by If you’ve been on YouTube lately, you may have come across someone claiming that wind and solar energy don’t work, that rising sea levels will help coral reefs flourish, or that climate scientists are corrupt and scary.
These are all false and misleading statements taken from a handful of thousands of YouTube videos analyzed by the non-profit Center for Combating Digital Hate (CCDH), which identified a major shift in the tactics of climate deniers in recent years .
Where climate deniers would dismiss climate change as a hoax or scam, or claim that humans were not responsible for it, many are now switching to another approach, one that seeks to undermine climate science, cast doubt on climate solutions and even demand. global warming will be beneficial at best, harmless at worst.
Over the past five years there has been a “dramatic” rise in this “new denial,” according to a CCDH analysis published on Tuesday, which also suggests that this change in narrative could help YouTube video creators circumvent the ban on a social media company for money to deny climate. .
Researchers collected transcripts from more than 12,000 videos posted between 2018 and 2023 across 96 YouTube channels that promoted climate denial and misinformation. Transcripts were analyzed by artificial intelligence to categorize the climate denial narratives used as “old denial” or “new denial”.
“New denial” content – attacks on solutions, science and the climate movement – now accounts for 70% of all climate denial claims posted on YouTube, according to the report, up from 35% in 2018.
“Old denial” of claims that global warming is not happening dropped from 48% of all denied claims in 2018 to 14% in 2023, the report found. Claims that climate solutions will not work, however, increased from 9% to 30% over the same period.
CCDH chief executive officer and founder Imran Ahmed said the report was a success story in some ways.
“The climate movement has won the argument that climate change is real, and that it is harming our planet’s ecosystems,” he told CNN. As the impacts of the climate crisis – from scorching heat waves to ferocious storms – affect a wider range of the world’s population, climate change denial narratives are becoming less effective.
But, he said, it’s also a huge warning. “Now that the majority of people recognize the old climate denialism as counterfactual and discredited, climate deniers have cynically concluded that the only way to undo climate action is to tell people not to -the solutions work.”
“This climate denial is nothing short of shameful,” Ahmed said, “and could have a huge impact on public opinion on climate action for years to come.”
It is of particular concern because of the young demographic attracted to YouTube, according to the CCDH. A Pew Research Center survey in December found that YouTube was the most widespread social media platform it analyzed among 13- to 17-year-olds, used by about nine in 10 at them.
“Climate deniers now have access to a massive global audience through digital platforms,” Charlie Cray, senior strategist at Greenpeace, said in a statement. “Continuing public support for climate action could have dire consequences for the future of our planet – especially among younger audiences.”
The change in tactics to undermine climate activism could also help creators circumvent YouTube’s policy that prevents them from monetizing climate denial content, the report suggests. In 2021, the company banned advertising against content that “contradicted the established scientific consensus on the existence and causes of climate change.”
But YouTube could make up to $13.4 million a year from ads on videos the report found contained climate denial, according to CCDH calculations, including ads from major sports companies, hotels and international nonprofits.
“There are not many companies that would be happy to see their advertising appear alongside clear climate denial content,” Ahmed said. “And I imagine they’ll be furious to find out they’re inadvertently funding climate denialism.”
In a statement to CNN, a YouTube spokesperson said, “debate or discussion of climate change topics, including public policy or research, is permitted.”
However, the spokesperson said, “when content crosses the line into climate change denial, we stop showing ads on those videos. We also display information panels under relevant videos to provide additional climate change information and context from third parties.”
YouTube said its enforcement teams work quickly to review videos that may violate policies, and then act on them.
The company said that after reviewing the CCDH report, it determined that some of the videos included violated current climate change policies and has since removed ads from them. He added, however, that most of the videos in the analysis did not violate their policies.
Michael Mann, a leading climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied the changing narrative of climate denial, said the results were “disturbing”.
“This is unlikely to be the result of organic social media activity,” Mann, who was not involved in the study, told CNN. “It suggests that bad actors have made a concerted effort to weaponize social media in a way that is particularly aimed at young people, recognizing that the biggest threat to the status quo is the fossil fuel industry, as evidenced by the massive influence which the youth have. climate movement.”
Ahmed called on Google to strengthen its policies to deal with “new disclaimer” content. “We are asking Google to extend their ban on monetization and amplification of ‘old disclaimer’ content to include ‘new disclaimer’ as well,” Ahmed said, adding that other social media companies should share the report’s findings with their also a minister.
“We are asking other platforms that claim to be green in one breath not to profit from it, to increase revenue share, and thus, rewards or clear climate denial content that contradicts scientific consensus,” a Ahmed said. “You can’t claim to be green but then you become the world’s biggest megaphone for climate change disinformation.”
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