Barry Soper: Street-blocking Extinction Rebellion protesters earn rebuke from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

COMMENT:

It's an area where fools rush in where angels fear to tread - because no matter which way you come down on the climate change debate you'll be criticised.

Pictures of an iceberg the size of Los Angeles breaking away in Antarctica last week had the doomsayers telling us this sort of thing is going to see sea levels rising 20 metres, which means most of us are destined for a watery grave.

Then of course just over a week ago we had school kids going on strike, encouraged by many of their teachers and their parents. Talk to many of them, as I have, about what the Government's currently doing about climate change and they'll stare blankly and tell you whatever is being done it's not enough. A zero carbon bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is about as alien to many of them as fossil fuel.

Then there was the turnout in Wellington by the so-called Extinction Rebellion protesters who want to bring cities around the globe to a standstill, starting with our capital. They glued themselves to buildings and to cars, blocking off the main thoroughfares and declaring the biggest government department, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, a "climate change crime scene".

Why, because it's the ministry for oil and gas. Trouble is the oil and gas division of MBIE isn't in the building they blocked. And anyway someone should have told them the nuclear moment of this generation immediately occurred when the Government changed. They blocked the 1800 office workers at MBIE from getting into their building - and drew a barb from the mother of their generation Jacinda Ardern.

Protesters block Lambton Quay during an Extinction Rebellion protest n Wellington. Photo / Getty Images

The Prime Minister says she would never stop people from having their say, expressing their opinions and using their voices, but then came the admonishment. Blocking people from going about their daily business "doesn't necessarily take us any closer to the climate action they're calling for".

As the morning chill blew through the capital, the protesters, who would rather be known as 'protectors', occupied the warm ANZ Bank on Lambton Quay, laying like a tight fitting puzzle on the floor.

So what do they want? The Government to declare a climate and ecological emergency and create a Citizens' Assembly on climate and ecological justice. The politicians have had it their way for too long, they argue.

They believe the Citizens' Assembly's decisions will provide political cover and public pressure for politicians to set aside the usual politicking and do the right thing.

And they're planning to caucus havoc around the world to raise awareness of climate change. But fair suck of the sav, anyone who's unaware of it has clearly been living under a cow pat.