The Xavier Post

If you are looking for the canary in the coal mine of climate change, it isn’t sea levels, it is insurance premiums.

Yes, insurance premiums.

What we know about climate change or its old moniker, Global Warming, is that extreme weather events are going to become more intense and more frequent.

This isn’t some conspiracy, it is science. And it is getting more accurate. Better able to predict. And this is where insurance comes in.

Insurance is just gambling really. What are the chances of a certain demographic having X event happen to them. 

How much would that cost and how much would a per month premium be if a company was to make a profit whilst still covering that group.

And so, an 18-year-old single man driving a car pays more for insurance than a married 30-year-old woman.

If scientists can better predict extreme weather events, then insurance companies can start pricing accordingly.

And they have.

What is worrying about insurance companies increasing premiums (or refusing coverage) is that eventually everybody pays.

Who remembers the Flood Levy to pay for the Queensland floods?

You paid that levy because insurance companies are increasingly not wanting to pay out for climate change related events.

Which are becoming more intense and more frequent. Just like those pesky scientists said they would.

So the economic impacts of climate change are actually already being felt.

Not wiping out Bangladesh, or flooding lower Manhattan, but in a street by street, community by community lack of insurance against climate change.

It’s not as sexy as Al Gore’s documentary, but it is real and it is happening right now. And you thought the Carbon Tax was bad?