From Canada to California, wildfires have increasingly costly economic fallouts
The smoke seen ’round the world… As wildfires raged across Canada last week, 100M+ people in North America were put on health and safety alerts. In Canada, the fires forced the evacuation of at least 16K people, destroying 200 buildings (mostly homes). This year, wildfires in Canada have burned an area equal to 5M+ football fields. Stateside, the smoke led to the worst air quality on record for New York City, briefly making it the most polluted city on Earth. Disruptions were widespread:
Ground stop: The FAA delayed flights into NY and New Jersey airports. At one point cancellations and delays affected 11% of LaGuardia flights.
Drill down: Because it was too smoky to drill in Canada, Chevron and Paramount Resources halted production of a combined 240K+ barrels of oil/day.
Curtains closed: Broadway hits like "Hamilton" and "Camelot" canceled shows, and sports events (including East Coast MLB games) were postponed.
Insured destruction… Globally, natural disasters cost insurers $39B in the first half of last year alone — 18% higher than the annual average. As the costs of wildfires and hurricanes pile up, insurance cos are pulling back where they’re needed most:
State Farm and Allstate said they’d stop offering new homeowner policies to Californians, saying costly wildfires are hurting their biz.
AIG, which ditched California last year, plans to cut home-insurance sales in 200 more “disaster-prone” ZIP codes.
Home-insurance premiums are rising most in states that are at higher risk for extreme weather. Since 2015, average property coverage has surged 57% in Florida and 40% in Texas.
Climate costs are stacking up… Natural disasters like wildfires are becoming not only more frequent but also costlier. Last year climate and weather disasters cost the US gov’t $165B+ (the third most expensive year ever). Inaction on the climate crisis could cost the global economy $178T by 2070, Deloitte estimates. Still, the world’s biggest polluters (China, US, EU, and India) have not made significant progress on emissions reductions.