Ahead of Climate Strike, Greta Thunberg Tells US Lawmakers to Their Faces: Sorry, You're Not Trying 'Hard Enough'

“Please save your praise. We don’t want it.”

That was the blunt message 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered directly to U.S. lawmakers Tuesday during a meeting of the Senate Climate Change Task Force, which featured testimony from young environmentalists demanding that members of Congress treat the ecological crisis with the urgency it deserves.

“Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything,” said Thunberg. “If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.”

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After Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) told the young activists that they will soon have an opportunity to run for political office, Thunberg said: “We don’t want to become politicians, we don’t want to run for office. We want you to unite behind the science.”

“I’m sorry,” Thunberg added, “I know you’re probably trying very hard, and this is not personally to any one of you but generally to everyone. I know you’re trying, but just not hard enough.”

In a tweet following the meeting, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—the lead sponsor of the Senate Green New Deal resolution—said that “by failing to take meaningful action on climate, our leaders failed the young people of the world.”