2004 4th-Warmest Year, All-Time Record For Nat. Disaster Insurance Payouts

[hatrack]

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has announced that 2004 is expected to be the fourth warmest year worldwide since records began. And the insurance industry says this year will face unprecedented claims for damage from weather-related disasters.

Both sets of figures were released as ministers from 180 countries heard a message from the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging an end to doubts and delays on action to combat climate change. The WMO reported that the average temperature of the world's surface for 2004 was expected to be 0.44C higher than the mean for the period 1961-1990, making it the fourth hottest year since 1861, just behind 2003, but still well below the all-time record year of 1998.

And this year has been the most expensive ever for the insurance industry in terms of payouts for damage from natural disasters such as hurricanes and typhoons. According to preliminary figures compiled by the leading re-insurer Munich Re, insured damage for the first 10 months of 2004 amounted to $35bn, with the United States facing the biggest bill of $26bn. Overall economic losses, the majority of which were uninsured, are expected to be about $90bn.

EDIT

The report says the insurance industry is also worried that new climate-related risks may be emerging, such as Hurricane Catarina, which hit southern Brazil earlier this year. It developed in the south Atlantic where the sea temperatures are normally too low for tropical cyclones to form."

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4100049.stm

[EC]

1. In mostly Red States

I still say, God is mad at them...