[GWSG] Dry desalination; covid-19 upside; IEA confrence; flood risks revealed; cost of FL insurance; risky risk plan

[Tilley, Al]

1. Desalination conventionally requires a lot of energy and leaves a heavily polluting brine. A team at Columbia U has developed a method of extracting all the water, leaving solid waste. The technique is scalable, cheap, and energy efficient. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-unorthodox-desalination-method-global.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter



2.   The climate continues to degrade as we wrestle with the virus. In one way the virus may help. Sally Capp, lord mayor of Melbourne, reflecting on her hesitation about climate action: “I was so worried about the dangers of going too far. I have become much more resolute about my values, prioritizing humanity and protecting the environment, so they can play a larger role in driving my agenda.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/29/worlds-climate-catastrophe-worsens-amid-pandemic/



3. The International Energy Agency is convening an online conference on July 9 to plan for a green recovery from the virus. Nations accounting for 80% of carbon emissions will attend. It may be the only significant climate conference this year.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/29/us-joins-summit-on-global-green-recovery-from-covid-19-crisis



4. At least 6 million households stand a 1% chance of flooding—and are thus in a 100-year flood zone—and do not know it. An interactive map from First Street presents the at-risk properties, rating risks from 1 to 10. Such information has been hard to come by and could help influence public policy. In the near term the risks are likely to grow.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/29/flood-risk-climate-change/



5. Home insurance in Florida is getting more expensive as reinsurance rates grow by as much as a third. Rates are expected to rise even higher next year, and many properties will be dropped.  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article243766772.html



6. Citizens, a state-owned company which puts the risk on the taxpayers, is likely to be the primary choice remaining to Floridians who lose their home insurance. Citizens is set to spread losses evenly among all citizens paying property or car insurance, with the smallest incomes paying as much as the largest, after an emergency fund is exhausted. Citizens was the largest insurer in the state and now is second after a protracted program to shift policies to the commercial market. Here is an article from 2014. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/expert-faq-depopulating-citizens-insurance-affect-florida/

Wikipedia reports that no significant changes have been made in taxpayer liability under Citizens regulations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Property_Insurance_Corporation

An attempt to add the loss from drowned sand dune McMansions to the cost of car insurance in, say, Orlando may spur some opposition.

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