Climate Talks: 2005 Weather Disasters Most Costly Ever

Residents of Biloxi, Mississippi view family photos saved from Hurricane Katrina, which swept away their home August 29, leaving endless mounds of debris. Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless. (Photo by George Armstrong courtesy FEMA) This compares with 2004, the previous most costly year, when economic losses totalled around US$145 billion and the insured losses reached about US$45 billion. “There is a powerful indication from these figures that we are moving from predictions of the likely impacts of climate change to proof that it is already fully underway," said Thomas Loster, chief executive of the Munich Re Foundation and a member of the Finance Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Above all, these are humanitarian tragedies and show us that, as a result of our impacts on the climate, we are making people and communities everywhere more vulnerable to weather-related natural disasters,” he said. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2005/2005-12-07-01.asp

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