Wildfires: Dangerous and expensive
It was bound to happen eventually. The
impacts of climate change are becoming impossible to ignore. The impacts are dangerous and costly and now the
discussion begins about who is going to pay for the damage.
Farmers Insurance filed nine class actions last month against nearly 200 communities in the Chicago area. It is arguing that local governments should have known rising global temperatures would lead to heavier rains and did not do enough to fortify their sewers and stormwater drains.
The legal debate may center on whether an uptick in natural disasters is foreseeable or an "act of God." The cases raise the question of how city governments should manage their budgets before costly emergencies occur.
"We will see more and more cases," said Michael Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in New York. "No one is expected to plan for the 500-year storm, but if horrible events are happening with increasing frequency, that may shift the duties."
The lawsuits are the first of their kind. It seems that Farmers Insurance is trying to set precedent to force local governments into mitigating the effects of climate change. Allocating the costs might possibly be the tipping point which will finally prompt action on climate. Because as we all know so well, it's all about the money.