A new wave of denial about climate change is on the rise even as there is greater acknowledgment of human-caused global warming, a study of more than 12,000 videos by a disinformation campaign group warns.
The “new denial” seeks to undermine confidence in green energy solutions, as well as climate science and scientists, the research led by a group of academics and the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows.
These forms of denial made up 70 per cent of falsehoods related to climate change in videos published on sites such as YouTube and X over a six-year period, said the report, which was published on Tuesday.
Videos that were identified as containing climate denial claims received more than 325mn views in total, based on research that used artificial intelligence tools to sort and classify the assertions in content uploaded from 2018 to 2023.
The academics led by Travis Coan from the UK’s Exeter university found older forms of denial about climate change had fallen to one-third of the disinformation. Fewer instances highlighting cold weather or a coming ice age were found, for example, as meteorological evidence of global warming increased.