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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
Catlin Group Ltd.'s recently completed Catlin Arctic Survey to measure the thickness of Arctic ice and gather data on climate change is not a run-of-the-mill insurance industry sponsorship.
When Catlin announced plans to send a research team inside the Arctic Circle, the insurer noted it did so to try to understand the risks and effects of climate change. There is a lot of talk about climate change and speculation over what it will mean for life on Earth, whether human activity is to blame and, if warmer ocean temperatures facilitate more frequent and severe windstorms, what effect that may have on the insurance industry.
Catlin's point is that without research, the talk is only that. The scientific data collected on by the Catlin Arctic Survey will be interpreted and presented at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in November in Copenhagen, Denmark. Catlin Group itself is not drawing conclusions from the data; it merely sponsored the expedition to gather information for scientists to sort out.
Stephen Catlin, chief executive officer of Catlin Group, invited executives from Aon Corp. and Marsh Inc. to accompany him on a recent visit to an area inside the Arctic Circle. When Business Insurance learned of this, we asked the brokerage execs to write about their experiences. Read what they learned and see photos here. The area the insurance execs visited was a Norwegian territory called Svalbard, a few hundred miles from the North Pole.
How do you view the prospect of climate change, and does it worry you? Share your opinion and why (or why not).