When University of Chicago student Ellen Ma was growing up in Los Angeles, there were rolling blackouts and heat waves.

She remembers going outside after a particularly bad wildfire, and ash was falling from the sky.

“It looked like snow,” she said.

“Even in high school, I remember everyone just being hit with this sense of cynicism and hopelessness like, ‘What am I doing? How can I make any kind of positive impact, even with my own career?’ And then thinking, why would I want to bring a child into a world that’s so messed up?” she said.

Those feelings were triggered by concerns about climate change, as well as frustration with the way politicians were handling the issue, she said.

For Ma, the lack of action was “pretty terrifying.”

Not every flood, heat wave, storm or wildfire is due to climate change, but scientists say that global temperatures are rising, and with them the risk of more — and more extreme — weather events.

Last year was the warmest on record by far, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the 10 warmest years since 1850 have all been in the past decade.

The worsening climate situation has fueled the rise of the climate-and-kids discussion, according to Ferorelli.

“You can’t ignore it,” Ferorelli said of climate change. “You can’t tune it out the way you could before, not just because more people are talking about it, but because I wore a tank top to the post office yesterday, and it was snowing this morning. This doesn’t seem normal anymore.”

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