{"id":408403,"date":"2025-10-15T19:12:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=408403"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:12:42","slug":"false-santa-fe-new-mexican-climate-change-isnt-causing-higher-insurance-rates-or-dropped-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=408403","title":{"rendered":"False, Santa Fe New Mexican, Climate Change Isn\u2019t Causing Higher Insurance Rates or Dropped Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ByLinnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A recent article posted at the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/em> (SFNM), \u201cClimate change and the coming real estate calamity<\/a>,\u201d claims that climate change is causing an increase in extreme and damaging weather, which then causes homes to be uninsurable. This is false. There has been no increase in extreme weather alongside the modest warming of the past century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SFNM warns ominously that climate change could cause so much damage to property and so many loan defaults, that the banking system will suffer worse than it did during the 2008 crisis. The cause of this housing calamity: climate change will make \u201cmillions of homes uninsurable or unfinanceable,\u201d because global warming \u201cis causing a rapid increase in extreme weather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As evidence of this alleged scientific claim, the post points to the devastating fires in Los Angeles this past January which destroyed 18,000 homes, and Hurricane Helene, which caused destruction across multiple states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true that weather events like massive wildfires and hurricanes are highly destructive to life and property, it is not true that climate change is making them more severe or frequent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the Los Angeles fires, a man was just arrested<\/a> on arson charges for having intentionally started the blaze. So the origin of the fire was not natural. Local weather conditions did not help any\u2014dry grasses and high Santa Ana winds created a perfect storm for spreading fire quickly. That dryness was not part of any long term trend, as explained in this Climate Realism<\/em> post, here<\/a>, but rather was a reflection of a single natural unseasonably dry winter. Los Angeles has actually seen an increase in precipitation for their winter season over time, this past year was an anomaly that cannot be attributed to long term climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Hurricane Helene was not unprecedented, nor was it part of a long-term trend of worsening hurricanes. Climate Realism<\/em> has covered the hurricane issue many times<\/a>, including several posts on Helene<\/a> alone, which was unquestionably devastating especially for North Carolina. But again, as with those previous analyses, hurricanes have not experienced long-term trend of more frequent or powerful hurricanes that could be attributed to the warming of the past hundred-plus years. Actual data on hurricanes, such as the global tropical cyclone accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) data, presented below by Dr. Ryan Maue<\/a>, show no persistent trend in hurricane severity either globally or in the northern hemisphere. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Line
Figure 1: Last 50-years+ of Global and Northern Hemisphere Accumulated Cyclone Energy: 24 month running sums. Note that the year indicated represents the value of ACE through the previous 24-months for the Northern Hemisphere (bottom line\/gray boxes) and the entire global (top line\/blue boxes). The area in between represents the Southern Hemisphere total ACE. Source: Ryan N. Maue, \u201cGlobal Tropical Cyclone Activity,\u201d Climate Atlas, accessed October 10, 2024, https:\/\/climatlas.com\/tropical\/global_running_ace.png<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Storms and wildfires today are doing more damage and are costing more than storms or wildfires in the past did, not due to worsening storms or wildfires, but rather as a result of population growth in areas prone to hurricanes and wildfires, accompanied by more, more expensive, homes and structures being built there. When there is more to destroy and the property involved is more valuable, when hurricanes strike or wildfires start burning, the destruction is naturally more costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this fact, global weather losses as a percent of GDP have declined over time, with economic growth exceeding losses when adjusted for inflation. (see figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If extreme weather is not getting worse, insurance premiums can\u2019t be increasing as a result of worsening weather, nor can insurer withdrawals from certain neighborhoods be blamed on imaginary more severe storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing populations in naturally disaster prone areas, inflation, and government policies towards insurance companies and subsidies are the real factors driving rising insurance costs and insurers dropping out of some areas. It is convenient for insurance companies to blame climate change, because it is forever just over the horizon and can be used to intimidate customers into not complaining about higher rates. The SFNM business section should not be carrying water for these profiteers. The data simply doesn\u2019t support a climate change connection to the actions of the insurance industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article posted at the\u00a0Santa Fe New Mexican\u00a0(SFNM), \u201cClimate change and the coming real estate calamity,\u201d claims that climate change is causing an increase in extreme and damaging weather, which then causes homes to be uninsurable. This is false. There has been no increase in extreme weather alongside the modest warming of the past century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":408412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Explore how claims linking climate change to rising insurance costs are misleading. Discover the real reasons driving insurance market changes.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Climate Change: Debunking Insurance Rate Myths and Claims","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818514,691818087,691830745,691818104,691832608,691832523,691838859],"class_list":["post-408403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-extreme-weather","tag-global-warming","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-hurricanes","tag-los-angeles-fires","tag-santa-ana-winds","tag-santa-fe-new-mexican-sfnm","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQOFNtUzu2Fh-WhHAxiTpJOUbDdXU_ywvhIs0XWTEvvo2UXhHzbU26P3zBkoPGWJGTX3F6RjxsrdGIBpKMcLj2ofolyGj7ttP3OcxLpldAz7v6Y2aj6H4hii6AyQlkwd-1.jpeg?fit=1356%2C994&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1If9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":417826,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=417826","url_meta":{"origin":408403,"position":0},"title":"Why Waste Money on a Climate Health Forecasting Tool, Yale, When Climate Related Health Issues Are Declining?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/19\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent post at Yale Climate Connections (YCC) titled \u201cClimate change is boosting health care costs\u201d discusses a new online forecasting tool that tells employers extreme weather is getting worse due to climate change and will impact health more and thus raise insurance costs in the future. This is false.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO3dO3vt9IE0MDl_jD7q9PYtJniiyWItO-KVDzlMj-X1nphghTBPCNCI1Ygygax1Ec31aZGxStMceC_KSwbufJVBd31PAAeE9XrI0JdITZ0aZ0lrQVMZ6qDyd84yjdQ-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO3dO3vt9IE0MDl_jD7q9PYtJniiyWItO-KVDzlMj-X1nphghTBPCNCI1Ygygax1Ec31aZGxStMceC_KSwbufJVBd31PAAeE9XrI0JdITZ0aZ0lrQVMZ6qDyd84yjdQ-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C680&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO3dO3vt9IE0MDl_jD7q9PYtJniiyWItO-KVDzlMj-X1nphghTBPCNCI1Ygygax1Ec31aZGxStMceC_KSwbufJVBd31PAAeE9XrI0JdITZ0aZ0lrQVMZ6qDyd84yjdQ-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C680&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO3dO3vt9IE0MDl_jD7q9PYtJniiyWItO-KVDzlMj-X1nphghTBPCNCI1Ygygax1Ec31aZGxStMceC_KSwbufJVBd31PAAeE9XrI0JdITZ0aZ0lrQVMZ6qDyd84yjdQ-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C680&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQO3dO3vt9IE0MDl_jD7q9PYtJniiyWItO-KVDzlMj-X1nphghTBPCNCI1Ygygax1Ec31aZGxStMceC_KSwbufJVBd31PAAeE9XrI0JdITZ0aZ0lrQVMZ6qDyd84yjdQ-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C680&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":289672,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289672","url_meta":{"origin":408403,"position":1},"title":"No, CNN, Climate Change is Not Costing the U.S. Billions","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Linnea Lueken CNN Business posted an article titled \u201cClimate change is costing the US $150 billion a year. 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