Another day, another doomsday

[meme of "this is fine" dog drinking coffee in the forest fire]

The record number of fires raging across the Amazon rainforest in 2019 could be part of a doomsday "dieback" scenario in which the rainforest spews carbon into the atmosphere and speeds up climate change even more

More than 70,000 fires have been recorded this year in the rainforest, which produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen — threatening its future, the billions of plants and animals that call it home, and possibly the entire planet's health.

If more of the Amazon is destroyed, not only would it stop producing this oxygen and supporting wildlife, but it could create a feedback loop that worsens climate change.

But don't despair. There is some good news.  At least one of those Presidential candidates people seem to like  is taking it seriously.  I'm not sure the kids today appreciate just how unusual that is.

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders released a sweeping $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday, vowing to create 20 million jobs and completely zero out planet-heating emissions by 2050.

The proposal outlines easily the most ambitious vision for a Green New Deal to date, with calls to massively expand public ownership of everything from power generation to groceries. With Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ending his climate-centered bid for the Democratic nomination a day earlier, the plan vaults the Vermont senator ahead of his 2020 rivals on what’s emerging as the defining policy issue of the Democratic primary.

At a moment when record wildfires are raging from the Amazon to the Arctic and Greenland is losing up to 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day, the plan is dense with detail and frank in its goals. Where other proposals, including those from Inslee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) depict expanded regulatory regimes and public spending aimed at spurring private investment, Sanders charts out a path to a hospitable global climate through Nordic-style social democracy.

No "transitional nuclear." No Silicon Valley vaporware Ponzi schemes.  Just a straightforward comprehensive internationalist approach to reorient the whole of the economy toward halting the global disaster. It's the last best hope of salvaging... whatever is left that is salvageable.

Unfortunately the marking experts tell us that because this plan is not associated with the appropriate brand ambassador, it is therefore not going to win the approval of the decision makers who could help ensure its launch.

They're probably right about that.