Presentation on Risk, Sustainability, and Insurance

Feb. 21st, 2012 was a day for sustainability and insurance for CPCU members in the Chicago area. The Chicago chapter (downtown) hosted Doug Sisterson from Argonne National Laboratory. Key takeaways from his presentation were 1) That the evidence showing that humans are contributing to climate change is overwhelming and 2) climate change affects different parts of the world differently.  Some key sources to look at :

1. Climate Models:  An Assessment of Strengths ad Limitations, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.1, July 2008.  (www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-1/final-report/sap3-1-final-all.pdf.)  It is over 100 pages but has some graphs comparing how well a dozen or so models "predicted" past events.

 2.  Global Climate Change:  Impacts in the United States. (Highlights).  U.S. Global Change Research Program. (www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts).  It is brief, but has some nice illustrations of CO2 concentrations vs. time and separation of human vs natural effects of global warming effects over time.

That evening I presented my presentation on Risk, Sustainability, and Insurance at the Northwest Suburban chapter of CPCU. The focus of that presentation was on how forces such as growth in population, energy demand, temperature, and debt affect the insurance industry, and then what is being done to address the adverse consequences of these trends.

Two Katie School of Insurance students from ISU attended. They are doing independent studies on risk, insurance, and sustainability and will  present their findings in April 2012. This seems to be a topic that is capturing the interest of young people interested in careers in risk management and insurance.