Not another global warming post!

Um, yeah, 'fraid so. But it's a short one. The BBC said today that

[t]he past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said. ...

Although there were fewer "loss-producing events" in 2008 than in the previous year, the impact of natural disasters was higher, said Munich Re in its annual assessment.

More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami.

Meanwhile, overall global losses totalled about $200bn (£137bn), with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about 50% more than in 2007.

Which made 2008 the third most expensive year on record, trailing only 1995 (the year of the Kobe earthquake in Japan) and 2005 (the year of Hurricane Katrina.)

Company officials said the results showed the effects of global warming and said

world leaders must put in place "effective and binding rules on CO2 emissions" to curb climate change and ensure that "future generations do not have to live with weather scenarios that are difficult to control".

I'm not offering Munich Re as experts on climatology, even though it does have a Geo Risks Research division. Rather, I'm using the data to point out that those who try to deny global warming by claiming that severe weather events are not increasing over time are simply wrong. That every year does not set a new record is irrelevant, just as is the lack of a new all-time temperature record every year. The prediction of global warming models is not that the trend over time is necessarily to more storms but rather to more severe storms.

With the inclusion of 2008, it means two of the three most destructive years on record have happened in the last four years. Which should at minimum give the denialists who make the argument in question pause - but of course it won't. Denialism recognizes no heresies.