Today whenever a North Sea storm blows over a tree, floods a basement, or knocks over a bistro table, the media screams global warming climate change – proof that storms today are harder and more frequent, they claim. The reinsurers echo that and jack up their premiums.
Hamburg storm of 1962
Today is the 50th anniversary of the great storm of 1962, which with winds peaking at 200 km/hr hit Hamburg, Germany particularly hard. More than 50 dikes burst as the tide surged and submerged one sixth of the city. Imagine if that heppened today!
In total, the homes of about 60,000 people were destroyed, and the death toll amounted to 347 in Hamburg alone.
The European storm of 1953 – the worst in 500 years
It caused floods that took 2,000 lives. Holland was worst hit. Dikes gave way and flooded towns all across Europe.
Other great European storm disasters (when CO2 was 280 ppm):
17 Feb. 1164: Julian Flood, 20,000 dead.
16 Jan. 1219: 1st Marcellus Flood Reportedly 36,000 dead
14 Dec. 1287: St. Lucia’s Flood 50,000 dead
16 Jan. 1362: 2nd Marcellus Flood 100,000 dead.
1 Nov. 1570: All Saint’s Flood over 20,000 dead
11 Oct. 1634: Burchardi Flood, at least 8,000 dead
24 Dec. 1717: Christmas Flood; 14,000 dead
Read more here from the Munich Re!
I can’t help but imagine the Pontifex Assecurationis Monacensis in the fall of 1634, demanding more witch burning to stop the climate from becoming colder, pointing at his scrolls showing the rise and rise of the number of gold coins his guild has to shell out.
It seems the AGW gravy train in Canada is running out of money.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468
That’s OK. The truth will never go away. Month after month, year after year, decade after decade. The temperature will continue to zig zag its way higher….and climate scientists will continue to tell the world that increased greenhouse gases caused from burning fossil fuels is at the heart of the increase.
Here’s a great clip for anyone looking for facts and the truth:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Video-Chuck-Kutscher-debunking-climate-skeptic-arguments.html
If you’re looking for facts, it is well worth your 50 minutes.
And another good piece of news, I believe that US natural gas has bottomed in price over the past two weeks. Why is that good? Because as natural gas rises over coming months and years, alternative energy will become cheaper to produce than carbon fuels….and THAT…is good news for everyone:).
“The temperature will continue to zig zag its way higher”
I don’t think so.
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/01/global-cooling-coming-archibald-uses-solar-and-surface-data-to-predict-4-9c-fall/
Yep hear’s the USAs National Climatic Data Centres global absolute temperature set since 1880
http://junksciencearchive.com/MSU_Temps/NCDCabs1880.html
Zigzaging away.
I believe its the same data that the Goddard institute of space and science use to produce their global temperature anomaly set.
You might like to see rapid global warming in the Central England Temperature set since 1659.
http://junksciencearchive.com/MSU_Temps/HadCET_an.html
Pierre
First the issue with insurance is the most inexplicable. Although the industry through the Geneva Association, Climate Wise (Foolish), the CII in the UK, Munich and Swiss Re and the same in the US continue to promote the CAGW, when pushed they will admit that adjusted for inflation and growth, there is no trend in severe weathe events. They also inexcusably conflate weather with quake.
In practice, most underwriters are cynical and have to deal with the output of their own models, the “cat” models designed to predict worst case exposure to big events like a hurricane. These are invariably wrong.
Also the price for severe weather cover is a function of the market and has not varied in any discernible way with CAGW alarmisim. Prices went up for two years after Katrina then fell back in 2008/9/10. Cat rates are higher now but that’s off the back of a period of huge losses – weather and non-weather.
Regarding Chris Smith, no idea what he is talking about. The shale gas revolution is driving the US economy and is destroying the illusory economics of wind and solar which were always based on publically funded lies. Ironically, shale is wiping out old inefficient coal. Chris should look at the shocking state of power generation in the UK, Denmark and Germany to see what green fantasy does.
Cheers
Paul