Spiegel Slams Munich RE: Distortions Of Weather Extremes Are “Suspicious” And “Irresponsible Hype”

Climate-change bilking by Big Insurance is slowly but surely being exposed by the media. The noose around the climate change scam is tightening.

Reinsurers are cashing in by spreading dubious fears of weather extremes. Photo source: Tomas Castelazo, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version.

Spiegel reporter Axel Bojanowski has a piece today at the online Der Spiegel: Scientists reprehend climate warnings made by insurance companies.

We know that Big Insurance is drooling over the fat profits to be made from jacked up premiums that policyholders are being asked to cough up because of “increasing weather-related extremes.” Spiegel introduces its piece with:

The Münchener Rückversicherung (Munich RE) claims to have found the first proof that man-made climate change is triggering more and more weather catastrophes in North America. Scientists are outraged.”

Here the scientists are not outraged about the man-made weather catastrophes. They are outraged by the outrageous claims now being made by reinsurers like Munich RE, which underwrites insurance companies against extreme payouts for weather-related damages. The Munich RE is now telling its clients worldwide that it has found the “first footprint” of man-made climate change in North America.

The Munich RE is convinced that it has enough data to conclude that the frequency of weather extremes has increased in North America, a market where it collects half of its premiums. Its press release claims:

Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America. The study shows a nearly quintupled number of weather-related loss events in North America for the past three decades, compared with an increase factor of 4 in Asia, 2.5 in Africa, 2 in Europe and 1.5 in South America.”

Munich RE director of geo-research Peter Hoppe adds: “Such a chain of evidence for the impact of climate change is unprecedented.”

That means profits – if the policyholders believe it. Spiegel quotes Munich RE board of directors member Peter Röder:

With today’s premiums against weather catastrophes in the USA we are “really satisfied,” explained Röder at a press conference in Munich. ‘The expectations for more violent storms have already been factored in.'”

And now the money is flooding into Munich Re coffers and those of other reiensurers, like a tsunami. So what do scientists say about the (money making) claims made by reinsurers like Munich RE? Spiegel quotes Roger Pielke Jr., who wonders (paraphrased): “Where’s the evidence?”

Atmospheric scientist Clifford Mass of the University of Washington in Seattle adds:

Most of the claims make no sense and contradict observations.”

Indeed observations show that there has not been any increase in extreme weather. Spiegel cites a tornado study by Pielke that is slated to appear soon in “Environmental Hazards”. The study shows that tornadoes since 1950 have actually reduced in their destructive power.

Spiegel calls the claims made by the reinsurers, particularly Munich RE, “suspicious”, quoting Pielke and Mass:

‘When the Munich RE thinks it has discovered the first footprint, then it should submit its study to a scientific magazine for review’. Publicizing an alleged discovery via press release “is suspicious”. Atmospheric scientist Mass agrees: “Climate change is serious, but hyping the trend and distorting it is irresponsible.”

Pielke reminds us that the data tells us the opposite; droughts in the USA have gotten shorter and less severe over the last decades.

Bojanowski sums up by quoting the late Austrian climate researcher, Reinhard Böhm: “With this short term gag, which is getting light attention, we should not bury the credibility of science.”

Thanks Spiegel for this insightful piece!

Also read (hat-tip mwhite): The BBC covers for the big swindlers. (Not surprising seeing how the Beeb also covered for a pedophile running loose through its organisation.)

 

11 responses to “Spiegel Slams Munich RE: Distortions Of Weather Extremes Are “Suspicious” And “Irresponsible Hype””

  1. mwhite

    “The climate-change bilking by Big Insurance is slowly but surely being exposed by the media.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19995084

    I don’t think the Beeb will be investigationg any time soon. “UK experiences ‘weirdest’ weather” Infact I’d say they’re helping them out.

  2. Edward.

    http://www.aon.com/reinsurance/analytics/catastrophe_management.jsp

    “Effective catastrophe management is an essential component of an insurer’s risk management program. It demands a comprehensive approach to risk assessment, risk transfer and risk mitigation. Aon Benfield’s catastrophe management team assesses client catastrophe exposure, models loss estimates and, alongside our actuaries and brokers, designs reinsurance programs to efficiently manage net risks. In addition, we leverage that knowledge into improvements in catastrophe reinsurance cost recovery and overall portfolio optimization. Cat Score®, our proprietary web-enabled location-level pricing tool, provides a real time estimate of the full cost of bearing cat risk including cost of capital and cost of reinsurance.
    Catastrophe Modeling Capabilities

    Using significant expertise of all major catastrophe models, our analysts overcome data and model limitations to provide clients with a comprehensive view of their portfolio. The team is in regular dialogue with all major modeling firms, and provides clients with detailed explanations for model changes and interpreting their potential effect on results.”

    Models, its all models and the shell game trick – we are the mugs.

  3. DirkH

    06/05/2012
    “Scientists of PIK and the Institute for Social and Development Studies (IGP), together with the organization for development cooperation Misereor and the Munich Re Foundation, point out key options for linking climate and development policy in a new book now published. ”
    http://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/rio-20-climate-protection-and-poverty-reduction-both-depend-on-a-new-global-treaty?set_language=en

    Munich Re scientists write the IPCC report…
    https://notrickszone.com/2012/04/30/german-insurance-industry-fanning-the-fears-of-climate-change-buying-up-the-science-to-cash-i/

  4. DirkH

    So, the “outrage” of “scientists” described by Bojanowski… well… he doesn’t mention how strong the connections between “scientists” and the Munich Re are… I think he’s one of the two honest guys at Der Spiegel so he probably simply just doesn’t know. Germans are so simple. They think in these factions – Companies on one side, scientists on the other… Maybe they’ll learn to use google some day, with more than one search term. That’ll be a quantum leap for them.

  5. John Shade

    ‘irresponsibility’ – I think that is a word that will be used a lot in coming decades as people try to make sense of how we came to be so alarmed about human impact on climate. Weak personalities combined with speculation and inadequate data sets and theories, combined with strong personalities who can spot personal advantages in scaremongering, are both aspects of irresponsibility in this context.

    1. Edward.

      A rather pertinent observation John, how right you are.

  6. Brian

    The supposed connection to weather extremes, a local feature of weather, comes from climate models. How can Munich RE keep a straight face when those models have wrong even their treatment of the global average temperature of the earth?

    http://www.climatedepot.com/a/17674/Climate-scientist-Dr-Murry-Salby-explains-why-manmade-CO2-does-not-control-climate

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