In the U.K., more than 30% of teenage Britons are climate change deniers. This was revealed in a new report, which was published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
The poll conducted by the British tech watchdog aims to investigate how climate change denial spreads on YouTube, which is considered the favorite online platform of teenagers in the United Kingdom.
For the past years, climate change deniers have had the same belief; that global warming and climate change are not real. However, CCDH's new report revealed a new narrative that young climate deniers spread.
UK: Over 30% of Teenage Britons are Climate Change Deniers
According to The Guardian's latest report, CCDH's latest survey discovered that a third of teenagers in the U.K. are climate deniers.
The U.K. tech watchdog gathered a dataset of text transcripts from over 12,000 climate-related videos on YouTube, which were posted on more than 90 YT channels.
These climate change content were published from January 1, 2018, to September 30, 2023. After analyzing these climate change-related videos, CCDH included the results of polling company Survation's nationally representative survey.
Survation's survey discovered that 31% of Britons aged 13 to 17 years old are climate change deniers. When CCDH combined the results acquired by Survation and its findings, 13 to 17-year-old climate change deniers in the U.K. increased to 37%.
Since these young climate change deniers were discovered on YouTube, experts urged Google's video streaming platform to avoid directing the attention of teenagers to climate denials.
"Platforms like YouTube have developed technology to monopolize young people's attention and shouldn't direct that towards climate denial," said Friends of the Earth's Climate Disinformation Program Director Michael Khoo via Euronews.Green.
New Climate Change Denial Narrative Discovered
Climate change deniers usually believe that climate change and global warming are not real. However, the new denial narrative that CCDH discovered is quite different from these traditional deniers.
In its new survey, the tech watchdog said that the new climate change denial narratives move along three prevalent lines that claim the following:
- Climate science and the climate movement are unreliable.
- The impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.
- Climate solutions won't work.
Aside from these, teenage climate deniers in the U.K. also agreed with the statement "Climate change and its effects are being purposely over-exaggerated."
The new climate change denial narratives are more concerning than the older ones since they either claim that climate change is beneficial, harmless, or just an overexaggeration.
"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," explained CCDH Chief Executive Imran Ahmed.
