Eugenie says she is teaching her son August, one, about climate change

The Daily Mail

Eugenie says she is teaching her son August, one, about climate change

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has said she wants her son to be a climate change activist from 'aged two' and has stopped using plastic at home. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the 32-year-old said giving birth to her son August in 2021 'totally changed' her outlook on the environment. She said: 'My son's going to be an activist from two years old, which is in a couple of days. Everything is for them, right? Every decision we now make has to be about how August is going to be able to live his life.' It's since emerged Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are now expecting a second child. Buckingham Palace said: 'The family are delighted and August is very much looking forward to being a big brother.' Her comments echo interventions by her cousin Prince Harry, 38, who has described how 'everything changed' when he became a father because he started to question 'what is the point in bringing a new person into this world when they get to your age and it's on fire?' Harry has also praised child protesters led by Swedish activists Greta Thunberg for refusing to attend school as part of a 'climate strike'. On a visit to Botswana in 2019, he said: 'This week, led by Greta, the world's children are striking. There's an emergency. It's a race against time, and one which we are losing.' The Duke of York's daughter said that becoming a mother has made her more concerned for communities vulnerable to climate change . Eugenie, speaking with Reuters editor-at-large Axel Threlfall and Arctic Humanity founder Gail Whiteman, said: 'My son's going to be an activist from two years old, which is in a couple of days. So, he, everything is for them. 'I talked to Peter Thomson, the UN Special Envoy for Oceans and all he says to me is that I do this for my grandchildren. And that's the same. 'Every decision we now make has to be for whether August, what he's going to be able to look at and do and how he's going to live his life. 'But I think also as a mother, you all of a sudden, totally you change, your hormones change, everything changes. 'Like now I'm scared of flying and things like that and I would never be before.' Prince Andrew's youngest daughter said she views the world differently since becoming a mother, and her concerns about climate change have affected how she lives. She revealed: 'At home we have no plastic, we try to as much as possible have no plastic and I'm trying to teach him that. But it's a battle.' But the princess also spoke of her hope for the future of the environment, saying: 'I like to be 'glass half full'.' Eugenie added: 'I'd rather be that way, but sometimes the facts and the figures and sometimes having the dinners do give you that sort of sense of frustration and doom and gloom.' And she also warned of the impact of a changing environment on vulnerable communities, adding: 'Modern slavery and human trafficking is a really big issue across the globe. 'There are 49million people estimated in slavery today and we know that when the climate is vulnerable, the most vulnerable people are affected by it. 'And we're going to see that more and more, you know, each time there's a crisis happening, that people are going to be vulnerable and taken into difficult situations. 'So climate goes hand in hand with it really.' Eugenie is known to be close to her cousin Harry, who recently released a bombshell memoir, Spare. A blurb on the book describes Harry as an 'environmentalist' and he has previously been vocal on green issues. Climate change was a key theme to his speech at the UN last year, when he said it was 'wreaking havoc' on the planet and hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. During the 2021 COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, he said it was 'pretty depressing' that children were growing up in a world where their home country was 'either on fire or under water'. However, he has attracted claims of eco hypocrisy for repeatedly travelling to events - such as the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - on private jets. Under the terms of the Paris Agreement objective of keeping global warming below 2C, each person's carbon budget should be no more than 2.1 tons per year - meaning Harry and Meghan exceeded this by nearly 15 times in just one flight. Eugenie has been vocal about the fight against plastic pollution and tried to make her wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018 as plastic-free as possible, including offering guests water in recyclable aluminium cans. She : 'Like many people, I am saddened by images of wild creatures on beaches, which I have seen photographed strangled or entangled by plastic, and their lives ended by our casual use and discarding of plastic. 'I know that so many people feel the same dislike of inadvertently harming the things that are the most precious and beautiful in the natural world. 'I have always loved being in nature. My parents instilled in me a love of wild places and a respect for animals and the natural world.' The royal was appointed ambassador for the Blue Marine Foundation in 2021 and released a mini series last year discussing ocean conservation with leading ocean advocates. In the final episode, , who told the princess: 'It's way beyond being an eco-warrior now, it's way beyond being someone who happens to like nature a bit, or happens to like being by the sea, I think it's really important to stress that, we all have to play a part in this.' Eugenie was also the only senior royal to make an appearance in the Sussexes' Netflix series, Harry & Meghan. In the first episode, the royal is seen partying alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle the night before their romance was made public in 2017. Eugenie was reportedly among the first to know about Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan, whom she already knew through their mutual friend Misha Nonoo. Harry said: 'We went to this Halloween party together, where we could be completely dressed up and no one would know. I had a bandana and goggles on.' Sharing photos from their night out, Meghan said: 'His cousin Eugenie and her boyfriend of the time Jack and my friend Marcus were there too. It was so great. Just silly fun.'