In the past decades, the environment has slowly but surely crept into the world's conscience, causing the rising generations to sit up and take notice of what's going around them.
With global warming a prominent issue in the world's current discussions, concern for the future of our environment is at the forefront of many people's minds.
Anytime the 'future' is mentioned, many people's thoughts turn to their children - so as more eco-conscious global citizens are getting up and taking notice of the environment, for many, it is their children that are making them want to build a better future for our environment.
A recent study by Neco Pty Ltd concluded that 94% of Australian citizens are concerned about the future of the environment and their children - perhaps not so much of a surprise for some.
In addition, over half of survey respondents believed that creating a better world for our children was the most compelling reason to make personal change (in environmental practices) with stopping Global warming a distant second with 17%.
Many of the participants expressed a commitment to making change themselves.
Very few thought that there was no problem whatsoever - although it is a little worrying that even those few believed that.
As news programs and newspaper articles show us again and again the damages to the environment that are emerging, we can assume that the older generations do not believe they will see a cleaner world - they are simply hoping that by taking action now, their children will be living in a better world.
The study also demonstrated that consumers who find carbon trading schemes hard to understand actually have a much clearer perspective on what they can do, with many consumers in the study willing to make financial and lifestyle sacrifices to improve the quality of the world their children will live in.
Good news for us and for the future, we can hope.