What a thought-provoking article Nicole. My youngest niece (not much older than your daughter) already picks up the tiniest bits of plastic and hands them to us insisting that they be recycled. I too have been proud of her for doing so and secretly hope that she will have an influence over her grandparents (both still climate change deniers, despite being geography teachers who admit that the principles of weather that they taught all their lives are no longer valid).

My boss's son has similarly had a significant impact on his mum and helped ease some of the conversations that I have at work, helping me to get sustainability on our corporate agenda.

So our young activists can help open the doors.

But you are right, we shouldn't leave it to the young to make the running or attempt to divest ourselves of responsibility in the hope that they will fix it.

Perhaps we should be using this as an opportunity for mutual learning where they teach us to see some of these things through their eyes, while we teach them ever more about the world they will inherit. But the buck stops with us.