Mike Hosking: Globetrotting Greens co-leader James Shaw is full of hot air

COMMENT: I read with interest over the weekend that the latest venture into virtue signalling is to stop flying in 2019. No more planes, no more trips, no more destinations.

It's one thing to give up a plastic bag, does it change the world? No, but it might make you feel a bit better about yourself. Maybe you want to not drink in January, or July, or whatever month it is that the earnest gather in.

But not to fly? For as long as the human race has existed we have wanted to explore, to discover, and nothing has enabled us to do that more with speed and comparative cheapness than the plane. The plane has revolutionised travel, it has shrunk the world, and made the planet more accessible than we ever might have imagined just a few short decades ago.

And the next step is one stop destinations, anywhere to anywhere in one go. And beyond that we have space, commercial flights to the moon, to who knows where.

But let's not bother with any of that, let's just stay here, jump on a bike, go to a freedom camping ground, pitch a tent, and compost our own rubbish. If any reasonable number of us did any of this, we'd cripple the airline industry headed, of course in this country, by our national carrier. And we all have a stake in that.

And the people peddling this nonsense are the climate change brigade, the alarmists who, for at least a couple of decades now, have told us we are on the edge of a precipice, the point of no return,and unless we act now, or as it was 20 years ago, then the Earth as we know is over.

Except, of course, it isn't, hasn't and most likely probably won't be. This is not to deny some sort of climate change is going on, but it is to, at least in some small way, call out the alarmists who as each month, year, and decade go by seem more and more wrong.

And as the message fails to maintain its urgency or presence in our minds, if it ever did, they need to come up with more weird and wonderful ideas to attract our attention, and further enhance and progress their agenda.

Which brings us to James Shaw, the co-leader of the Green Party. Who, more than any other MP, in the past quarter has travelled the world, spent our money doing it, and most importantly laid down a stupendous carbon footprint? That's right it's James. He should have "hypocrisy" stamped on his forehead.

Where did he go and what did he do? I'm sure he'd be full of defences. I'm sure there has been, in these many thousands of miles travelled, some spectacularly important climate change work. I'm sure he has been in room after room, hotel after hotel, lecturing on the dangers we face if we don't do something.

So has Shaw done something? Of course not. And that's the problem, the only thing they're producing is hot air.

No laws, no regulations, no progress, just more warnings, alarms, and talk. Talk, talk, talk and all done with the assistance of modern jet travel, which according to Shaw and his lot, is ruining the planet we are supposedly working so hard to save.

He is the Meghan Markle of New Zealand politics. Tells us how to live our lives, what we are doing wrong, how bad we all are. And then straight to business class for a multi-thousand mile trip to the other side of the planet.

Talking the talk? Yes. Walking the walk? You got to be kidding.