OPINION: Your old mate notes that the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, recently granted leave for appeal for one Michael John Smith v Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited.
Smith launched legal action against seven of the country's largest polluters and fossil fuel producers, including Fonterra and Dairy Holdings, claiming injury from their ongoing emissions.
Both the High Court and Court of Appeal dismissed the claim, but the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear the case.
"I'm pleased that for the first time the courts are considering the enormity of the climate crisis," says Smith, who co-chairs the Iwi Chairs Forum.
The irony is that this is the very same 'climate activist' Michael (Mike) Smith who cut down the famous tree on Auckland's One Tree Hill a few years back, with not one thought given to the climate-saving carbon sequestration of this much celebrated tree!