Yonatan Zunger (zunger) wrote,
Yonatan Zunger
zunger

Money and climate change

For once, have some good news. It looks like Katrina was a wake-up call for one group that realized it had a lot to lose from climate change: the insurance industry. And because insurance companies are very big, they have direct influence over the polluters at the same time that they're exposed to risk from the polluters screwing up. (If they were smaller and more specialized, that wouldn't be the case -- an insurer just of power plants wouldn't be nearly as worried about flood risks as a general insurer) So apparently, they're starting to do things about it.

I see this as really promising: It's a case where being very big gives a company a much broader perspective on consequences. (It reminds me of some recent articles comparing HMO's to the VA. Since the VA is stuck with people for their whole lives, in essence, it makes them think a lot more about preventive care, general quality-of-life, and so on, rather than on short-term solutions whose long-term costs they can remove by dumping patients. Sometimes, a company being big can be a very good thing for the world.)
Tags: science
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  • 4 comments

merovingian

October 13 2006, 00:49:18 UTC 9 years ago

It has been my hope that this disaster will be like the Y2K problem was. (A disaster unless people are aware of it and solve it.)

woody77

October 13 2006, 01:11:00 UTC 9 years ago

I just hope that afterwards, people don't become cynical that there "was no problem to start with", because it was solved in time.

merovingian

October 13 2006, 01:25:03 UTC 9 years ago

You know, I think I'll just be relieves it was solved in time.

If.

gleemie

October 13 2006, 05:45:47 UTC 9 years ago

single payer health care!!