Mother Nature is Offering Lessons
Climate Change
Remarkable would be the kindest word one could use to describe a reaction to those who still, incredibly, do not accept the reality of climate change. This is perhaps the largest example of willful ignorance in our time. The science is overwhelming and confirmatory in every sector of study and analysis.
We were warned some time ago that when the average global temperature (admittedly, a difficult thing to measure) rose by more than 1.5 degrees, there would be hell to pay. A growing body of evidence it cited that we have now crossed that line and sure enough, the troubles have begun. The scale is terrible, the predictability very uneven. A lot of people are experiencing the results firsthand.
Not long ago, the island of Maui was mostly destroyed by epic wildfires. Hurricanes now regularly come earlier than ever in the year and grow to monster size and intensity almost overnight. California has been on fire on and off for years now, fanned by years of drought and near hurricane force winds. Other parts of California and other states are frequently flooded by torrential rains. Much of Appalachia was recently destroyed by Tropical Storm Helene. Not many foresaw a tropical storm deep in the mountains, but here we are, with a new reality and a new set of risks.
Still other areas around the world are increasingly flooded by rising seas – some island nations expect to no longer exist in just a few years. Ice is melting at the poles, in Greenland, and elsewhere at rates way beyond any early predictions.
Weather is not the same thing as climate, but weather is the visible expression of climate change. The patterns are undeniable and increasing in both intensity and frequency.
What Responsibilities are Important in All This?
Let’s take a look at three levels of responsibility: individual, governmental, and insurance companies. Everyone owns a piece of this pie.
Individual: We all now live in places that could be hit by epic weather related risks. That means all of us are responsible for being ready to evacuate on short notice, having our affairs in order, having enough supplies to get by in isolation for a few days, and deciding to leave, if necessary, in a timely manner (many wait too late and are stranded or perish). Think about if you had to evacuate now, how fast could you do that and what would you take with you? Everything from pets to prescriptions have to be worked into individual plans.
Government: There are clear responsibilities at every level of government to coordinate and disseminate clear and timely guidance, to prepare in advance for disasters, to run rescue and prevention efforts, and to incorporate lessons learned from each disaster. Government is the continuity that keeps everything else connected and communicated. Failures here hurt deeply. Having said all that, it has to be acknowledged that there will be times when even the best efforts will be overwhelmed by nature. The damage from Helene in the mountains and the ongoing California fires are examples of overwhelming power of nature to inflict. The scale is simply too large to have been contained.
Insurance Companies: This is an area of singular complexity and impact. Overall, it is a failure today, on several counts. Let’s take a more detailed look into this one.
Insurance
This topic is an interesting mix of motives, capacities, and potential solutions. Like most consumers, I am not a fan of the insurance industry. I have long felt health insurance is a fraud – it only adds to cost and provides no valuable service – not better or faster health care – just more cost and bureaucracy, and often denials of service. A national health care plan is the only health insurance option that makes sense as a baseline. Every other advanced country except the US figured this out long ago.
But property and automotive insurance are different. In this case, the insurance actually provides value, in the form of direct reimbursement for loss. Whether it is private sector insurance, Federal government flood insurance, or some other source, such insurance is essential.
Once again, I have no love for insurance companies, but they are businesses and so must be financially sound to stay alive. There are certainly abuses of denying coverage to individual cases, or not paying out losses, but it is hard to blame companies for simply giving up coverage of certain areas in places like Florida and California that are sure to suffer significant damages over and over. Companies are either abandoning these areas or charging huge increases in coverage rates. We recently met a couple with a million dollar house in Florida they hoped to sell so they could move into our area, but the house is in an area deemed uninsurable. Makes it tough to sell a home.
Surely there are solutions that involve partnerships between companies and government. For example, perhaps a state could establish that a company wishing to sell insurance anywhere in a state must offer coverage everywhere in that state. In return for that coverage, the government would offer reimbursement or cover the losses directly beyond certain levels of claims. The same could be done at regional and federal levels.
The only real alternatives seem to be more universal government provided insurance or no insurance. The former seems to me likely to be an expensive and bureaucratic offering, the latter an unacceptable risk. Some combination that offers a mix of coverage seems useful and doable without excessive costs or profits.
Three Final Observations
One, these terrible emergencies remind us that heroes are all around us and that community is a powerful sense of connection. Places where these things have happened are full of stories about people risking their lives to serve others and communities pulling together like large families. It warms the heart to know this part of human nature is large and real.
Two, there is an opposite dark side, unfortunately. As this is being written, some of the fire ravaged areas of California are being further ravaged by looters. This is about as low as one can get for human conduct. People who have, in some cases, lost almost everything are hit again with greed on a personal level. For me, it would be hard to imagine a sentence too long for someone committing these crimes. If they got shot in the capture, so be it. I would not grieve their loss or injury.
Three, know that the losses are more than the obvious. I read a fine article last week, noting that people often say if you live through something like the California fire, it is tempting for others to say about your property loss that it involved only “things.” But as the article points out, if you lose all your “things,” the 3D “scrapbook of your life” is bared. All those physical mementos are gone, and that is a real thing to acknowledge.
Another comment, this one from a Congressperson, is that the damage goes well beyond where the physical elements of damage reside. She noted that her district is a low-incomes community not far from the fires. Few people in this community have lost things to the fire, but many worked in those high end – homes and business that were burned. Now these people in the poorer community have no jobs.
Stay Warm and Stay Alert
That’s it for this week. Take care. Stay warm in this winter weather that has so many of us in its grip. And think about what you would do when a disaster like we discussed today hits you. Are you as ready as can be.
By the time you read next week’s blog, a new US administration will be in power. Going to quite a week. Only 21 months and a few days until Midterm elections.
Bill Clontz
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