How to Avoid a $76 Billion Ecological Disaster Bill in 2021
2020 was the fifth-costliest year for the insurance industry
For many people, 2021 will be devoted to recovering from 2020. Last year was an expensive one, not only due to the ravages of Covid-19 but because of ecological disasters that reached record highs in terms of financial cost due to worsening climate change. In 2020, the insurance industry tallied $83 billion in losses worldwide due to ecological and human-made disasters, according to preliminary data from Swiss Re, the world’s largest insurance company. That makes it the fifth-costliest year since 1970.
Ecological disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires caused $76 billion of the total losses, according to the company. A record number of severe thunderstorms and wildfires in the United States made up the lion’s share of those losses. Also, 30 tropical storms or hurricanes passed through the Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard of the United States. And over 800 wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington burned 6 billion acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, and resulted in billions of dollars in insurance claims.
”As with Covid-19, climate change will be a huge test of global resilience,” Jerome Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re Group’s chief economist, said in a press release. “But while Covid-19 has an expiry date, climate change does not, and failure to ‘green’ the global economic recovery now will increase costs for society in future.”
The company warns that climate change will continue to exacerbate ecological disasters like severe thunderstorms, hurricane-induced flooding, and wildfires. It’s further proof — if you needed any more — that now is the time to reorient our relationship to ecological disasters by learning to prepare for and live alongside them, not just rebuild in the same way every time they strike.
And there are a lot of people already doing just that. Californians, for example, are learning to use controlled burns to reduce fuel for wildfires. It’s a practice that Indigenous people in the state have been using for thousands of years. Also in California, people are using straw bale to insulate the walls of their homes because of its superior fire resistance. Black people throughout the Gulf Coast, survivors of climate catastrophes like hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, have become innovators in climate resiliency: They’re planting community gardens to improve food access, creating new evacuation infrastructure to prioritize marginalized communities, and learning how to put on hazmat suits in case they have to return to their homes after an ecological disaster.
Scientists have warned of the potential for a climate crisis for decades. Since the 1990s, people have increasingly experienced the firsthand impacts of climate change — more frequent and more intense hurricanes, wildfires, and sea-level rise, to name a few. Last year, a pandemic killed over a million people worldwide and showed us how ill-prepared we are to protect global public health in the face of ecological ruin. This year, it’s time to learn from those who have survived the climate crisis, not only by continuing to sound the alarm bells but by preparing for and adapting to what’s to come.
