Insurer warns of global warming catastrophe

Reuters reports:

Insurance giant Swiss Re warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threaten to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.

In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs of such disasters threatened to double to $150 billion a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30-40 billion in claims.

“There is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such a point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time,” Swiss Re said. “The human race can lead itself into this climatic catastrophe -- or it can avert it.”

Yet more evidence that climate change deserves serious consideration on the national and global agenda. Where are the policy responses? Hell, where is the public debate over what this all means?