Teen activist Greta Thunberg delivered a powerful rebuke to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday, accusing them of turning a blind eye to global climate problems in exchange for profits and temporary economic growth.

I shouldnt be standing here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to me for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, the 16-year-old Swede said while appearing to fight back tears.

People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you! she continued.

Thunberg, who sailed across the Atlantic to New York on a zero-emissions yacht to campaign for environmental action, rattled off a series of alarming calculations.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control, she said, adding that the full equation didnt leave wiggle room for any other expected or unexpected pollution.