I ran across this yesterday.  It reminded me of one of those old boxes that had a sign on it saying “In Case Of Emergency, Break Glass.” Each one contained a small fire extinguisher.  As if a fire extinguisher would help in a real emergency. Somebody made a lot of money selling those things.  They probably got them written into the fire codes across the country.

In my imagination, this piece of glass is what remains of the larger piece which shielded a fire extinguisher.  If the glass were broken and the extinguisher used before there was an emergency, maybe when there was a little trash can or stovetop fire, it probably prevented a larger conflagration.  Once the emergency had set in, nobody would stop to break the stupid glass to spray a little cloud of dust or foam on the flames.  They would be running for the doors.

The point is, someone should have noticed when the fire was small, and dealt with it, using the readily available extinguisher.

As far back as the 1800’s scientists began to notice that the Earth was warming, and that carbon dioxide was a major factor. Many saw this as a possible boon to mankind, opening up more of the planet to habitation and farming.  It wasn’t until about 50 years ago that we started to realize that the effects of continued climate change could be devastating.  We saw that the trash can was smoldering.  At that point, we had plenty of time to change our behavior, take out the fire extinguisher, as it were.  Instead, we fought over whether to believe the science.

Now, the house is burning around us and we are led by a bunch of fools who deny the existence of the fire.  We are far past the fire extinguisher phase.  We need a couple of pumper trucks and a fire crew, at minimum.

There are some brave people in Congress proposing that we call the fire department, but they are largely being patronised at best, and ridiculed at worst.  Of the herd of people running to be the leader of the free world, only one has recognized that climate change is the crisis of our generation.  If it is not dealt with, nothing else will matter.  There is only one planet. Jay Inslee doesn’t have a prayer of becoming the Democratic nominee.  His support is in the single digits, and you probably haven’t even heard of him.  He isn’t my prefered candidate either, but his message is vital.  Every single Democrat should be embracing and running on the Green New Deal.  We can still put the fire out with only survivable damage, but if we let it burn much longer it will get out of control.