This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Farid Zakaria.

Today on the show, will the coronavirus outbreak get worse soon? The top global health organization says even it doesn't know.

It's way too early to try and predict the beginning, the middle, or the end of this epidemic.

How prepared is America if it spreads here? And what does it mean for China under sheen?

I have an expert panel to talk about it all.

Also, the Middle East today is stuck in a new cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Will that cold war turn hard?

I'll talk to veteran Middle East reporter Kim Karis, who has a new book out about it.

And while all eyes were on Iowa, the White House expanded Trump's travel ban to six more nations.

This is America's loss, and I will explain to you why.

But first, here's my take. The prospect of Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee has startled many people who worry that his brand of Democratic socialism won't sell and would pave the way for a second Trump term.

This might well be true, but surely the more important question is not whether his programs would be popular, but whether in fact they're good programs.

It's time to stop the grading Bernie Sanders on a curve and start asking what the country would look like if he would have become president.

Let's consider the topic that he argues is the single greatest challenge facing America and a global emergency.

Climate change. Sanders wants to commit the United States to achieving 100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030.

This is a laudable, though ambitious goal. The question is, how will he go about meeting it?

US carbon emissions fell almost 15% from 2005 to 2016.

According to carbon brief, the single largest cause for that was the switch from coal-fired power plants to natural gas ones, 33% of the reduction.

The adoption of solar power by contrast accounted for just 3%. Nevertheless, Bernie Sanders is opposed to natural gas.

He opposes all new fracking and he seeks to ban it nationwide within 5 years. He also intends to shut down rapidly all gas plants.

Now, wind and solar account for less than 5% of US energy consumption. So his plan would require an exponential jump in renewables in just a few years.

And even if that happened, it would be extremely difficult to replace gas as a source for electricity.

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