Reuters Investigates
Insight and investigations from our expert reporters
Japanese quake cost bad, but far from the worst
By Ben Berkowitz
The March 11 Great Tohoku Earthquake in Japan was a tragic disaster of historic proportions — but from a purely financial standpoint it pales in comparison. (For a special report on insurers, click here.)
Estimates are still coming in but it seems likely the quake will end up ranking as the costliest of the last generation in insured losses, surpassing even the Northridge earthquake that struck southern California in 1994. (The one that collapsed a number of major freeways, by way of reference).
But looking back historically, it is dwarfed by two temblors in particular — the New Madrid quake of 1812 and the San Francisco quake of 1906. If those events happened today, they would each cause nearly $100 billion in *insured* losses, to say nothing of their total economic impact.
Great Tohoku comes in fourth on that all-time list, assuming the higher end of AIR Worldwide’s loss estimate.
Read the special report “Japan quake reveals cracks in insurance system” in multimedia PDF format here.
Solar energy vs wildlife
Sarah McBride reports on brewing battles between environmentalists in her special report: “With solar power, it’s Green vs. Green.”
It turns out the perfect place to build a big solar plant is often also the perfect place for a tortoise or a fox to live. This means developers of large-scale solar plants are running into legal challenges from people who one would expect to be natural allies of alternative energy providers.
Here’s a map of some of the more contentious projects.
One local resident of the Panoche Valley, Sallie Calhoun, had this to say:
“I am passionate about preserving open space,” she says, adding she believes the solar plant achieves that goal. “The idea that we’re going to protect every lizard, every drainage, seems counterproductive.”
Asking for opinions is not very useful without supplying more information… such as: how much space per MegaWatt is needed for these plants? Is there to be a continuous blanket of collectors, or are they in sections with spaces between them? What is the proposed ratio of collector coverage to empty zones between? Answers to these questions make differences in the degree of environmental impacts. It’s not like trees – natural solar collectors – don’t shade out the zones below them: basking creatures manage to adapt to trees. It seems that making this out as a black vs. white issue is someone’s way of preventing discussion and compromise.
Jerry Brown is back
The new year brings a new set of politicians into office, including California Governor Jerry Brown. As Nichola Groom reports, he has his work cut out for him.
As this graphic shows, politicians are in low regard and pessimism is high in the Golden State.
Here’s another graphic showing how California’s public spending compares with the national average.
To read the special report “California or bust” in multimedia PDF format, click here.
