From Jim Morin, former Herald cartoonist from May, 1985 ... by gimleteye

Jim Morin, Miami Herald, May 1985

We've been here before. First, the stress of waiting for the storm. In Irma's case, MASSIVE. Second, the storm. IT FCOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE Third, the anxiety about life and property and struggling for news without the benefit of electricity. WHEN WILL THIS END?

The heat, the boredom, and the stress of waiting for electricity to return. Get the kids back to school! OK. Right now it sucks to be almost anywhere in South Florida, but it is a time for gratitude. Thankful for law and order. Thankful we are not the devastated Caribbean. There is light at the end of this tunnel.

Businesses are suffering. Millions will be without electricity for a number of days or weeks, but soon life will return to chaotic normal. The streets, the yards, and debris will be cleaned. The lights will go on. The lights on the interweb machines will blink again.

And soon Floridians will forget that only a few days before Irma hit, the storm was the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic, for the longest duration, and but for the interference of Cuba, might have maintained strength straight into Miami.

Maybe it is too early to pose the only question that matters in relation to a future hurricane or disaster like sea-level rise: will we learn anything from this exercise, or, just meander down the same road we've always taken in South Florida? More growth, more development in low-lying lands, more justifications to move the Urban Development Boundary.

Based on the past and present behavior -- primarily from Tallahassee and Washington, DC -- the answer is "no". Katrina, Wilma, George. We can't actually learn anything because learning would require reaction and reaction would jeopardize the profit models that have turned democracy into a form of infotainment the Founding Fathers would not recognize.

That's why it is so hard for one political party to acknowledge how man-made climate change is adding fuel to our recent, immense hurricanes in the Atlantic and spreading the seeds of economic chaos around the globe.

Consider former Herald Jim Morin's cartoon from 1985 (above) before the Russia debt implosion. Before the dot com boom. Before the Greenspan-Bush era mortgage and bank blowup. Before the 2007 financial bubble. Before Katrina, Wilma, George and Irma.

Draw your own conclusions and please, please vote accordingly in 2018.