Insurance companies are in a tricky position when it comes to the issue of climate change.

On the one hand, virtually all of them insure policyholders facing the risk of a climate change liability claim. The claimants can range from the islanders off the coast of Alaska (whose island is eroding due to loss of Arctic sea ice that protects it during winter storms) to homeowners from the Katrina-ravaged areas of the Southeast to environmentalists seeking to shift the costs of adaptation from those allegedly impacted to those allegedly contributing to the problem.