed part of that cost. But they also have passed on those increased costs to home insurance policies.”
In response to a “drastic rise” in reinsurance prices in 2023, insurers raised their thresholds for reinsurance to rein in costs, Dreff said.
“It may differ company to company, but in general, what we’ve seen is that insurers have been buying less reinsurance,” Dreff said. “In other words, reinsurance kicks in at higher levels of claims.”
That means the insurers would have to absorb more of their claims _ a trade-off with potential consequences that depend on how the year goes, she said.
According to a Morningstar DBRS outlook report published in December, premiums rose in 2022 and 2023 in the low-single digits.
Dreff expects premiums will continue to be pushed higher this year.
However, higher interest rates have improved investment outcomes, helping partially mitigate higher costs that might otherwise be passed on to consumers, she said.
Insurance costs are just one piece of a larger puzzle: the rising cost of living that Canadians have been grappling with for several years.
Climate risk, population growth and macroeconomic conditions support premium rate increases, but “they may prove to be more and more difficult to execute over time,” according to the Morningstar DBRS report.
“After years of rapidly increasing prices on a range of goods and services, consumers are finding it more difficult to absorb additional costs, including that of insurance, amid their growing concerns related to the cost of living.”
No one event drives up premiums, said Stewart, noting that a survey of insurers after the summer fires found no change in availability or affordability of wildfire insurance coverage. Instead, insurance pricing is driven by trends over time, he said.
Fire insurance is a core part of home coverage and highly unlikely to become unavailable, he said.
But escalating losses and revised risk modelling mean that many Canadians can’t access flood insurance, the bureau said in its report
The government has committed to a national flood insurance program, but progress on that has stalled, said Stewart.
“We are urging the federal government to put that program in place as soon as possible.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Rosa Saba
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies and potentially increasing premiums for consumers, experts say.
Extreme weather losses, inflation and reinsurance costs have all helped drive insurance premiums higher in recent years, said Craig Stewart, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s vice-president of climate change and federal issues.
Severe weather caused more than $3.1 billion in insured damage in 2023, the bureau said, making it the fourth-worst year on record for insured losses.
“This grim statistic highlights the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers, governments and taxpayers,” the bureau said in a release.
The Okanagan and Shuswap-area wildfires in B.C. cost $720 million in insured damage, the bureau said, while severe summer storms in Ontario and spring ice storms in Ontario and Quebec cost a combined $670 million.
Rising building costs for materials and labour have also contributed to higher premiums over time, Stewart said.
“As we build more and more homes to address the affordability crisis, ironically, what we’re seeing is that materials and labour costs are going up,” he said — “because of inflation, but also because of increased demand.”
Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to European climate agency Copernicus.
Extreme weather events like wildfires and storm surge flooding tend to result in a higher volume of insurance claims, Ratehub.ca vice-president of insurance Matt Hands said in a statement.
“Climate change, along with the natural disasters, such as wildfires and flooding, continue to hit the insurance industry hard,” he said. “The insurance providers will need to balance these losses on their books, potentially leading to a rise in premiums for everyone.”
Canada is warming faster than the rest of the world and its insured losses are also growing faster than the rest of the world, said Nadja Dreff, senior vice-president and head of Canadian insurance at Morningstar DBRS.
Despite this, the underwriting profitability of Canadian insurers has held up pretty well in recent years, she said, “especially if you compare it to some of the global reinsurance players who have been absorbing the brunt of these extreme weather losses.”
But alongside severe weather losses and mounting costs to rebuild, there’s a third major factor influencing premiums: reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers.
Canada is a higher-risk area for reinsurers than many other parts of the world, Stewart said.
For some regions, particularly Alberta and B.C., “reinsurers have raised their premiums for insurers operating in those areas,” he said.
“Insurers have absorbed part of that cost. But they also have passed on those increased costs to home insurance policies.”
In response to a “drastic rise” in reinsurance prices in 2023, insurers raised their thresholds for reinsurance to rein in costs, Dreff said.
“It may differ company to company, but in general, what we’ve seen is that insurers have been buying less reinsurance,” Dreff said. “In other words, reinsurance kicks in at higher levels of claims.”
That means the insurers would have to absorb more of their claims _ a trade-off with potential consequences that depend on how the year goes, she said.
According to a Morningstar DBRS outlook report published in December, premiums rose in 2022 and 2023 in the low-single digits.
Dreff expects premiums will continue to be pushed higher this year.
However, higher interest rates have improved investment outcomes, helping partially mitigate higher costs that might otherwise be passed on to consumers, she said.
Insurance costs are just one piece of a larger puzzle: the rising cost of living that Canadians have been grappling with for several years.
Climate risk, population growth and macroeconomic conditions support premium rate increases, but “they may prove to be more and more difficult to execute over time,” according to the Morningstar DBRS report.
“After years of rapidly increasing prices on a range of goods and services, consumers are finding it more difficult to absorb additional costs, including that of insurance, amid their growing concerns related to the cost of living.”
No one event drives up premiums, said Stewart, noting that a survey of insurers after the summer fires found no change in availability or affordability of wildfire insurance coverage. Instead, insurance pricing is driven by trends over time, he said.
Fire insurance is a core part of home coverage and highly unlikely to become unavailable, he said.
But escalating losses and revised risk modelling mean that many Canadians can’t access flood insurance, the bureau said in its report
The government has committed to a national flood insurance program, but progress on that has stalled, said Stewart.
“We are urging the federal government to put that program in place as soon as possible.”
Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies.
Brave Climate Activists
Climate activists brave record cold to protest the planet being on fire.
youtube.com
Scientists explain why the record-shattering 2023 heat has them on edge. Warming may be worsening
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Seth Borenstein
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 4 minute read
The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary. But scientists worry that what’s behind those numbers could be even worse.
The Associated Press asked more than three dozen scientists in interviews and emails what the smashed records mean. Most said they fear acceleration of climate change that is already right at the edge of the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) increase since pre-industrial times that nations had hoped to stay within.
“The heat over the last calendar year was a dramatic message from Mother Nature,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Katharine Jacobs. Scientists say warming air and water is making deadly and costly heat waves, floods, droughts, storms and wildfires more intense and more likely.
This last year was a doozy.
Average global temperatures broke the previous record by a little more than a quarter of a degree (0.15 degrees Celsius), a big margin, according to calculations Friday from two top American science agencies, the British meteorological service and a private group founded by a climate skeptic.
Several of the scientists who made the calculations said the climate behaved in strange ways in 2023. They wonder whether human-caused climate change and a natural El Nino were augmented by a freak blip or whether “there’s something more systematic afoot,” as NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt put it — including a much-debated acceleration of warming.
A partial answer may not come until late spring or early summer. That’s when a strong El Nino — the cyclical warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects global weather patterns — is expected to fade away. If ocean temperatures, including deep waters, keep setting records well into the summer, like in 2023, that would be an ominous clue, they say.
Nearly every scientist who responded to AP’s questions blamed greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels as the overwhelmingly largest reason the world hit temperatures that human civilization has not likely seen before. El Nino, which is bordering on “very strong,” is the second-biggest factor, with other conditions far behind, they said.
The trouble with 2023, NASA’s Schmidt said, is “it was a very strange year … The more you dig into it, the less clear it seems.”
One part of that is the timing for when 2023’s big burst of heat began, according to Schmidt and Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Service, which earlier this week put warming at 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
Temperatures are typically highest above normal in late winter and spring, they said. But 2023’s highest heat kicked in around June and lingered at record levels for months.
Deep ocean heat, a big player in global temperatures, behaved in a similar way, Burgess said.
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen, often considered the godfather of global warming science, theorized last year that warming was accelerating. While many of the scientists contacted by AP said they suspect it is happening, others were adamant that evidence so far supports only a steady and long-predicted increase.
“There is some evidence that the rate of warming over the past decade or so is slightly faster than the decade or so previous _ which meets the mathematical definition of acceleration,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “However, this too is largely in line with predictions” that warming would accelerate at a certain point, especially when particle pollution in the air decreases.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated that Earth in 2023 had an average temperature of 59.12 degrees (15.08 degrees Celsius). That’s 0.27 degrees (0.15 degrees Celsius) warmer than the previous record set in 2016 and 2.43 degrees (1.35 degrees Celsius) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
“It’s almost as if we popped ourselves off the staircase (of normal global warming temperature increases) onto a slightly warmer regime,” said Russ Vose, global monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. He said he sees acceleration of warming.
NASA and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office had the warming since the mid-19th century a bit higher at 2.5 degrees (1.39 degrees Celsius) and 2.63 degrees (1.46 degrees Celsius) respectively. Records go back to 1850.
The World Meteorological Organization, combining the measurements announced Friday with Japanese and European calculations released earlier this month, pegged 2023 at 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
Many of the climate scientists saw little hope of stopping warming at the 1.5-degree goal called for in the 2015 Paris agreement that sought to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
“I do not consider it realistic that we can limit warming (averaged over several years) to 1.5C,” wrote Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis in an email. “It is technically possible but politically impossible.”
“The slow pace of climate action and the continued disinformation that catalyzes it has never been about lack of science or even lack of solutions: it has always been, and remains, about lack of political will,” said Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Both NASA and NOAA said the last 10 years, from 2014 to 2023, have been the 10 hottest years they’ve measured. It’s the third time in the last eight years that a global heat record was set. Randall Cerveny, an Arizona State University scientist who helps coordinate record-keeping for the WMO, said the big worry isn’t that a record was broken last year, but that they keep getting broken so frequently.
“It’s the rapidity of the continual change that is, to me, most alarming,” Cerveny said.
Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald said, “This is just a taste of what we can expect in the future, especially if we continue to fail to cut carbon dioxide fast enough.”
That’s why so many scientists contacted by The Associated Press are anxious.
“I’ve been worried since the early 1990s,” said Brown University climate scientist Kim Cobb. “I am more worried than ever. My worry increases with every year that global emissions move in the wrong direction.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Seth Borenstein
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 4 minute read
The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary. But scientists worry that what’s behind those numbers could be even worse.
The Associated Press asked more than three dozen scientists in interviews and emails what the smashed records mean. Most said they fear acceleration of climate change that is already right at the edge of the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) increase since pre-industrial times that nations had hoped to stay within.
“The heat over the last calendar year was a dramatic message from Mother Nature,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Katharine Jacobs. Scientists say warming air and water is making deadly and costly heat waves, floods, droughts, storms and wildfires more intense and more likely.
This last year was a doozy.
Average global temperatures broke the previous record by a little more than a quarter of a degree (0.15 degrees Celsius), a big margin, according to calculations Friday from two top American science agencies, the British meteorological service and a private group founded by a climate skeptic.
Several of the scientists who made the calculations said the climate behaved in strange ways in 2023. They wonder whether human-caused climate change and a natural El Nino were augmented by a freak blip or whether “there’s something more systematic afoot,” as NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt put it — including a much-debated acceleration of warming.
A partial answer may not come until late spring or early summer. That’s when a strong El Nino — the cyclical warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects global weather patterns — is expected to fade away. If ocean temperatures, including deep waters, keep setting records well into the summer, like in 2023, that would be an ominous clue, they say.
Nearly every scientist who responded to AP’s questions blamed greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels as the overwhelmingly largest reason the world hit temperatures that human civilization has not likely seen before. El Nino, which is bordering on “very strong,” is the second-biggest factor, with other conditions far behind, they said.
The trouble with 2023, NASA’s Schmidt said, is “it was a very strange year … The more you dig into it, the less clear it seems.”
One part of that is the timing for when 2023’s big burst of heat began, according to Schmidt and Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Service, which earlier this week put warming at 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
Temperatures are typically highest above normal in late winter and spring, they said. But 2023’s highest heat kicked in around June and lingered at record levels for months.
Deep ocean heat, a big player in global temperatures, behaved in a similar way, Burgess said.
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen, often considered the godfather of global warming science, theorized last year that warming was accelerating. While many of the scientists contacted by AP said they suspect it is happening, others were adamant that evidence so far supports only a steady and long-predicted increase.
“There is some evidence that the rate of warming over the past decade or so is slightly faster than the decade or so previous _ which meets the mathematical definition of acceleration,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “However, this too is largely in line with predictions” that warming would accelerate at a certain point, especially when particle pollution in the air decreases.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated that Earth in 2023 had an average temperature of 59.12 degrees (15.08 degrees Celsius). That’s 0.27 degrees (0.15 degrees Celsius) warmer than the previous record set in 2016 and 2.43 degrees (1.35 degrees Celsius) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
“It’s almost as if we popped ourselves off the staircase (of normal global warming temperature increases) onto a slightly warmer regime,” said Russ Vose, global monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. He said he sees acceleration of warming.
NASA and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office had the warming since the mid-19th century a bit higher at 2.5 degrees (1.39 degrees Celsius) and 2.63 degrees (1.46 degrees Celsius) respectively. Records go back to 1850.
The World Meteorological Organization, combining the measurements announced Friday with Japanese and European calculations released earlier this month, pegged 2023 at 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
Many of the climate scientists saw little hope of stopping warming at the 1.5-degree goal called for in the 2015 Paris agreement that sought to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
“I do not consider it realistic that we can limit warming (averaged over several years) to 1.5C,” wrote Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis in an email. “It is technically possible but politically impossible.”
“The slow pace of climate action and the continued disinformation that catalyzes it has never been about lack of science or even lack of solutions: it has always been, and remains, about lack of political will,” said Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Both NASA and NOAA said the last 10 years, from 2014 to 2023, have been the 10 hottest years they’ve measured. It’s the third time in the last eight years that a global heat record was set. Randall Cerveny, an Arizona State University scientist who helps coordinate record-keeping for the WMO, said the big worry isn’t that a record was broken last year, but that they keep getting broken so frequently.
“It’s the rapidity of the continual change that is, to me, most alarming,” Cerveny said.
Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald said, “This is just a taste of what we can expect in the future, especially if we continue to fail to cut carbon dioxide fast enough.”
That’s why so many scientists contacted by The Associated Press are anxious.
“I’ve been worried since the early 1990s,” said Brown University climate scientist Kim Cobb. “I am more worried than ever. My worry increases with every year that global emissions move in the wrong direction.”
Scientists explain why the record-shattering 2023 heat has them on edge. Warming may be worsening
The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary.
1952....extreme heat prior to 1952 didnt happen.Scientists explain why the record-shattering 2023 heat has them on edge. Warming may be worsening
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Seth Borenstein
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 4 minute read
The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary. But scientists worry that what’s behind those numbers could be even worse.
The Associated Press asked more than three dozen scientists in interviews and emails what the smashed records mean. Most said they fear acceleration of climate change that is already right at the edge of the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) increase since pre-industrial times that nations had hoped to stay within.
“The heat over the last calendar year was a dramatic message from Mother Nature,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Katharine Jacobs. Scientists say warming air and water is making deadly and costly heat waves, floods, droughts, storms and wildfires more intense and more likely.
This last year was a doozy.
Average global temperatures broke the previous record by a little more than a quarter of a degree (0.15 degrees Celsius), a big margin, according to calculations Friday from two top American science agencies, the British meteorological service and a private group founded by a climate skeptic.
Several of the scientists who made the calculations said the climate behaved in strange ways in 2023. They wonder whether human-caused climate change and a natural El Nino were augmented by a freak blip or whether “there’s something more systematic afoot,” as NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt put it — including a much-debated acceleration of warming.
A partial answer may not come until late spring or early summer. That’s when a strong El Nino — the cyclical warming of Pacific Ocean waters that affects global weather patterns — is expected to fade away. If ocean temperatures, including deep waters, keep setting records well into the summer, like in 2023, that would be an ominous clue, they say.
Nearly every scientist who responded to AP’s questions blamed greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels as the overwhelmingly largest reason the world hit temperatures that human civilization has not likely seen before. El Nino, which is bordering on “very strong,” is the second-biggest factor, with other conditions far behind, they said.
The trouble with 2023, NASA’s Schmidt said, is “it was a very strange year … The more you dig into it, the less clear it seems.”
One part of that is the timing for when 2023’s big burst of heat began, according to Schmidt and Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Service, which earlier this week put warming at 1.48 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
Temperatures are typically highest above normal in late winter and spring, they said. But 2023’s highest heat kicked in around June and lingered at record levels for months.
Deep ocean heat, a big player in global temperatures, behaved in a similar way, Burgess said.
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen, often considered the godfather of global warming science, theorized last year that warming was accelerating. While many of the scientists contacted by AP said they suspect it is happening, others were adamant that evidence so far supports only a steady and long-predicted increase.
“There is some evidence that the rate of warming over the past decade or so is slightly faster than the decade or so previous _ which meets the mathematical definition of acceleration,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “However, this too is largely in line with predictions” that warming would accelerate at a certain point, especially when particle pollution in the air decreases.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated that Earth in 2023 had an average temperature of 59.12 degrees (15.08 degrees Celsius). That’s 0.27 degrees (0.15 degrees Celsius) warmer than the previous record set in 2016 and 2.43 degrees (1.35 degrees Celsius) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
“It’s almost as if we popped ourselves off the staircase (of normal global warming temperature increases) onto a slightly warmer regime,” said Russ Vose, global monitoring chief for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. He said he sees acceleration of warming.
NASA and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office had the warming since the mid-19th century a bit higher at 2.5 degrees (1.39 degrees Celsius) and 2.63 degrees (1.46 degrees Celsius) respectively. Records go back to 1850.
The World Meteorological Organization, combining the measurements announced Friday with Japanese and European calculations released earlier this month, pegged 2023 at 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
Many of the climate scientists saw little hope of stopping warming at the 1.5-degree goal called for in the 2015 Paris agreement that sought to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
“I do not consider it realistic that we can limit warming (averaged over several years) to 1.5C,” wrote Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis in an email. “It is technically possible but politically impossible.”
“The slow pace of climate action and the continued disinformation that catalyzes it has never been about lack of science or even lack of solutions: it has always been, and remains, about lack of political will,” said Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Both NASA and NOAA said the last 10 years, from 2014 to 2023, have been the 10 hottest years they’ve measured. It’s the third time in the last eight years that a global heat record was set. Randall Cerveny, an Arizona State University scientist who helps coordinate record-keeping for the WMO, said the big worry isn’t that a record was broken last year, but that they keep getting broken so frequently.
“It’s the rapidity of the continual change that is, to me, most alarming,” Cerveny said.
Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald said, “This is just a taste of what we can expect in the future, especially if we continue to fail to cut carbon dioxide fast enough.”
That’s why so many scientists contacted by The Associated Press are anxious.
“I’ve been worried since the early 1990s,” said Brown University climate scientist Kim Cobb. “I am more worried than ever. My worry increases with every year that global emissions move in the wrong direction.”
Scientists explain why the record-shattering 2023 heat has them on edge. Warming may be worsening
The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary.
Good times. We’ve global warmed up to -31°C without the wind (& -43°C with it).
You imagine the power draw if we were all forced to have electric cars at this point that we were trying to keep the batteries from freezing and being screwed up simultaneously?
It a little while I’m gonna head out, with some intestinal fortitude, and a bit of a sniff of ether… and start my truck and let it run for a while… so that I can knowingly start it tomorrow morning. Again, good times.
You imagine the power draw if we were all forced to have electric cars at this point that we were trying to keep the batteries from freezing and being screwed up simultaneously?
It a little while I’m gonna head out, with some intestinal fortitude, and a bit of a sniff of ether… and start my truck and let it run for a while… so that I can knowingly start it tomorrow morning. Again, good times.
Its getting hotter on your side of town? Awesome. Still -35 here.
You know it is serious when they state Canada is warming faster than the rest of the world .Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Rosa Saba
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies and potentially increasing premiums for consumers, experts say.
Extreme weather losses, inflation and reinsurance costs have all helped drive insurance premiums higher in recent years, said Craig Stewart, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s vice-president of climate change and federal issues.
Severe weather caused more than $3.1 billion in insured damage in 2023, the bureau said, making it the fourth-worst year on record for insured losses.
“This grim statistic highlights the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers, governments and taxpayers,” the bureau said in a release.
The Okanagan and Shuswap-area wildfires in B.C. cost $720 million in insured damage, the bureau said, while severe summer storms in Ontario and spring ice storms in Ontario and Quebec cost a combined $670 million.
Rising building costs for materials and labour have also contributed to higher premiums over time, Stewart said.
“As we build more and more homes to address the affordability crisis, ironically, what we’re seeing is that materials and labour costs are going up,” he said — “because of inflation, but also because of increased demand.”
Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to European climate agency Copernicus.
Extreme weather events like wildfires and storm surge flooding tend to result in a higher volume of insurance claims, Ratehub.ca vice-president of insurance Matt Hands said in a statement.
“Climate change, along with the natural disasters, such as wildfires and flooding, continue to hit the insurance industry hard,” he said. “The insurance providers will need to balance these losses on their books, potentially leading to a rise in premiums for everyone.”
Canada is warming faster than the rest of the world and its insured losses are also growing faster than the rest of the world, said Nadja Dreff, senior vice-president and head of Canadian insurance at Morningstar DBRS.
Despite this, the underwriting profitability of Canadian insurers has held up pretty well in recent years, she said, “especially if you compare it to some of the global reinsurance players who have been absorbing the brunt of these extreme weather losses.”
But alongside severe weather losses and mounting costs to rebuild, there’s a third major factor influencing premiums: reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers.
Canada is a higher-risk area for reinsurers than many other parts of the world, Stewart said.
For some regions, particularly Alberta and B.C., “reinsurers have raised their premiums for insurers operating in those areas,” he said.
“Insurers have absorbed part of that cost. But they also have passed on those increased costs to home insurance policies.”
In response to a “drastic rise” in reinsurance prices in 2023, insurers raised their thresholds for reinsurance to rein in costs, Dreff said.
“It may differ company to company, but in general, what we’ve seen is that insurers have been buying less reinsurance,” Dreff said. “In other words, reinsurance kicks in at higher levels of claims.”
That means the insurers would have to absorb more of their claims _ a trade-off with potential consequences that depend on how the year goes, she said.
According to a Morningstar DBRS outlook report published in December, premiums rose in 2022 and 2023 in the low-single digits.
Dreff expects premiums will continue to be pushed higher this year.
However, higher interest rates have improved investment outcomes, helping partially mitigate higher costs that might otherwise be passed on to consumers, she said.
Insurance costs are just one piece of a larger puzzle: the rising cost of living that Canadians have been grappling with for several years.
Climate risk, population growth and macroeconomic conditions support premium rate increases, but “they may prove to be more and more difficult to execute over time,” according to the Morningstar DBRS report.
“After years of rapidly increasing prices on a range of goods and services, consumers are finding it more difficult to absorb additional costs, including that of insurance, amid their growing concerns related to the cost of living.”
No one event drives up premiums, said Stewart, noting that a survey of insurers after the summer fires found no change in availability or affordability of wildfire insurance coverage. Instead, insurance pricing is driven by trends over time, he said.
Fire insurance is a core part of home coverage and highly unlikely to become unavailable, he said.
But escalating losses and revised risk modelling mean that many Canadians can’t access flood insurance, the bureau said in its report
The government has committed to a national flood insurance program, but progress on that has stalled, said Stewart.
“We are urging the federal government to put that program in place as soon as possible.”
Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies.
Insurance companies look at any excuse to increase premiums and profits.Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Rosa Saba
Published Jan 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies and potentially increasing premiums for consumers, experts say.
Extreme weather losses, inflation and reinsurance costs have all helped drive insurance premiums higher in recent years, said Craig Stewart, the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s vice-president of climate change and federal issues.
Severe weather caused more than $3.1 billion in insured damage in 2023, the bureau said, making it the fourth-worst year on record for insured losses.
“This grim statistic highlights the financial costs of a changing climate to insurers, governments and taxpayers,” the bureau said in a release.
The Okanagan and Shuswap-area wildfires in B.C. cost $720 million in insured damage, the bureau said, while severe summer storms in Ontario and spring ice storms in Ontario and Quebec cost a combined $670 million.
Rising building costs for materials and labour have also contributed to higher premiums over time, Stewart said.
“As we build more and more homes to address the affordability crisis, ironically, what we’re seeing is that materials and labour costs are going up,” he said — “because of inflation, but also because of increased demand.”
Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, according to European climate agency Copernicus.
Extreme weather events like wildfires and storm surge flooding tend to result in a higher volume of insurance claims, Ratehub.ca vice-president of insurance Matt Hands said in a statement.
“Climate change, along with the natural disasters, such as wildfires and flooding, continue to hit the insurance industry hard,” he said. “The insurance providers will need to balance these losses on their books, potentially leading to a rise in premiums for everyone.”
Canada is warming faster than the rest of the world and its insured losses are also growing faster than the rest of the world, said Nadja Dreff, senior vice-president and head of Canadian insurance at Morningstar DBRS.
Despite this, the underwriting profitability of Canadian insurers has held up pretty well in recent years, she said, “especially if you compare it to some of the global reinsurance players who have been absorbing the brunt of these extreme weather losses.”
But alongside severe weather losses and mounting costs to rebuild, there’s a third major factor influencing premiums: reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers.
Canada is a higher-risk area for reinsurers than many other parts of the world, Stewart said.
For some regions, particularly Alberta and B.C., “reinsurers have raised their premiums for insurers operating in those areas,” he said.
“Insurers have absorbed part of that cost. But they also have passed on those increased costs to home insurance policies.”
In response to a “drastic rise” in reinsurance prices in 2023, insurers raised their thresholds for reinsurance to rein in costs, Dreff said.
“It may differ company to company, but in general, what we’ve seen is that insurers have been buying less reinsurance,” Dreff said. “In other words, reinsurance kicks in at higher levels of claims.”
That means the insurers would have to absorb more of their claims _ a trade-off with potential consequences that depend on how the year goes, she said.
According to a Morningstar DBRS outlook report published in December, premiums rose in 2022 and 2023 in the low-single digits.
Dreff expects premiums will continue to be pushed higher this year.
However, higher interest rates have improved investment outcomes, helping partially mitigate higher costs that might otherwise be passed on to consumers, she said.
Insurance costs are just one piece of a larger puzzle: the rising cost of living that Canadians have been grappling with for several years.
Climate risk, population growth and macroeconomic conditions support premium rate increases, but “they may prove to be more and more difficult to execute over time,” according to the Morningstar DBRS report.
“After years of rapidly increasing prices on a range of goods and services, consumers are finding it more difficult to absorb additional costs, including that of insurance, amid their growing concerns related to the cost of living.”
No one event drives up premiums, said Stewart, noting that a survey of insurers after the summer fires found no change in availability or affordability of wildfire insurance coverage. Instead, insurance pricing is driven by trends over time, he said.
Fire insurance is a core part of home coverage and highly unlikely to become unavailable, he said.
But escalating losses and revised risk modelling mean that many Canadians can’t access flood insurance, the bureau said in its report
The government has committed to a national flood insurance program, but progress on that has stalled, said Stewart.
“We are urging the federal government to put that program in place as soon as possible.”
Severe weather events threaten to drive insurance premiums higher: Experts
The escalating risk of severe weather events is one of several factors putting pressure on insurance companies.
Yeah, kinda comes with that whole "for-profit private enterprise" thing. I'm surprised they still allow it in the People's Republic of Canadaski.
My feet say that reading is coming from the airport or something like that.
I’ve got my Dakota fired & had it run for about 15 minutes this morning. Spent more time farting with my garage door opener that’s now disconnected and the door secured closed with sets of vice grips on the track ‘till the weather warms up. Even with the door closed, & the laser eyes polished up…& nothing in the way, it Still thinks I’m try’n to kill a child or small animal with the bay door.
Then I’m global warming a battery from Lisa’s SUV on the kitchen cupboard to give it the best chance of accepting a full charge.
"I don't know anybody who lives at the airport."
--George Carlin