WTF?

According to the Washington Post (12/07/2023)..."As the world confronts more extreme weather intensified by climate change, home insurance has become more complicated and costly for many Americans."

"In Florida, Farmers’ move is another blow to the state’s already struggling insurance market, which lawmakers have tried to bolster. It also comes as Florida is bracing for the coming hurricane season, with record-warm Atlantic waters expected to bring above-average activity."

Corporations that make a profit from analysing climate data, using the same models designed by climate scientists, are well aware of climate change and have been responding to it for decades.

The same thing but on a smaller scale has been happening in Australia as well.

Perhaps we need to take the matter more seriously.

Dear WTF?

This is serious. Farmers Insurance has become the
latest insurer to pull out of Florida. Farmers in
Florida are struggling regarding insurance:

http://theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/12/florida-farmers-insurance-climate-crisis

Australia should be concerned. Vibrant regional communities
are not just about farms. They're about inter-dependent
networks of businesses, towns, public infrastructures and people.

The effect of drops in farm income will ripple through
communities. If farms close so will other regional
businesses.

So far developmental planning in Australia has not
adequately considered the potential of climate on liveability
especially in rural communities. This failure exacerbates the
potential of stranded assets.

The NSW Auditor-General in September 2020 reported that the
state government had "not effectively supported or over
seen town water infrastructure planning in regional NSW since
2014."

This contributed during the intense drought of 2019 at
at least 10 regional NSW cities or towns coming close to "zero"
water.

WTF,

Power prices - up. Cost of production - up. Consumer prices - up. Now, insurance premiums - up.

As always, when 'emergencies' are declared; when lies are told about harmless, essential to life carbon dioxide, of which only 4% is produced by humans - follow the money. Who stands to gain? The already wealthy who want to get wealthier, and the politicians, who want back the sort of control that they had over us during the Covid 'emergency'.

Get ready to pay more; to be controlled more - or stop voting for Labor, LNP, and the Greens.

Hello Foxy,

Thanks for your input.

Farmers insurance took bets not just on farms but on motor vehicles, houses and other forms of insurance as well.

Floridians pay an average of $6,000 annually for home insurance — compared with a national average of $1,700.

With about 100,000 existing policies this company is prepared to walk away from $US 600 000 000 in premiums every year.

This is not so much the invisible hand of the market but a slap in the face for those who have held policies for years.

Even charging 3.5 times the national average for a policy Farmers want nothing to do with Florida.

In California, State Farm, Allstate and AIG have stopped taking on new policies as well.

Hello ttbn,

Follow the money you say? - Exactly.

Insurance companies are fleeing Florida, California and Louisiana.

They want to make money for those who already have money and taking bets on these states is a bad bet.

Insurance companies looked at the science generated from oil companies as far back as the 1950s.

They use the same models generated by climate scientists.

They appreciate the effects that rising CO2 levels are having on climate change and are using that knowledge to (as you correctly point out) help the wealthy get wealthier.

Dear WTF?,

American insurance companies certainly have a lot to
answer. Hopefully Australia will do better.
Although not sure if regional communities would agree.

Dear WTF?,

I wonder if in Australia our farmers could learn
from our First Nations people what they need to
do for farm sustainability?

Just a thought.

Hello Foxy,

Interestingly, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law in May this year that aims to hold property insurance companies more accountable for claims-handling practices by requiring more transparency with their processes, increasing fines for violating laws, and giving the state’s regulatory bodies additional powers to investigate allegations of bad behaviour in a market that has been teetering toward collapse for years.

This is the same Ron DeSantis who champions small government and cutting of "red tape".

Truly ironic.

Watchdog organisations and critics said the industry’s lobbyists and political donations have strongly influenced past legislation and lax oversight by state regulators.

Even Republicans are starting to realise that they are just patsies in a game where they thought that they made the rules.

Dear WTF?,

People in Florida are struggling to insure their properties.
Despite repeated efforts by the state legislators and the
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to try to calm the volatile
market that's making things less affordable.

Now back to Australia. The following link explains how
the return of indigenous farming could help regenerate
Australia:

http://wwf.org.au/news/2021/return-of-indigenous-farming-foods-fire-could-help-regenerate-australia/

Hello Foxy,

Somehow I think that more and more farms with embrace Artificial Intelligence as a means to improve production.

Unfortunately, I think that farming, and as a result our food choices, will become much more generic.

I have a fear that Indigenous input into farming will only become a curiosity in the future catering for a niche market only.

Dear WTF?,

I suspect you're probably right.

Still, I guess miracles don't happen over night
and where there's hope - sometimes things do
happen.

" Farmers Insurance has become the
latest insurer to pull out of Florida. "

Not quite. They operate under various names and have withdrawn one of those companies within its group. In effect, they have withdrawn 30% of their business. The other 70% remains in place.

So are they only 30% sure that the dreaded hurricanes are going to destroy their business?

I remember back in the 2000s that a German insurer Munich Re, announced that climate change (it was called global warming back then) would destroy the insurance business. Then the so-called climate pause happened, or more exactly, was finally accepted as a fact, and Munich Re was forced to admit they had no real evidence to justify their original claims.

WTF?

Insurance companies refusing to re-insure homes or up take new policies in U.S. states like Florida, Louisiana and California has nothing to do with an announcement from a German insurer suggesting, 23 years ago, that "climate change ... would destroy the insurance business" .

If fact, U.S. insurance companies are taking the necessary steps to ensure even greater profits.

Their business are far from destroyed and they know it.

They are flexible and profit driven and are not interested in making silly announcements about their business model causing their own destruction.

It's a war on food.

Here's a link that may be of interest:

http://global.insure-our-future.com/german-insurers-are-risking-their-climate-credibility/