Do Insurance Companies Think Climate Change is a Hoax?

So, I guess the title says it all.

Do insurance companies think climate change is a hoax?

Insurance companies are where the rubber hits the road with climate change. Severe weather costs them money.

If you’re inside the boardroom of Flo-Gecko Insurance in Hartford, Connecticut, putting the final touches on your five, ten, or twenty-five year plan, do you think, “Yeah, climate change is a crock. There is no evidence weather is getting worse. Twitter says we can safely ignore climate change in our long-range business plan.”

Or worse, do you say stuff like that in your big presentation, you know, the one that might make you vice president? “So, as I was saying, Boss, climate change is a crock. That gives us a huge opportunity in Florida. Our competition is running scared. We can undercut their rates in Tampa, Fort Meyers, Miami, the whole state.”

I guess I can’t know for sure. I’m not privy to the conversations at Flo-Gecko. But if I had to put my money somewhere, I’d say insurance companies treat climate change as real. They aren’t debating it at this point. They’re deciding what to do about it.

For some, the question of human influence matters. Is climate change natural, or do we have something to do with it?

Imagine a world where all climate agreements, weak as they are now, fall apart. It’s open season on the atmosphere, China gets to burn all the coal it wants, the US gets to burn all the coal it wants, Brazil gets to burn the rainforest to the ground, and so on.

Does our executive at Flo-Gecko say, “The coal-burning doesn’t change our posture towards risk, in any time frame. Weather events will not be more severe in the future than they would be naturally.”

I don’t know. I just have a hard time seeing that. I bet they think it’s real.