Cash and cyclones

Auckland and other parts of NZ were battered by Cyclone Gabrielle last night – many are without power, roads are flooded and some bridges have been swept away.

I was due to fly in to Auckland last night but my flight was understandably cancelled.

My travel insurance categorises the Cyclone as an “Act of God” which I’ve seen many times, and we can take a stab at what exactly that means, but the legal language around it is typically unclear.

Below is a paragraph from an Armstrong Legal article that describes acts of God in layperson language:

“Historically, acts of God have been used to explain phenomena that lacked a scientific explanation. As human knowledge of natural events has expanded, the concept has become less useful and relevant and courts have been less inclined to find that circumstances were unforeseeable and could not be guarded against.”

Despite the term “Act of God” becoming less relevant, it’s still common, and I wondered if some events in this category (like cyclones) might eventually be moved to a climate-inspired category, which would imply that humans are to blame, not ☝️😇

Most of that quote is eye-opening to me – events like cyclones do have scientific explanations (zoom.earth tracks a cyclone’s path, speed and other stats, which only scratches the surface of what’s known), and recent catastrophic events also have scientific backing that links them to significant changes in the climate.

There’s never been a better time flex control over what you can actually control: your money, otherwise known as money that sucky people use to fund harmful projects like mines and fracking, which directly destabilise the climate.

Your org can be a force for good with very little effort – make 2023 the year you switch banks, superannuation, and power suppliers 💪