Who would have thought it? Social media and internet channels might be spreading some disinformation.

A new study has exposed the dangers of climate denial on YouTube – particularly among young people. Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) gathered a dataset of text transcripts from 12,058 climate-related YouTube videos posted by 96 channels over almost six years between January 2018 and September 2023.

By using an AI model to analyse YouTube transcripts, the CCDH uncovered a radical shift in climate deniers’ output from “old denial” narratives towards “new denial”.

The “old denial” centred on two key false narratives: denying that global warming is happening and that if it is, humans are not causing it. This has now morphed into three main and increasingly prevalent arguments: climate solutions do not work, science is unreliable and that the impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.

A new polling conducted by Survation for the CCDH in 2024 also found that nearly a third, 31 per cent, of US 13-17 year olds agreed that “the impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless”, including 39 per cent of teenage boys, and 31per cent said climate change is “a hoax to control and oppress people”, including 41 per cent of teenage boys.

Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), said: “Scientists have won the battle to inform the public about climate change and its causes, which is why those opposed to climate action have cynically switched focus to undermining confidence in solutions and in science itself.”

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