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*Gaslighting, if you don’t know the word, is defined as manipulation into doubting your own sanity; as in, Carl made Mary think she was crazy, even though she clearly caught him cheating. He gaslit…
— Read on forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0

Many of you are aware I have been posting ongoing news on the coronavirus pandemic.  Nothing political – just the facts from expects.  Leave the politics (all sides) out of this.  The current crisis however does point out several things.  First – experts matter and when experts are used for pawns to meet a political agenda, or allow themselves to be, it undermines public trust.  In the time of crisis, the reason you have experts is that they have knowledge the general public does not.  That is when you need them.  And why we need to train experts for the future, not belittle their value.

It also points out how over the last 40 years the press have become less about news and more reality television.  This started with Fox – who edged its way into the market by sensationalizing things.  Others have followed suit, at least to a degree (if you have been around a while, you know this to be true – if not talk to someone who has).  That makes it much harder to convey a consistent, correct message to the public in times of crisis.  Hence the differences among states in the actions taken versus the experts’ recommendations.

A recent article in the Atlantic that I posted noted that the southern states are likely to be hit harder, and later with the coronavirus peak because they have not followed expert recommendations, while California and Washington are faring better (time will tell).  The concern then is reinfection of areas where the virus was under control from the “late-blooming” areas of the country.  The south is perhaps less “ready” and has less access to medical facilities that larger states with larger metropolitan areas.  The scale of New York and in the future, Florida, will loom large, but the percentages of people impacts in the south, are projected to be far greater, which will in turn have major economic challenges for an already challenges area of the country.

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Cities Widely Ignore Federal Flood Protection Rules, With Few Penalties
— Read on www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/climate/fema-flood-insurance.amp.html

I was in Key West a couple weeks back for a couple nights.  I had not been there for pleasure in many years.  Actually I think the last time I took my Dad to the keys.  Mallory Square was not a pier back then, and street artists came out of the woodwork back then.  I didn’t see any at Mallory Square this time.  A lot of new building has taken place, although Old Key West is still there.  The light house is no longer being used, but the Hemmingway cats are still at Hemmingway’s house.  So are the roosters.

But is made me think about the Hurricane a couple years ago, and water, or he lack of it.  Hurricane damage is still visible, but many of the middle keys are being rebuild on stilts to address issues with storm surge and king tides.  Water has come from the mainland for nearly 100 years.  Flaglers’ old bridges are still there, a reminder to the Hurricane of 1935.

It also  made me think about the challenges faced in the west.  Fires, long-term droughts, a loss of snowpack, less rain, higher temperatures.  In 2015 the Sierra Nevada snowpack dipped to 5% of this normal depth – a monster challenge for utilities that rely on snowpack for summer water supplies.  Water diverted for agriculture (80%) or contaminated by mine tailings compromise water quality.  Temperatures create challenges for fish, a economic staple for many mountain communities.  Western water laws that have been in place since the 19^th century create a challenge for maintaining supplies. And the west is dry for the most part and groundwater does not recharge like it can in the east.  With more people moving west, I had to think about those old Key Westers.

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