Letters to the Editor: California doesn’t have a homeowner insurance crisis. It has a climate crisis

To the editor: The insurance dominoes are toppling everywhere. People who didn’t pay attention to the consequences of climate change before are taking notice now that their personal cost has a dollar sign. (“Climate change is making California more expensive. Home insurance is the latest bellwether,” editorial, June 2)

As usual, it’s an environmental justice issue: Everyone suffers, but the poor suffer the most while the wealthy can afford the price or have the option to move.

We can adapt to inevitable catastrophes only to a limited extent by “building safer communities.” We can move somewhere not endangered by wildfires, biblical storms and floods, sea-level rise — the list goes on.

But I know of no place not at risk of at least one of these, and they are increasingly frequent and severe.

The crisis is climate change, not affordable insurance. It must be addressed directly, not by adaptation and economic maneuvers.

California is exemplary in reducing greenhouse gas emissions but is reluctant to forgo the profits from producing, transporting and exporting petroleum. It will be less costly and more effective to attack climate change aggressively on all fronts than to take half measures.

Carol Steinhart, Madison, Wis.

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To the editor: Why don’t the insurance companies just do the same as they do now with respect to earthquakes — sell homeowner policies that exclude coverage for damage caused by wildfires (which could optionally be purchased separately)?

That would put the burden on the state to either stop new construction in wildfire areas or plan on bearing the financial cost itself.

Maureen McConaghy, Orange

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To the editor: Private insurance is too risk-averse to help us face ordinary disasters, much less those that are likely to accompany climate change.

How do I know this? Before the Northridge earthquake in 1994, insurance companies covered earthquakes. Afterward, only the state of California offered earthquake insurance.

As state Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) suggests, we have to do the same thing now. California has to provide property insurance for us all.

Joan DaVanzo, Long Beach