Stormy weather:

The death toll stood at 32 early Saturday, including 14 each in Kentucky and Indiana, three in Ohio and one in Alabama. Tornadoes also were reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Insurance industry leaders who met with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Friday, before the weekend’s mayhem, see humans as a cause:

“From our industry’s perspective, the footprints of climate change are around us and the trend of increasing damage to property and threat to lives is clear,” said Franklin Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America. “We need a national policy related to climate and weather.” …

Cynthia McHale, the insurance program director at Ceres, issued a more unequivocal statement: “Our climate is changing, human activity is helping to drive the change, and the costs of these extreme weather events are going to keep ballooning unless we break through our political paralysis, and bring down emissions that are warming our planet. If we continue on this path, extreme weather is certain to cause more homes and businesses to be uninsurable in the private insurance market, leaving the costs to taxpayers or individuals.”

Insurance industry figures show the average weather-related loss in the 1980s was about $3 billion a year as compared to $20 billion by the end of the oughts.

Via.