Friday, April 4, 2008

Lloyd's warns of a lack of natural disasters

NO! No! No! Noo00!.
That's the howl coming from Allstate, who, in this post "Allstate blames global warming for rate hike ", when asked why they were asking for a 42% premium hike in Florida, said "Global Warming"*.

We had the Lloyd's story yesterday: Lloyd's of London profit up after few catastrophes, but The Guardian tips us to potential tragedy:
Lloyd's of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.
That's the second Guardian headline that caught my eye today, a third would make 'em reader/RSS worthy.

*Okay, the exact quote was:
"It's my professional opinion and others at Allstate, it appears that the increase in sea surface temperatures and the near term effect of hurricanes is something that is real and is a need that we need to consider for the protection of our insurers," said Allstate Floridian's Ryan Michel.
which appears to be in direct conflict with this story from NPR:

The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat
Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them....MORE
In the meantime, when snot-nosed kids ask me "Why do you write like a 'tard?" I shall respond, "Global Warming".