Andrew Dickens: Should we pull out of the Paris Climate Accord?

Pulling out of the Paris Climate agreement has got the backing of ACT and New Zealand First, who say we're overdoing it. And my first reaction is yes. The thing isn't working. It's never worked.  It has always felt like something the world does to make itself feel like it's doing something, even though it's doing nothing When you combine it with the Emissions Trading Scheme —which is a giant Ponzi scheme made to make Coldplay feel better about touring the world in jet planes, meanwhile filling our pastures with trees— then the whole thing seems useless, so why be involved? And we're so little. New Zealand's biggest contribution to CO2 numbers is our farming, which is fairly benign polluter, because the world needs food.   The world doesn't need more cheap jeans and plastic crap, but the people who make that stuff are merrily pumping rubbish into our atmosphere. So why should we be punishing the cornerstone of our economy when in the scheme of things, it contributes so little while the real polluters keep on polluting? So yeah, let's stand up. Tell the world they're in a fool's paradise of virtue signalling and get on with feeding the people we can. But. The rest of world, with the exception of the United States, still believe in this mirage.  And they're the ones buying our food, and they're also the ones who will find any way to blacklist our awesome agricultural products. So pulling out of the charade may see us cutting our nose off to spite our face.  It may reduce the compliance costs on our farmers in the first instance, but what's the point of that if it makes the rest of the world turn their back on our milk and butter and meat? ACT and New Zealand First may think that this posturing is helping our farmers, but in fact it could be penalising them even more heavily And maybe ACT and New Zealand first are playacting this for votes just as much as the Paris Climate Accords are playacting for the environment So let's call this thing for what it is, and rather than just pulling our in a flounce, advocate for real change to the Accords and the policies and actually get on with helping the environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.