1. Surreal, 2. Contagion and Rumor, 3. Iatrogenic Green, 4. Vaccine Derived Polio Scare Line, 5. Fact Rating, 6. Comparing Fires, 6.1. Roman Disaster Resilience.
Other Topics: BioPolitics, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Anthropocene, Anthropogenic, Communication, One Health, Environmental (Climate) Change, Human Factors, Social Dimensions, Narratives, Infectious Disease, Polemic, Vaccination, Mephetic, Unintended Consequences, Misinformation, Bioeconomics, Megafire, Validation, Samoan Measles, Magical Thinking
-1. If there is anyone who will be able to intelligently consider the start of the anthropocene they will likely note one of its features* was it’s surreal (mix of fact and imaginary) nature: Physical =2= and ideological attacks were made on the very activities that were intended to mitigate anthropogenic biocalamities in the micro, social/ techno and geo -spheres. Extreme weather became more powerful, changed faster and stalled over areas, while it was being perceived that plants and animals became confused on what season$ =2= it was. Gubergenic authorities – some elected, others who gained power though legal or economic means – routinely took actions or no actions that had short sighted monetary or ideological gains at the cost of long term livelihood and health of self and progeny [Cartoon]. Impossible sounding claims that just two degrees of warmer temperature were having devastating effects, and that invisible particles caused harm. With constant firehosing of mis =2= and disinformation =2= it became more and more difficult to separate fact from fiction <ADDED 191117-191110-2A>1A. Polarization was taken to such extreme forms that were those who would willingly sacrifice themselves, just to inflict some harm on their opponents; opponents were defined as anyone who did not agree with them completely. It became so surreal that people claimed to have behaved in one way despite evidence that they had actually behaved in another, sometimes relying of the obfuscated information environment they helped create to claim the evidence of behavior is fake.
-*. Feature in the parademic context tends to not be a physical artifact or documented repetitive behavior as found with characteristic. Features are voids filled in by something else or left unfilled. A feature is a cognitive construct that may have physical assemblages that they are associated with, but direct recorded evidence of the feature, just evidence of a worldview that reflects a context on interpretation. This adds to the surreal nature of the anthropocene as humans behave in accordance to imagined features (weather, money, statistics, beliefs) rather than the circumstances of the real world’s characteristics. To add to this surrealism it is known that disaster and grief have both physiological and psychological lifelong effects that contribute to the sense of unrealism, denial it happened, exacerbated with poor judgement and decisions.
-‡. Why Apocalyptic Claims About Climate Change Are Wrong. Armed Groups Are Attacking Health Workers Responding to Ebola Outbreak =2= =3=. Supreme Court Allows Climate Change Scientist's Defamation Suit Against National Review. A Louisiana Republican Reckons with Climate Change. Exxon Has Known about Climate Change since the 1970s. 80% of US Accepts That There’s a Human Role in Climate Change =2=. The World Refuses to Slow its Suicidal Course Toward Catastrophic Climate Change. Climate Change Denying Uncle Pete at Thanksgiving: How to Deal with Him [Cartoon, Quote =2=]. Ventilators Boost for Intensive Care Unit =2=. Yeah, the Weather Has Been Weird. Why Some People Still Think Climate Change Isn’t Real. Climate Tipping Points – Too Risky to Bet Against$ =2=. Ending the Cycle of Crisis and Complacency in U.S. Global Health Security.
-2. #Book Stuck. How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don't Go Away. Vaccine reluctance and refusal are no longer limited to the margins of society. Debates around vaccines' necessity – along with questions around their side effects – have gone mainstream, blending with geopolitical conflicts, political campaigns, celebrity causes, and "natural" lifestyles to win a growing number of hearts and minds. Today's antivaccine positions find audiences where they've never existed previously. Stuck examines how the issues surrounding vaccine hesitancy are, more than anything, about people feeling left out of the conversation. A new dialogue is long overdue, one that addresses the many types of vaccine hesitancy and the social factors that perpetuate them. To do this, Stuck provides a clear eyed examination of the social vectors that transmit vaccine rumors, their manifestations around the globe, and how these individual threads are all connected. This book and the author will predictably be attacked by antivax but depending how much circumstances have changed, – the context of global measles =2= =3= =4= =5= and flu =2= =3= =4= with hospitalizations and deaths, and more concern about social manipulation through disinformation – this book may garner more interest and sales than it would have done a few months ago.
-3. It is not uncommon for a solution to one problem to have iatrogenic consequences that create other problems, or is in conflict with a solution for another problem. Biodiversity and Wind Energy. How stakeholders evaluate the green-green dilemma. The replacement of fossil and nuclear energy sources for electricity production by renewables such as wind, sun, water and biomass as a cornerstone of energy policy. Amongst these, wind energy production is the most important component. However, energy production from wind is not necessarily ecologically sustainable. It requires relatively large spaces for installation and operation of turbines, and bats and birds die after collisions with rotors in significant numbers. For these reasons, the location and operation of wind energy plants are often in direct conflict with the legal protection of endangered species. The almost unanimous opinion of experts from local and central government authorities, environmental NGOs and expert offices is that the current mechanisms for the protection of birds and bats in wind power projects are insufficient. Saving Bats From Wind Turbine Death – Green-Green Dilemma.
-4. More Polio Cases Now Caused by Vaccine than by Wild Virus is a misleading headline. Most people will miss the significance and background of, In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks. All the current vaccine derived polio cases have been sparked by a Type 2 virus contained in the vaccine. Type 2 wild virus was eliminated years ago. Are More Polio Cases Now Being Caused by the Vaccine Than by Wild Polio Viruses. Why would people think that more polio cases are now being caused by the vaccine than by wild polio viruses.
-5. Interesting idea, a rating system to indicate the amount and quality of evidence supporting a statement. Could a Rating System Help Weigh Claims Made in Popular Science Books. As the author’s point out there are some weaknesses to this and other rating system, the ultimate effectiveness still being the critical thinking of the reader.
-A. PDWN does not rate information this way, but the above system fits well the PDWN’s “in what way, to who, is it valid”. Validity is not by evidence but by what is believed to be true, whether or not supported by verified evidence. The criteria are if it supports a priori beliefs and the evaluation of the source. The above system is the same as anti science in that something is more believable if backed by evidence, lots of evidence over time, and consensus of authority. Conspiracy theory =2= =3=, magical beliefs, political ideologies likewise believe they have evidence over time from a trusted source, and like science rejects the evidence, amount and source that does not fit its worldview.
-6. One of the advantages to compare and contrast between different times and areas of biocalamity exacerbated by parademic, is being able to have the objective distance to find what applies to one’s own time and space. In India, Misguided Policies Leave Forests Ablaze, a deadly wildfire reveals how a tangle of law, policy, and science hinder India’s efforts to prevent fires. Australia fires: Catastrophic alerts in South Australia and Victoria, Sydney News: Health Warnings over Smoke Haze, Total Fire Bans in Place as Heatwave Looms. Amazon Rainforest Close to Irreversible Tipping Point, Brazil’s Bolsonaro Calls Amazon Deforestation Cultural, Says it Will Never End, <ADDED 190901-190818-2>2.
-‡. PG&E Says its Distribution Lines Caused No Deadly Fires in 2019. California’s Wildfire, Blackout Crisis: Who’s to Blame, and typically if blaming starts that signals that nothing productive will be done. Bankrupt PG&E Has a New Plan for California Wildfire Victims. What the Battle over Control of PG&E Means for US Utility Customers. California’s Deliberate Blackouts Were Outrageous and Harmful. They’re Going to Happen Again. Why We Need to Treat Wildfire as a Public Health Issue in California. PG&E Warns of 10 Years of Power Shut Offs. California Officials Don't like It$in . This Is a Worst Possible Wildfire Scenario for Southern California. 3 Key Solutions to California’s Wildfire Safety Blackout Mess. Hundreds Evacuated as Wildfire Fueled by Monster Winds Races Through Sonoma Count, and was evacuation delayed because power outage interfered with notification systems, or was this a rumor. Bans on Rebuilding in Disaster Prone Areas Ignore Homeowners Preferences. High Voltage Power Line Broke near Origin of Massive Northern California Wildfire. I May Not Be Alive Tomorrow: PG&E Power Shutoff Threatening Lives. California Combatting Wildfire Risk by Shutting off Oxygen to Thousands of Residents. Wildfire Prevention, Mitigation or Adaptation – Which Is It. Fighting Fire with Fire Underused in US West Despite Goals. PG&E Could Shut off Power for Millions to Prevent Wildfires, with an unintended consequences of to increase chance of fires as people resort to unsafe means to get power, economic and resource loses, and potential death of those dependent on medical devices. 191110-1‡, 191013-3‡, 190811-2, 190217-7.
-6.1. # Book Roman Disasters [Cover] looks at how the Romans coped with, thought about, and used disasters for their own ends. Rome has been famous throughout history for its great triumphs. Yet Rome also suffered colossal disasters. From the battle of Cannae, where fifty thousand men fell in a single day, to the destruction of Pompeii, to the first appearance of the bubonic plague [Slide], the Romans experienced large scale calamities. Earthquakes, fires, floods and famines also regularly afflicted them. This insightful book is the first to treat such disasters as a conceptual unity (not true that this is the first). It shows that vulnerability to disasters was affected by politics, social status, ideology and economics. Above all, it illustrates how the resilience of their political and cultural system allowed the Romans to survive the impact of these life threatening events. The book also explores the important role disaster narratives played in Christian thought and rhetoric.
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