flood

The bright side of flood insurance

by Michelle Minton on January 22, 2010 · 1 comment

in Insurance

Some Michigan residents are boiling mad that their mortgage lenders are forcing them to purchase flood insurance. The notifications were sent out to residents as a result of FEMA’s adoption of updated flood maps. There is, however, good news here.

Consumers have options. FEMA is certainly not infallible. The maps may not be accurate (I know it’s hard to believe) and homeowners can hire their own property surveyors to determine if they are in a floodplain and how likely it is that a flood will occur on their property. With these actions they may be able to avoid the mandatory purchase of flood insurance or at least they can reduce the cost by giving details about the risk of flood (as I wrote in an earlier blog post insurers can charge less when they are more certain of the risks). Additionally, the more residents who assess the risks associated with their property provide more thorough details for their insurance companies which means that these companies can come closer to risk-based-rates for all of their customers and potentially charge less for everyone as the result of higher profits.

In addition, some consumers who have their property surveyed might find out that they are not in a flood zone though they thought they were and had already purchased flood insurance–in which case they can have their premiums refunded from the previous and current year.

On the flip side, some residents who have their properties surveyed might just find out that they are indeed in a flood plain and they may have to purchase flood insurance. But how “bad” is it really when people are forced to calculate and prepare for a hazard that is very likely to occur?

Obama Speech to the UN: The Data

by Iain Murray on September 22, 2009 · 2 comments

in Energy, Environment, Global Warming, International, Regulation

Myron has already pointed out how most of what the President claimed were the threats from global warming are exaggerated. Here’s the data to back that up.

“…[T]he threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing.” Reality: global mean temperatures increased slightly from 1977 to 2000. Temperatures have been flat since then.

“Rising sea levels threaten every coastline.” Reality: sea levels have been rising on and off since the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago. The rate of sea level rise has not increased in recent decades over the nineteenth and twentieth century average.

“More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent.” Reality: there is no upward global trend in storms or floods.

“More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict in places where hunger and conflict already thrive.” Reality: there is no upward global trend in major droughts. Reversals in large-scale cycles have meant that the southward march of the Sahara Desert into the Sahel has been reversed in recent years and the Sahara is now shrinking.

“On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees.” Reality: some Pacific islanders may want to emigrate to New Zealand or Australia and are claiming that their islands are disappearing as the reason, but shrinkage has been minimal in recent decades because sea level rise has been minimal.

Charts from SPPI’s Monthly CO2 Reports and from Indur Goklany, “Death and Death Rates Due to Extreme Weather Events: Global and U.S. Trends, 1900–2006,” 2007.