I actually stopped subscribing some time ago, but this would be enough to justify it all over again. Over at the magazine Popular Science, they’ve taken to shaming volunteers on Wikipedia if they don’t “toe the line” on climate change. First, what Wikipedia says about volunteer contributions, bolding mine:
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism. Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or, if they choose to, with their real identity.
Hold that thought…
Now look what Popular Science’s Dan Nosowitz has written:
“Meet The Climate Change Denier Who Became The Voice Of Hurricane Sandy On Wikipedia”
But for days, the internet’s most authoritative article on a major tropical storm system in 2012 was written by a man with no meteorological training who thinks climate change is unproven and fought to remove any mention of it.
Nosowitz’ bio on PopSci:
Dan Nosowitz is the assistant editor for PopSci.com. He has previously written for Fast Company, SmartPlanet, and Splitsider, and got his start at the gadget blog Gizmodo. He is also the founder and editorial director of Oh Em Gee., a pop culture criticism collective based in Montreal. Dan holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from McGill University. You can follow him on Twitter.Pot, kettle, and all that.
Maybe he’ll provide some balance to the mess that climate change is on Wikipedia by telling his readers about the abuses and suspension of climate activist William Connolley on Wikipedia.
Oh, and where the hell is my flying car?
h/t to Verity Jones
@James Baldwin Schrumpf says:
November 4, 2012 at 9:31 am
Thanks, it does answer my questions
People still read those magazines? They were great growing up, but today they’re mostly like what ATARI and AMIGA magazines became or otherwise would’ve been if they hadn’t gone tits up.
Dan probvably keeps a photo of Chris Mooney, another non-scientist, up next to his mirror.
Lucy Skywalker says:
November 3, 2012 at 4:32 pm
I would love to contribute. If you no longer have my email (it is still the same), perhaps the mods would be kind enough to provide it for you. Some guidelines as to how best to format this would be appreciated.
It seems that someone must be funding these fellows that monitor WP full time. I have very little time to spend on WUWT? as providing for my family consumes the majority of my time. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone were to fund us so that we could battle the Connellys of the world without having to keep a regular job as well? We could tire them out, I’m sure. More evidence that it is the alarmists who are better enabled than skeptics. If it were a level playing field, ……..
u say:
“Since Insurance Companies are tightly regulated, “exorbitant” rates probably reflect the REAL RISK IN EACH CASE”
June 2012: Yale Forum on Climate Change: Limited Coverage: Climate Change and the Insurance Industry
***MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel now sits on the boards of two insurers, Bunker Hill and Homesite…
***It may come as a surprise to many, but some Americans may already be beginning to pay for climate change through insurance, as the top-level reinsurance costs filter down to premiums.
In an interview with The Yale Forum, John Seo, who founded a pioneering hedge fund, Fermat Capital Management specializing in this area, explained the chain of influence and costs:
“Whether or not a state allows an insurer to acknowledge climate change in their insurance premiums, climate change can still impact insurance premiums indirectly via the cost of reinsurance. Insurers are allowed to integrate the cost of reinsurance in their rate filings. If reinsurers price-in climate change, that is reflected in the premiums they charge insurance companies. Such elevated reinsurance premiums, if they are persistent, are subsequently integrated into insurance premiums…
http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/06/limited-coverage-climate-change-and-the-insurance-industry/
18 Oct: NoTricksZone: P. Gosselin: 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…
http://notrickszone.com/2012/10/18/spiegel-slams-munich-re-distortions-of-weather-extremes-are-suspicious-and-irresponsible-hype/
30 April: NoTricksZone: P. Gosselin: German Insurance Industry Fanning The Fears Of “Climate Change” – Takes Over At The IPCC To Cash In
Big Insurance penetrates the IPCC
You’ve got to wonder when scientists like Stefan Rahmstorf work hand in hand with the reinsurance industry, writing doomsday reports that help fatten the bottom line. Hartmut Grassl, a climate alarmist, is also connected to Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer.
Reader DirkH points out how the Munich Re has at least two more agents at the IPCC. Working Group II AR5 Writing Teams, Chapter 10 — Key economic sectors and services, Eberhard Faust, Munich Reinsurance Company and an excerpt from a report from Dr Sandra Schuster, meteorologist with Munich Re, Sydney, who has just been appointed as a Lead Author (WG2) for IPCC AR5…
http://notrickszone.com/2012/04/30/german-insurance-industry-fanning-the-fears-of-climate-change-buying-up-the-science-to-cash-i/
Wikipedia: Hubert Lamb
Climatic Research Unit
In 1971 Lamb decided to base his pioneering research at a university, and he became the first Director of the Climatic Research Unit established in 1972 in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. In 1973 and 1975 he arranged for two international conferences which were hosted in Norwich. At first his view was that global cooling would lead within 10,000 years to a future ice age and he was known as “the ice man”, but over a period including the UK’s exceptional drought and heat wave of 1975–76 he changed to predicting that global warming could have serious effects within a century. His warnings of damage to agriculture, ice caps melting, and cities being flooded caught widespread attention and helped to shape public opinion. He gained the unit sponsorship from ***seven major insurance companies, who wanted to make use of the research of the unit when making their own studies of the implications of climate change for insurance against storm and flood damage…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Lamb
**”seven leading insurance companies” according to Michael Sanderson’s book, The History of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, page 285
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=50HjSi5o8J0C&pg=PA285#v=onepage&q=insurance&f=false
Wikipedia: Climatic Research Unit
The CRU was founded in 1971 as part of the university’s School of Environmental Sciences. The establishment of the Unit owed much to the support of Sir Graham Sutton, a former Director-General of the Meteorological Office, Lord Solly Zuckerman, an adviser to the University, and Professors Keith Clayton and Brian Funnel, Deans of the School of Environmental Sciences in 1971 and 1972. Initial sponsors included British Petroleum, the Nuffield Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell. The Rockefeller Foundation was another early benefactor, and the Wolfson Foundation gave the Unit its current building in 1986. Since the second half of the 1970s the Unit has also received funding through a series of contracts with the United States Department of Energy to support the work of those involved in climate reconstruction and analysis of the effects on climate of greenhouse gas emissions…
He (Lamb) was then known as the “ice man” for his prediction of global cooling and a coming ice age but, following the UK’s exceptionally hot summer of 1976, he switched to predicting a more imminent global warming. The possibility of major weather changes and flooding attracted attention to the unit and sponsorship by major insurance companies wanting to mitigate their potential losses…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit
2010: RogerPielkeJr Blog:
Reinsurance Underwriters and Syndicates includes the Catlin Group, which funded the polar publicity stunt (Catlin Expedition) last year and which is deep into carbon credits and “climate change insurance.” Several of these entities have a clear vested interest in the alarmism perpetrated by the IPCC and some of the big players among climate science…
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/judy-curry-on-credibility-in-climate.html
Dec 2008: Uni of East Anglia: Norwich Union (Insurance) sponsors new university chair
Norwich Union and The University of East Anglia (UEA) have announced a new chair within the University’s School of Computing Sciences. The appointment, which is sponsored by the insurer, part of Aviva, will be the Aviva Chair in Insurance Statistics.
The initiative is designed to explore in depth the statistical nature of risk which is fundamental to the insurance business. It is at the core of calculating a customer’s individual insurance premium, for example in determining the flood risk of a home or the theft risk of a car…
The new arrangement will strengthen existing relationships between Norwich Union and the University, and will help to further advance the statistical capability within the business. The initial agreement is for three years…
Professor Vic Rayward-Smith, Head of the University’s School of Computing Sciences, says: “We are delighted to receive this sponsorship. The funding of this chair will strengthen further the already strong relationship between two of Norwich’s most important organisations.
“Statistical techniques are a major research area within the School and for many years, we have worked with Norwich Union helping them to analyse their own customer databases and to develop accurate pricing and marketing strategies.
http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2008/dec/Norwich+Union+sponsors+new+university+chair+
May 2003: Uni of East Anglia: Norwich Union signs up WeatherQuest
The market for insurance weather services sees a new player this month, as Norwich Union sign up WeatherQuest to provide their weather claims validation information and weather forecast support services.
WeatherQuest, with its headquarters at the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) School of Environmental Sciences, has been providing a pilot service to Norwich Union for the past six months, and following a successful review has now been signed up for a three-year service.
“We’re delighted to be working with Norwich Union,” said WeatherQuest Managing Director, Jim Bacon. “Our experience is that over 30 per cent of weather related insurance claims are not backed up by the weather records, so we believe we’re helping Norwich Union save money as well as providing them with the daily, up to date information they need…
With weather and climate remaining high on insurance agendas, WeatherQuest benefits from close links with UEA’s internationally renowned climate expertise, with both the Climatic Research Unit and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research also being based in UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences.
http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2003/may/Norwich+Union+signs+up+WeatherQuest
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Project Duration: April 2001 to May 2003
Contact: Prof. J. Palutokof
Climatic Research Unit
The work undertaken in this project has been extremely limited by data availability.
•HadRM3H data were not made available until April 2002 (12 months into the project timetable) due to delays in the launch of the UKCIP02 scenarios.
•HadAM3H data are still incomplete.
•Access to insurance claims data has proven problematic. This is primarily due to the fragmented nature of the Aviva group (Norwich Union, Commercial Union and General Accident), a consequence of several large mergers. However, Royal Sun Alliance has provided claims data for five storms…
There is broad scope for further work:
includes:
The insurance industry in particular would benefit from information regarding windstorm activity for earlier future time slices than the 2080s available currently for HadAM3H and HadRM3H e.g., for the 2020s and 2050s.
Socio-economic scenarios designed specifically for the insurance and forestry industries, taking into account factors such as future building stock distribution, insurance coverage and forest cover, could improve the vulnerability predictions for the future.
http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/content/final-project-overview-15
2 Nov: ScienceNews: Janet Raloff: Extremely Bad Weather
Studies start linking climate change to current events
In the wake of such events, everyone from insurance companies to Congress, homeowners and government agencies has been asking whether global warming might have played some role. And scientists have been working on ways to figure out just how much of this weird weather has come from natural variability, and how much might be driven by warming from greenhouse gases.
“The breaking of records is the best indication that we’re outside the normal range of simply weather,” argues Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. Under normal variability, regions should experience the same number of high and low temperature records in any given year or decade, on average. “But we did some statistics on the first six months of this year,” he says, “and there were around nine times as many records being broken on the high side as there were on the cold side.”…
***In the Atlantic, hurricane power has more than doubled since the 1980s, (Kerry) Emanuel has found. This change tracks the uptick in sea-surface temperatures there over the last 30 years, which he says “is almost entirely due to greenhouse gases.”
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/346143/description/Extremely_Bad_Weather
Sep: 2011: Bloomberg/Businessweek: Brendan Greeley: The God Clause and the Reinsurance Industry
(page 4)To that end, Swiss Re has started speaking about climate risk, not climate change. That the climate is changing has been established in the eyes of the industry…
More recently, the company has been working with McKinsey & Co., the European Commission, and several environmental groups to develop a methodology it calls the “economics of climate adaptation,” a way to encourage city planners to build in a way that will be insurable in the future. A study of the U.K. port of Hull looks at potential losses by 2030 under several different climate scenarios. Even under the most extreme, losses were expected to grow by $17 million due to climate change and by $23 million due to economic growth…
(page 5)The God clause includes less each year because every loss event—every catastrophe—reminds them of the hubris of thinking God doesn’t have any surprises left…
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-god-clause-and-the-reinsurance-industry-09012011.html
(undated, most recent date mentioned 1993)Greenpeace: SWISS REINSURANCE COMPANY BLAMES WINDSTORM LOSSES ON GLOBAL WARMING
“There is a significant body of scientific evidence indicating that last year’s record insured loss from natural catastrophes was not a random occurrence. Instead it may be the result of climatic changes that will enormously expand the liability of the property-casualty industry. …in the light of the magnitude of these losses, it would be prudent for the property/casualty industry to act is if that theory (global warming) is correct…
A pamphlet essay by its General Manager, published this month, concludes that the potential losses as a result of human-enhancement of the greenhouse effect are huge, and that the industry would be advised to assume that global warming is real. ..
As evidence, he cites the 0.6 to 0.7 oC increase in global average temperature over the last 150 years, and the 15 percent increase in the area of Pacific waters where the surface temperature exceeds 26 oC (the temperature above which tropical cyclones can form). (H. R. Kaufmann, Storm damage insurance – Quo Vadis?” Swiss Re, November 1990)…
http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/database/records/zgpz0678.html
2004: The Economist: Awful weather we’re having
Why climate change could mean higher insurance premiums
Swiss Re has already plotted out half a million possible storms in North America and the Caribbean alone…
Reinsurance prices are normally calculated on the basis of losses in the past five to ten years, according to Mr Berz at Munich Re, so if warming trends accelerate, price increases could follow with a slight lag…
Climate change could also increase demand for catastrophe (“cat”) bonds…
Such instruments are getting more popular, with hedge funds among the most eager investors: cat-bond issues totalled $1.7 billion in 2003, up 42% from 2002, according to Guy Carpenter, a reinsurance brokerage firm. Cat bonds for other big risks such as flooding could be introduced if climate change creates the need, according to Mark Hvidsten of Willis, an insurance broker…
http://www.economist.com/node/3254119
APOLOGIES.
MY HUGE REINSURANCE COMMENT WAS IN RESPONSE TO STEAMBOAT JACK.
Ric Werme says:
November 4, 2012 at 3:14 pm
My error, I guess. But it’s weird: I have the distinct impression of the AAAS being identified in the inside portion. Is this or was this Society aligned with the AAAS?
Hmmm. Goes to show. Never take your memory for accurate. As if I didn’t already know that ….
On another note, I used to be subscribed to New Scientist, the British version. I found the two mags together an interesting study in cultural character. NS is anti-American (whatever is coming out of America is to be initially distrusted as a product of America-first and big business; Britain has never recovered from its loss of Empire) and anti-technological, in that all technology is suspect for its probable environmental harm. SN I found, in comparison, to be straight-out pro-technology, in that the items were being evaluated for the purposes for which they were designed, not on their possible side-effects. (Nationality had no part in the subject, though of course English-speaking, American subjects received more coverage).
Which is how things should be. First:, does it work? Second, what are the collateral effects? Third , how can we mitigate undesired collateral effects so we can receive the benefits of what it does? An attitude of American culture that has dragged the rest of the world kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Distrust keeps you back, enthusiasm drives you forward, and being prudent keeps you safe. Admittedly humans are not so good on the third part.
I’ve read Popular Science since 1959 and all through the years when Von Braun was a contributor, but have stopped reading it in the past decade. I jokingly refer to it as “Popular Seance.” When you can’t tell the advertisements from the feature articles, something has come loose!
@EricDailey
Watch now on Infowars with Alex Jones! /sarc
Pat,
For what it is worth, Insurance companies took a big hit on 9/11 when the twin towers toppled. Insurance coverage for small businesses was cut left and right. I still insure through an out of state company who has to use Lloyds of London as the only game on earth carrying insurance on my type of business. (lots of fun explaining to the state why I can’t insure with an instate company) I had other friends in business frantically asking who I used as their coverage was not renewed after 9/11.
Insurance companies are also very good at EXCLUDING just what you actually want to cover. For example bites by pit bull dogs is no longer covered in most homeowner policies although other breeds are.
Give an English major a little power, and they go *bonkers*.