The weather and shifting climate

[mdgv2]

Aug 14, 2023 3:35:38 GMT -5 Haighus said:

The wildfires in Hawaii keep going, absolutely brutal.

I presume the insurance companies will wiggle out of paying anything for anyone who could afford home insurance?

From a UK perspective (the only one I have)….possibly? 

It will vary policy to policy. And, it will depends on whether the Insurance Companies can point the finger elsewhere, with a view to recovering their own pay outs. If not, they should have reinsurance of their own, essentially a policy to protect their own position, paid for just as we pay for our own policies.

So for instance, if a Government Department could be shown to be remiss in its duties, such as I dunno, failing to clear away brush and detritus, and in failing to do so enabled the fire to spread? There’d be some chance the Insurers could recover at least some of their cost.

From my car insurance days, I dealt with Non-Fault accidents, typically where our insured was rear ended, or hit whilst parked. Those situations where the other party or parties would have a hard time pinning it on our driver. This included concertina crashes, where our insured was at the front. No matter which way you butter it, the chances of them being At Fault are miniscule. Simply ask them “how many shunts do you remember feeling” and work from there. If there were three vehicles, and we felt one shunt? Get the rearmost to cough up, and they can then go argue the toss with the middle car all they want.

Fun fact? It was pursuing a Hit Whilst Parked case my management were going to write off that landed me my current job. In short? Driver had veered off the road, through a garden wall, totalled two cars parked on a drive and gone through into the house’s front room. The driver was pleading “Agony Of Moment”, claiming they veered in that way because someone was about to throw, or had thrown, a brick at their vehicle. If so? Non-fault, as their extraordinary action was the result of extraordinary circumstances. Except….the Police report named the alleged Brick Thrower….who wasn’t interviewed. But the driver was, and when asked “did you aim your vehicle at That Person” they only replied “no comment”. Which meant the Agony Of Moment had no evidence to support it. Quick phone call to point that out to their insurer, one capitulation and various phone calls to the other insurers involved (building insurer, home content insurer, other car on the drive insurer) and it all got resolved. And why? Because I have a knack for spotting what’s not there. In my fraud investigation career, that’s expended to include spotting when someone is very carefully trying not to say something, and needling it out of them.

[easye]

Big news on the future of climate based litigation right here:

www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/us/montana-kids-win-climate-trial/index.html

Montana judge hands young plaintiffs significant victory in landmark climate trial

A Montana judge handed a significant victory on Monday to more than a dozen young plaintiffs in the nation’s first constitutional climate trial, as extreme weather becomes more deadly and scientists warn the climate crisis is eroding our environment and natural resources.

In a case that could have legal reverberations for other climate litigation, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Montana’s continued development of fossil fuels violates a clause in its state constitution that guarantees its citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Montana is one of several states that have explicit environmental guarantees written into their state constitutions.

While Seeley’s ruling won’t prevent mining or burning fossil fuels in the state, it will reverse a recently passed state law that prohibits state agencies from considering planet-warming pollution when permitting fossil fuel projects.

It is also a landmark win for young climate advocates who are turning more to the courts for judgments on the causes and impacts of the climate crisis.

[Disciple of Fate]

As nice as this mostly non-committal ruling is, I wonder ehat chance it has once it gets appealed up higher in the system.

[pacific]

Aug 14, 2023 4:25:26 GMT -5 mdgv2 said:

Aug 14, 2023 3:35:38 GMT -5 Haighus said:

The wildfires in Hawaii keep going, absolutely brutal.

I presume the insurance companies will wiggle out of paying anything for anyone who could afford home insurance?

Fun fact? It was pursuing a Hit Whilst Parked case my management were going to write off that landed me my current job. In short? Driver had veered off the road, through a garden wall, totalled two cars parked on a drive and gone through into the house’s front room. 

Jesus H Christ, what were they driving?!

[mdgv2]

You’re talking 12ish years ago, so I can’t remember! Wasn’t a tank or anything. But even a Fiesta at sufficient speed makes a fairly handy battering ram against stationary targets I guess.

[herzlos]

I'm hearing social media commentary that tourists were more or less climbing over corpses and debris in Hawaii to go swimming on the beaches, so I think we're completely doomed from the perspective of getting anyone to care about something so abstract as extinction in a few years time.

[bobtheinquisitor]

I never thought I would have to prepare for a hurricane in Southern California, yet here we are.

[skyth]

Winds aren't going to be any worse than the Santa Anna's they get normally.

[bobtheinquisitor]

Aug 19, 2023 20:11:37 GMT -5 skyth said:

Winds aren't going to be any worse than the Santa Anna's they get normally.

Maybe. Those do some damage, anyway. But all the desert areas have flash flood warnings, and I hear they recommend parts of San Bernardino to evacuate. That’s worse than the yearly winds.

[Haighus]

Aug 19, 2023 19:53:41 GMT -5 bobtheinquisitor said:

I never thought I would have to prepare for a hurricane in Southern California, yet here we are.

My understanding is that San Diego gets hit hard every 60 years or so (which is probably going to get more frequent).

The floods in 1916 were massively destructive.

[mdgv2]

Got a couple of friends over in Texas for a holiday. They’re in an extreme heat warning area, and expect the Pantera open air gig will be cancelled.

[adurot]

Acquaintance on another forum says their state fair trip today was canceled in Idaho because of it.

[bobtheinquisitor]

In OC we are getting an amount of rain and wind I would classify as “fun”. Some of our plants were destroyed but other than that no damage. The rain is heavy and warm like in Hawaii.

[easye]

The "Jewish Space Laser" conspiracy theorists are all over the Maui wildfires.

Anything but climate change and aerial power lines! 

[adurot]

It’s from a serial liar on X, who posts outright lies designed to hit the right’s outrage switches and then has his account monetized. In this case showing a photo of a transformer explosion from I forget where, that has a lens flare streaking out one side of it, and claiming it’s where the fires started in Maui.