Sixteen-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg scolded a gathering of the United Nations on Monday, saying the world is on the verge of mass extinction. Here’s an excerpt:
In fact, the world is getting better. Literacy is greater. There are fewer people living in poverty. Child mortality is dropping. And more people live in countries that are more free.
Humanity is living in a remarkable era, where people are being lifted out of wretched conditions and living longer and more free lives.
[Read: The short history of global living in 5 charts and why it matters]
But you wouldn’t know it if you listened to Greta Thunberg. She’s been allowed to be convinced that the world has robbed her of her childhood, when maybe it is actually her guardians who have done the robbing.
