As if that's ever stopped us in the past. Universal suffrage, the 40-hour week, social welfare, nuclear free, GE free; being at the forefront of crucial initiatives is a very proud New Zealand tradition.
One we are about to bury beneath the contempt of our first- (not to mention third-) world peers.
After all, this is the biggie: not just saving the human race, but saving the planet that supports us.
Besides, size is a nonsense argument. Every little reduction in greenhouse gases counts.
And we could put some heat on our Anzac cousins across the ditch, with whom we're in a "group of shame" " nations thinking they can ignore this global crisis and remain unscathed.
Australia, as one of the top-10 carbon emitters, hardly rates as insignificant, and I doubt Aussies really want to be upstaged morally by Kiwis; we've done that to them enough times already.
Then there's the economic arguments, possibly the most potent being the impact on our soon-to-be-number-one industry, tourism. How many folk will be put off visiting when they learn the "clean green 100% pure" label is cow manure?
That's aside from the enormous potential upside to positively supporting green tech growth; imagine what could be achieved if we gave that sector the lavish incentives we currently squander on the oil and mining industries.
And note particularly the leaked Treasury document estimating the ruling "do nothing" stance as likely to cost more than $50 billion in equivalence reparations in order to meet our future international obligations.
Our country's record is already abysmal: we've backed out of Kyoto and its interim carry-over, and failed to even begin to meet any "aspirational" reduction targets - emissions are growing at an increasingly faster pace, year on year.
Now we're about to head to Paris in December for the all-important cards on the table round of commitments with nothing to declare except our disconnect with the bulk of humanity.
Meanwhile this week over 1100 people died in 48C heat in India, flash floods ravaged Texas, tornadoes ripped through Mexico and it snowed on the beach in Napier - in May.
Not to mention news that Antarctica's thought-to-be stable main ice-sheets are suddenly melting at an astronomical rate, or that it's estimated fully half the world's wildlife " land air and sea " has died in the past 40 years.
Climate change a myth? Human impact negligible? Yeah, right.
Submitting online is easy. Apart from the official Ministry for the Environment site, there are handy personalisable submissions on the Green Party site and one called Fix Our Future.
It takes less than five minutes to help save the planet, and our country's face. If you do nothing else on this issue, do this.
That's the right of it.
Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.
