And today’s reason we are an endangered species is: kids. One of my favourite Hungarian comics said: Youth! The future is yours! It used to be that it was gonna be ours. – But we fucked it up. I added the last part.

The climate crisis is not just changing the planet – it is changing children. According to a study from the University of New Mexico, 99.5% of children’s brains are human and 0.5% plastic. That’s because we now have a calculated median intake rate for plastic: it’s 553 particles/capita/day for children – 883 for adults, in case you were wondering. So we’ve changed children on a molecular level, but pollution in the air, levels of chemicals in the water – if they have access to it, because 739 million children are exposed to high or extremely high water scarcity and 436 million children live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability – are also contributing factors. Go on Instagram and check the floods, draughts, or heavy snowfalls in areas where they’ve never seen those before. Infants and young children are less able to regulate their body temperature and more prone to dehydration, making them more vulnerable during extreme heatwaves, which are also associated with an increase in mental health problems including PTSD and depression.

Lethal childhood diseases are spreading more because of environmental degradation and it doesn’t help to have adults in charge who don’t believe in vaccinations. But there’s hope, isn’t there? They’ll go to school and learn and change the world! Well… 40 million children are having their education disrupted every year because of disasters exacerbated by climate change, and this number continues to increase. Every year, environmental factors take the lives of an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of five. The UN put out a report called “Born into climate crisis”. I’ve read it. Virtually none of their recommendations are being observed. While I look at today’s decision makers and their inaction and negligence with regards to climate change, I think: they’re suicidal. But with the affect they are having on kids, this attitude is worse: it’s homicidal.

Here to discuss the matter further is acclaimed actress, whose new film “For the Love of a Woman” is out now in theatres and her new series, “Subteran” is on Netflix, but most importantly, she’s the mother of an amazing three year old girl, Ana Ularu is with us.