phenomena, is a concern to insurance companies, according to three professors speaking at the Bermuda Insurance Symposium II.

Insurers, with very little data on catastrophes, are constantly seeking more information about phenomena like floods and hurricanes which cause billions of dollars in claims.

The professors, speaking at the symposium yesterday, outlined the commonly-held belief that global warming is linked to extreme weather phenomena.

Scientific data collected will undoubtedly play a role in catastrophe's insurers underwriting practices.

"Having scientists on the symposium programme shows our business is of interest to insurance leaders,'' said Bermuda Biological Station director Dr.

Anthony Knap.

"The demand for improved climate predictions will continue to far outstrip the rate of increased scientific understanding. The need for information will never go away,'' said Dr. Jerry Mahlman, a director at the geophysical dynamics laboratory, US Department of Commerce/NOAA. He is also professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Princeton University.

Science can create new models with insurers and with funding from insurers, added Dr. Mahlman.

Noting the theme of the symposium "one market for the world'', Dr. Knap said: "As far as we are concerned there is only one world for the market, there is only one atmosphere for the market.'' Global warming is likely to create changes in frequency of extreme events due to the change in mean temperature, said Dr. Mahlman.

More intense weather phenomena, like cyclones, are linked to higher temperatures.

"The greenhouse effect is real. It is not a conspiracy. It does not mean instant global doom. The warming will take a century to evolve,'' he said.

Global warming could have significant impacts on lowland flooding, public health, agricultural productivity as well as forest and water resources.

The 1995 Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Control is expected to release a study in about three months but in it "there is little agreement on storminess. There is little agreement on changes in tropical storm frequency,'' said Dr. Mahlman.

Changes which may result from global warming include a rise in sea level of .20 to 1.0 metres by the year 2100 and mid-continental drying of soil.

"Society gets to choose if it wants to spend more money now to mitigate or later to adapt. The choices are non-scientific. These are value judgments.

There is a potentially higher cost for adapting to the potential results of global warming,'' said Dr. Mahlman.

Dr. Robert Charlson, professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Washington agreed that global warming can cause extremes in weather phenomena.

He said regions of North America, North Atlantic and Europe are experiencing cooling while Alaska and Siberia are among areas feeling warming.

Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology director Prof. James McCarthy said the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and ongoing satellite efforts are investigating how the global warming process vary from an oceanic perspective.

The statistics show the planet is experiencing atmospheric conditions it has not seen in the past 160,000-300,000 years.

"There appears to be a larger difference in the increases in weather extremes,'' he said.

Levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are expected to double by 2050, triple by 2100, and quadruple by 2150.

A doubling of carbon dioxide could result in an increase in mean global temperature from three to eight degrees Fahrenheit.