You did well if you missed the front page semi-apocalyptic warnings across all media yesterday about the future of humanity as the latest IPCC report came out.

One Guardian headline was: “IPCC report shows possible loss of entire countries within the century.”

And that was one of the more chilled-out headlines.

Simultaneously, New Zealand was targeted by a Greta tweet:

New Zealand’s prime minister, stuck between Greta and The Farmers, didn’t have much space to work with on this one, though she did manage to babble some meaningless crap to try and ease the story out of everyone’s worry zone for a little while:

"We are, obviously, in the process now of just having received our climate commission report of responding to what is a significant piece of work in order to plan our emission reductions and our carbon budgets," she said.

"It would be unfair to judge New Zealand based on what essentially were targets that were set some time ago when we are now undertaking an incredibly heavy piece of work to lift our ambition and lift our emissions reductions."

It’s like reading a Trump quote, but with grammar.

The Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor managed to say nearly nothing at all in the most complicated way possible too:

“Agricultural emissions were not just from cows, they were also from waste, he said, and he "absolutely" agreed with the argument that cutting food production in New Zealand may simply move it to overseas industries that were less sustainable.”

This weird obsession with the ‘magical’ sustainability of NZ agriculture compared to other countries has to be nipped at the bud for the lie it is. It’s bollocks!

That was story number one.

Story number two from RNZ:

“A Southland farmer already in mediation over land clearing is now under investigation after being accused of trying to drain a wetland.”

Here are the drains:

This douche—who is unlikely to ever feature in Fonterra’s greenwashing ads that the NZ Herald runs as trick articles—is already infamous for illegally clearing 800 hectares of native Manuka trees on his land to make room for grass to feed cows.

And finally, story number 3, also from RNZ, entitled: ‘Growing SUV popularity coincides with surge in vehicle emissions.’

“New Zealanders are driving bigger cars, travelling greater distances, and emitting more carbon dioxide as they go.

“In the last five years, private transport emissions have grown much faster than dairy and manufacturing sector emissions.

“After years of the Toyota Corolla taking the number one spot, the top four most popular new passenger cars last year were all SUVs, or sports utility vehicles - Toyota Rav 4, Kia Sportage, Kia Seltos, and Mazda CX-5.”

I think it would be safe to say from the above evidence that NZ as a whole—its politicians, farmers, and people—has decided to stick its head in the sand for a little while longer yet.

One has to wonder what the tipping point will be before real action happens. Will there have to be an apocalyptic flood of half the country, a forest fire taking out one of NZ’s wooden house cities, or something worse even, before real action is taken?

Probably!