OPINION: I have questioned Greta Thunberg's over-the-top tone this week, which resulted in a free-for-all public Tasering session which I have survived. Bruised, shocked, but alive to carry on the fight.

So I called her overly dramatic. Shock, horror, nasty old me. I've even said the 16-year-old climate change activist should be in line for an Oscar as best supporting act. 

If that counts as mocking, then I'm genuinely sorry to her. Something tells me she's a whole lot tougher and more resilient than that.

But once again the conga line of racist wokes lined up to condemn the likes of Mark Richardson, Mike Hosking and myself as some kind of white neanderthals.

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Why point out we're white? Save your tired racist narrative for when we deserve it, but it doesn't fit the climate stoush. Focus. Focus. 

Now hear this. I agree with Greta. I think she's a remarkable young leader, which I said this week also, but why repeat that when you're putting the boot in – gets in the way of your lie, you're trying to pimp your product to the public.

And Mark is a closet greenie who also pines for a better planet and, like me, agrees man is doing horrid things to quicken the pace of the climate warming.

I believe in climate change and think Greta has done more than anyone to wake up the world from its giant slumber. I hope those around her aren't the ones actually stealing her childhood.

But here's the reality. We can't stop the world right now to save the planet.

Immediate changes can be made, but immediate results are impossible to achieve. Fringe measures, while helpful, send the wrong message that urgency isn't needed.

If a giant move was made that started to jolt us, maybe we'd wake the hell up because our complacency is only matched by the yawning gap between politicians' words and their weak and wussy actions.

Staying in power and not upsetting a growing and grumpy middle NZ appears to matter more than saving Greta's children and grandchildren.

Isn't the greatest gift life itself, and if that's the case, Jacinda, get bold. Grant, grow some balls. And James Shaw, minister of climate change, must demand a seat within Cabinet. How dare this portfolio be demoted so low.

Clearly cutting things will cost us, but so be it. Fewer cows means less revenue for the Government, so what goes first? Free school lunches and free student fees are a luxury, so they go now. Students, are you OK with this?

And the big one: Cancel Christmas. What? Think about it.

As I said, the greatest gift is life, so preserve it. Lengthen it. Sign up your kids and parents to save the world instead of heading to Kmart to stand in a dreadful queue.

Christmas is killing us. Mad consumerism, rubbish by the planet load and dirty air travel that dumps pollution on us like no other industry.

So no presents. No holidays. Just stay home and plan the future. One car, not two. Two children not four. Population control is the unspoken answer.

And speaking of Christmas getting the boot, imagine the trucks that won't be needed as a result. Sorry drivers. Ummmm, upskill please.

Sure, under the harshest of prescriptions, jobs are lost but human beings will have to adapt. Just call it the price we pay for saving the generations to come.

See the 1980s for how not to do this. Anyway let's carry on the economic reduction exercise because our emissions continue to climb and we need a reversal.

Fonterra must reduce cow numbers. No mass slaughter, but that could be considered if necessary. Let's put a moratorium on bringing cars into the country, let's return to carless days, pick a day, why not? Why bring more cars in to NZ, it is killing us slowly.

It's time to heavily punish dirty industries and reward those investing in clean technologies. Give me tax breaks for innovation and reducing my carbon footprint, and tax me for being a polluter. 

We can judge these things, test these things; every Kiwi must be monitored as to their environmental behaviour. Then send them their invoice every month.

Most will pay a heavy price initially, but watch that change once a price is put on their life. It might be that you soon are in credit and you may own a few acres of forest as an offset. 

Sure, we can save the world but we need to do more than comment on it. We need to act.

How does that look? It's brutal. It's people's jobs, holidays, it's life as we know it. So start by limiting air travel to, say, four flights a year,  like annual leave. Go and apply at Air NZ who, while sad to have laid off 1000 workers, says kia ora to the kaupapa of Greta who took a ship to New York. 

Imagine if all other leaders did the same? This would sure slow the economy to a snail's view of the world.

But why, if this is so damn urgent, are our leaders flying in the dirtiest form of transport ever? Skype it.

Instead they're asleep in business class cabins, dribbling from the mouth as the young foam through their teeth on a public march, having just realised their childhood's  been stolen, for which many will never forgive them.

I just asked my flatmate what he's doing for climate change. He plans on upgrading his car to a diesel 4WD, which is doing nothing for the planet. I suggested he buy an electric car, he laughed me out of his room but not before stating: "What, Greta is going to make me, is she?"

And that's the point. We're all over the show. We're either angry or not angry enough. We're either making little changes or making no changes at all. We're either calling for action strongly or criticising those who do.

We're meeting Donald Trump but not wanting to upset him over climate change, so we kind of brush it aside. Smart or wimpy? You decide. Probably smart for now, but wimpy when the tidal waves arrive.

But here's the one that gets me. Is this a real emergency, right here right now? If we accept it is, then, like the many councils around NZ, why didn't Jacinda Ardern announce a climate emergency for NZ at the UN?

There is no greater platform and there is no greater issue apparently, so why was she announcing a minor climate-friendly trade pact with Timbuktu​ and others instead? 

Prime minister, what is it? A climate emergency or, like your speech said, merely a long-term issue? This could have been the New Zealand Call. Please tell us.