The world is coming to an end.

With the planet entering its final death throes unless climate heroine Greta Thunberg whips world leaders into line, slays the internal combustion engine, hammers civilization back into the Stone Age, and blah, blah, blah, Gov. Gavin Newsom had the audacity to blow off the Glasgow climate summit to go trick or treating  with his kids on Halloween.

Sounds like the lament of the eminent doomsday wing of the climate militancy movement, right?

Guess again.

Newsom is being slammed mostly by those Californians who are skeptical about the climate apocalypse being predicted in the next 30 years.

If anyone should be up in arms it’s those who believe what parts of California aren’t burned to a crisp or de-vegetated by drought will drown in rainfall of biblical proportions.

You can almost hear their spiel now if the governor’s political leanings weren’t toward the progressive side

They’d be accusing Newsom of selfishly trick or treating with his white privileged kids while dismissing the urgent need to man the ramparts of the crusade to slash greenhouse gasses to save lives of generations of repressed children across the globe that he should have the moral obligation as the duly elected person to govern California to let them and their families migrate here while giving each and every one of them free medical care and $10,000 a year stipends. Did I miss something?

The ranting and raving over Newsom allegedly going AWOL for two weeks and even some of the partisan retorts by those rushing to his defense demonstrates not just how petty politics has become but how far disconnected those participants in the non-stop brawling are willing to go to impugn the integrity of those who disagree with them.

The first question that no one seems to be answering is simple: Why should the governor of California have a seat at the table when it comes to global treaties? The last time I checked Joe Biden was president (no, it’s not Donald Trump) of the United States.

California is not a sovereign nation. It is a political subdivision of the United States of America. It doesn’t matter if California were on its own we’d have the world’s sixth largest economy. You can’t ignore the fact the California Legislature has absolutely no authority to set or dictate foreign policy including in places that are foreign to California sensibilities such as Texas.

Aside from putting his two cents into the debate when he has all the free media access in the world to do so without burning fossil fuels to take a jaunt almost half way around the world, what would be the overriding reason for him to be there in the first place?

It would really have been more of gambit to share the world stage with other leaders to help with any presidential aspirations he might harbor.

And certainly it’s not to be bored into snooze land by the endless droning of climate posturing. Any bets Biden would have preferred trick or treating with his grandkids instead of being forced to listen to the predictable drivel in a pre-recorded video presentation that caused him to nod off and would probably do the same to those half his age.

Newsom did not do a disservice to Californians he was elected to govern by blowing off Glasgow. You could make the case had Newsom gone it would have been a disservice to this state that has a multitude of life and death situations involving water policy, the homeless, farm production, the state’s wilderness and more that he has within his reach to alter. That is unless, of course, he is willing to concede addressing micro local and/or regional concerns are 100 percent dependent on the whims of climate policies steered by China, India, and the wannabe United States of Europe.

Besides why would Newsom who, whether you agree with or like him, has an established a record of governing and acting as an adult when he’s not dining at posh restaurants in the Napa Valley where a plate of appetizers start at $350 want to be a punch line for an 18 year-old whose most memorable quote so far in her life is “blah, blah, blah”?

Then there is the issue to our obsessive need to have leaders communicate with us 24/7 via social media, TV, or appearances where the traditional media and the blog mobs can record and then slice and dice every word they utter.

The governor shouldn’t be a reality TV star or trying to amass a million likes on Tik Tok.

There is a lot more to governing than running off one’s mouth or striving to be an Internet sensation.

Just because the governor’s face wasn’t plastered across social media or he wasn’t making daily appearances for two weeks doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing his job. That job is governing California and not flying to what has ended up being, depending on your views, a circus or a predictable and arguably unproductive climate summit.

If Calvin Coolidge were president today the Internet would be rampant with those posting conspiracy theories about him being dead and the country being run by a shadow government. For those who have no inkling about Coolidge’s temperament and public persona let alone who he was, let’s just say he was the absolute polar opposite of Trump and leave it at that.

It would be remiss not to bring up the point no one has touched.

Don’t we want elected leaders that understand the importance of family? After all, isn’t our concern about the future of our respective families driving much of the passionate debates today whether it’s schools, policing, healthcare, immigration, or climate?

One would hope spending more time with his kids helps Newsom sharpen his perspectives, re-energizes him, and basically gives him the ability to “reset.”

California is better off that Newsom opted to go trick or treating instead of going to Glasgow even though in some neighborhoods the governor going as himself would likely be scarier to those answering the door instead of the skeleton costume he chose to wear.

The fact that he gave the dog and pony show portion of being governor a rest for a few days only did a disservice to the cultural and political addicts that believe real change is made by either public preening or playing smack and smash politics in today’s public square of the Internet.

Let’s hope for the sake of all of us the governor spends time with his kids during the upcoming holidays as well.

I don’t know about you but a ceasefire in the mask wars and other cultural battles would be a wonderful gift even if it is just for 24 hours on Christmas.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com