Yet, when students across the country - armed with placards and the backing of a mountain of scientific evidence - strike in a bid to spur our leaders into action on climate change they are equally derided.

You can't have it both ways, people.

Loud-mouth broadcasters on television and radio, not to mention supercilious newspaper columnists, writers of letters to the editor and social media warriors, have felt especially threatened by the actions of these students.

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They have portrayed those striking as brainwashed simpletons playing hooky who should go back to class and so some "real" learning. That is, after they have served a detention or suspension, of course.

Well, perhaps it's not the students who need to go back to school; perhaps it is these naysayers and their disciples who need to brush-up on their reading and comprehension skills.

If they did, then they would understand the myriad reports and studies, based on the best available scientific data and interpreted by some of the brightest minds across the globe, that conclude anthropological climate change is real and must be addressed.

A good starting point for those looking to enlighten themselves on this issue would be The State of the Climate 2018 report released late last year.

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Produced by no lesser authorities than the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO, one key passage reads: " ... mostly because of the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising and causing surface temperatures to increase, leading to an 'enhanced' greenhouse effect."

What people really should be up in arms about is not that students are missing a few classes but that our politicians, the very people elected to lead this country, are failing so miserably on this issue of climate change.

The kids are all right, dear readers. Sadly, our political leaders are not.