The insurance industry has been studying the effects of global warming for decades.  As the ones who must eventually foot the bill for the cost of more intense hurricanes, the insurance industry has a particular interest in figuring out how much additional damage global warming can do to their clients. As the EPA notes on its website, “total dollars paid out in natural disaster-related claims since 1990 is 50 percent greater than the losses incurred over the past 40 years combined,” and “[t]here were four times as many natural catastrophes in the 1990s as there were three decades ago.” ^[1]

The insurance industry has reached the conclusion that global warming presents a real and dangerous risk.  Prior to the 2005 Hurricane Season, the Association of British Insurers published a report predicting significant increases in hurricane activity and hurricane-related insurance costs.  Among their conclusions:  

• Global warming will increase all hurricane-related losses in the by 60-65% per year.^[2]
• Global warming will also increase the cost of the most extreme hurricane events by approximately 75%.^[3]
• Global warming could increase insurance premiums by approximately 60%.^[4]

Global warming has been expensive for both the insurance companies and the American public. All 10 of the most expensive catastrophes in history (8 of which were hurricanes) have happened in the last 20 years, and 6 of the 10 were hurricanes that hit during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.^[5] Hurricanes and tornadoes—both of which are affected by global warming—cost more than all other catastrophic insurance losses in the United States combined.^[6]  Hurricane Katrina was by far the most expensive catastrophe in American History, more than doubling the cost of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.^[7]  While the number of catastrophes has been mostly stable for the past few decades, the cost per disaster is rising.^[8]