The announcement of the Mississippi Katrina damage settlement prompted reports about the shifting weather patterns due to global warming. An environmental scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy said "There’s a shift going on to more frequent, extreme weather events. It’s as much an issue in the heartland as on the coast." The Department of Energy says that weather caused damage has increased from $1 Billion a year in 1970’s to $17 Billion a year over the last decade. In 2005, it reached $71 Billion in property damage losses. People on the East coast are finding insurance policies canceled or rates increased or insurance just not available against weather damage to property. However, we shouldn’t be too concerned about the insurance industry going broke. The Consumer Federation of America estimates that the insurance industry, last year, made a profit of some $60 Billion dollars, its highest ever, in spite of the property damage loses.

While the Bush administration and the oil industry continue to deny global warming and maintain what little that is being done is enough, the Democratic Congress plans to tackle the issue. Now the CEO’s from ten major corporations including General Electric and DuPont have jointly urged Congress to pass legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe the Bush administration and the oil industry can be dragged kicking and screaming into being forced to take appropriate action to deal with the ever increasing problems caused by global warming.