Putting a Price Tag on Climate Change 0
Robert Thorson, a geologist, reports that, even as oil and coal tycoons deny that the climates they are a-changing, the insurance industry is taking action. Naturally, it’s an action that will fix nothing and cost the insured, because it’s all about paying for the risk, not about fixing anything.
Moody’s has already been considering the growing risks of sea level rise and flooding into account in rating coastal properties, particularly those created on filled-in wetlands. It’s now going to do the same regarding government-issued bonds (emphasis added; more at the link).
The fiscally conservative and hazards aware part of me is loving this news because it proclaims an obvious truth that we geologists have taught for a half-century. Easy come, easy go. Lowlands created easily by shallow fill will be the first to go under. We’re talking about our national mall in Washington, D.C., much of the Bay Area in San Francisco, the Florida coastal strip, New York, Boston and countless other cities with large areas of low-lying fill within city limits.
