Even quite young children are watching, thinking and feeling things about the future of the environment. Those feelings deserve to be taken seriously.

We interviewed 15 Australian primary school children aged between nine and 12-years-old about environmental change, which includes things such as pollution, climate change and deforestation.

Every child knew the environment was changing, and all of them had feelings about it too. Worry was most common. We also heard sadness, anger and hopelessness.

These were thoughtful, complex responses from children paying attention to the world around them.

For their sake as well as for nature we must pull our finger out and get bolshie with our governments to protect the future (do I hear crickets?)