Why the insurance industry gets climate change

Insurance companies understand risk – which is why, unlike our myopic political class, they do not have their heads in the sand

Jules Boykoff
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 June 2011 17.00 BST

When it comes to climate change, the US Congress is a hornets' nest of political dysfunction. Last month, President Barack Obama nominated energy executive John Bryson to lead the commerce department. From the response of congressional Republicans, you might have thought Obama had nominated Ed Abbey and Rachel Carson's imaginary love child.

In 2009, Bryson had the audacity to support a cap-and-trade system to address climate change and, 40 years earlier, he helped launch the Natural Resource Defence Council. This spurred Darrell Issa (Republican, California) to deride him as a "green evangelist", while Senator John Barrasso (Republican, Wyoming) called Bryson an "environmental extremist" and Senator James Inhofe (Republican, Oklahoma) pegged him as "a founder of a radical environmental organisation".