Are Extreme Weather Events the New Normal?

In mid-November 2011, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report examining the link between extreme weather events and climate change. Forbes reports the panel found that climate change is responsible for the increased frequency of extreme weather events. Already, 2011 has been one of the most costly years on record for extreme weather events in the United States with more billion-dollar events than ever before. According to the Insurance Information Institute, insured catastrophe losses in the United States totaled $27 billion during the first half of 2011, and that does not include the impact of Hurricane Irene. For a related article, see the Hartford Courant.