Sadly, the dolphins are fake news

They’ve gone viral: clips of dolphins frolicking in the waters off Italy “now that the cruise ships have gone”, drunken elephants sleeping after a corn wine binge in China. Sadly, these and other feel-good animal and ‘nature recovers’ images appear to be fake news, according to this report from National Geographic, which explains, “When we’re feeling stressed, joyous animal footage can be an irresistible salve. The spread of social phenomena is so powerful…it can follow the same models that trace the contagion of epidemics”. Spreading fake news is a crime in South Africa, and WhatsApp has taken steps to limit the forwarding of messages. Being able to identify fake news at this time is important…

Losing the Titanic forever

We all know about the sinking of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic, which sank on 15 April 1912 with the loss of 1 517 lives. The tragedy was one of the Lloyd’s market’s biggest ever losses. Twelve companies and more than 50 Lloyd’s syndicates participated in the risk. At the time it was the largest marine risk ever undertaken, amounting to about 20% of the total five million pound capacity of the Lloyd’s market. But recent exploration by divers for the first time in fourteen years, indicate that the wreck is being destroyed by metal-eating bacteria, deep-sea currents and salt corrosion, and might not exist by 2030.

Bushfires may drive an insurance rethink

The 2019/2020 bushfires in Australia had devastating consequences, with an area the size of South Korea burned, some 2 500 homes destroyed, 33 human lives lost, and a billion indigenous animals killed. With costs approaching $100 billion, the fires are Australia’s costliest natural disaster. Professor Paula Jarzabkowski of the Cass Business School in London has advised that we need to understand these bushfires in the context of wider climate change implications for insurance. “We depend on insurance as a vital mechanism underpinning our economies… It is therefore vital, in the face of growing catastrophe, that the insurance industry and governments work together to address insurance, insurability, and the associated resilience we are going to need…”

This water is "majik"

Majik Water, from the Swahili ‘maji’ for water and ‘k’ for ‘kuna’ meaning harvest, is a Kenyan company using desiccants such as silica gels to draw water from ‘thin air’. Just like magic!

That's Life

Happy Workers’ Day to all our superheroes for this Friday 1 May. Thank you to all those who have been keeping the wheels of our economy turning during these challenging times.

Snippets

The Insurer newsletter and the content of any article published herein, should not be construed as forming part of any insurance contract or policy nor as constituting any form of advice. It is aimed at providing an informal and informative read to the readers thereof. Whilst every effort is taken to attempt to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the information contained herein, Safire Insurance Company Limited does not give any assurance regarding such accuracy or correctness and accordingly does not accept any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage, whether direct, indirect or consequential, arising from any reliance placed in the information contained herein.