Tag Archives: climate change

YouTube still displays ads on some climate change denial videos, researchers say

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Over 18 months after YouTube pledged to demonetize climate change denial content, researchers say they found 100 videos that violate the policy and still feature ads. They said in a report that ads for brands such as Costco, Politico and Tommy Hilfiger were displayed alongside the videos, which collectively had more than 18 million views.

An ad for the movie 80 For Brady appeared before a video claiming that climate change is a hoax, according to The New York Times. Jane Fonda, who stars in the film and runs a PAC focused on tackling climate change, told the publication she was "appalled" to find out an ad for one of her movies was running next to such a video.

Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of more than 50 environmental organizations and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said the videos it found included claims like "there is no link between CO2 and temperature” and “every single model [the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] ever have put out is wrong.” The researchers added that YouTube bans videos containing "harmful misinformation" from receiving ad revenue. This policy applies to videos that contradict "authoritative scientific consensus on the existence of and causes behind climate change."

CAAD said it found another 100 videos with more than 55 million total views that didn't violate YouTube's policies but met its own definition of climate misinformation and disinformation. The group claimed that's an indication of YouTube profiting from videos that fall outside of its "narrow definition" of what constitutes climate disinformation.

The researchers said that by the time they completed their research, YouTube had demonetized eight of the videos in the dataset. CAAD said the videos that were still monetized collectively had more than 71 million views. 

Content moderation is a complex issue and some videos that violate YouTube policies will inevitably slip through the cracks. However, some of the climate change denial videos that CAAD found were on channels with more than a million subscribers.

YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told Engadget that although the platform rigorously enforces its climate change denial policy, it's impossible to do so perfectly. Still, YouTube is "constantly working" to upgrade its systems and get better at spotting and removing content that violates its policies. YouTube welcomes third-party feedback, as flagging videos that violate the rules can "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time." 

The platform has reviewed a list of videos that CAAD researchers shared with it and demonetized those that violate the climate change denial policy. However, YouTube found that "a significant number of the videos" CAAD flagged didn't break the rules.

"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”

Update 5/2/2023 3:20PM ET: Added a statement and more context from YouTube.

Update 5/2/2023 3:55PM ET: Clarified that many of the videos CAAD flagged did not violate YouTube's policies.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-still-displays-ads-on-some-climate-change-denial-videos-researchers-say-153904994.html?src=rss

YouTube still displays ads on some climate change denial videos, researchers say

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Over 18 months after YouTube pledged to demonetize climate change denial content, researchers say they found 100 videos that violate the policy and still feature ads. They said in a report that ads for brands such as Costco, Politico and Tommy Hilfiger were displayed alongside the videos, which collectively had more than 18 million views.

An ad for the movie 80 For Brady appeared before a video claiming that climate change is a hoax, according to The New York Times. Jane Fonda, who stars in the film and runs a PAC focused on tackling climate change, told the publication she was "appalled" to find out an ad for one of her movies was running next to such a video.

Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of more than 50 environmental organizations and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said the videos it found included claims like "there is no link between CO2 and temperature” and “every single model [the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] ever have put out is wrong.” The researchers added that YouTube bans videos containing "harmful misinformation" from receiving ad revenue. This policy applies to videos that contradict "authoritative scientific consensus on the existence of and causes behind climate change."

CAAD said it found another 100 videos with more than 55 million total views that didn't violate YouTube's policies but met its own definition of climate misinformation and disinformation. The group claimed that's an indication of YouTube profiting from videos that fall outside of its "narrow definition" of what constitutes climate disinformation.

The researchers said that by the time they completed their research, YouTube had demonetized eight of the videos in the dataset. CAAD said the videos that were still monetized collectively had more than 71 million views. 

Content moderation is a complex issue and some videos that violate YouTube policies will inevitably slip through the cracks. However, some of the climate change denial videos that CAAD found were on channels with more than a million subscribers.

YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told Engadget that although the platform rigorously enforces its climate change denial policy, it's impossible to do so perfectly. Still, YouTube is "constantly working" to upgrade its systems and get better at spotting and removing content that violates its policies. YouTube welcomes third-party feedback, as flagging videos that violate the rules can "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time." 

The platform has reviewed a list of videos that CAAD researchers shared with it and demonetized those that violate the climate change denial policy. However, YouTube found that "a significant number of the videos" CAAD flagged didn't break the rules.

"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”

Update 5/2/2023 3:20PM ET: Added a statement and more context from YouTube.

Update 5/2/2023 3:55PM ET: Clarified that many of the videos CAAD flagged did not violate YouTube's policies.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-still-displays-ads-on-some-climate-change-denial-videos-researchers-say-153904994.html?src=rss

TikTok begins removing videos with climate change misinformation

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Last month, TikTok updated its community guidelines to add policies that prohibit videos with climate change misinformation on the app. As The Daily Beast notes, the change is taking effect today, April 21st. According to the service's announcement, TikTok will no longer allow content that "undermines well-established scientific consensus" regarding the climate crisis. 

TikTok will still allow videos that tackle discussions about climate change, such as government policies related to it, as long as they don't go against scientific consensus. However, it will start deleting content that violate its new policy today, and any user searching for climate information will be directed to "authoritative information" that TikTok had decided on in partnership with the United Nations. 

Back in 2022, internet trust researchers at NewsGuard have published a report about misinformation. They had found that TikTok is full of false information about, among other topics, climate change, and looking for the term brings up search suggestions like "climate change debunked" and "climate change doesn’t exist." During the height of the pandemic, looking for COVID-19 videos would also bring up suggestions that include "covid vaccine hiv." In addition, misinformation was especially prevalent during the presidential election season in the US. TikTok had ended up removing over 300,000 election-related videos and over 50,000 videos sharing COVID-19 misinformation. 

When TikTok introduced its new policy regarding climate change, it also added new rules covering AI tech that creates content. All digitally manipulated or created media on TikTok must now come with the appropriate tag, such as "synthetic," "fake" or "altered."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-begins-removing-videos-with-climate-change-misinformation-105652995.html?src=rss

TikTok begins removing videos with climate change misinformation

Posted on by

Last month, TikTok updated its community guidelines to add policies that prohibit videos with climate change misinformation on the app. As The Daily Beast notes, the change is taking effect today, April 21st. According to the service's announcement, TikTok will no longer allow content that "undermines well-established scientific consensus" regarding the climate crisis. 

TikTok will still allow videos that tackle discussions about climate change, such as government policies related to it, as long as they don't go against scientific consensus. However, it will start deleting content that violate its new policy today, and any user searching for climate information will be directed to "authoritative information" that TikTok had decided on in partnership with the United Nations. 

Back in 2022, internet trust researchers at NewsGuard have published a report about misinformation. They had found that TikTok is full of false information about, among other topics, climate change, and looking for the term brings up search suggestions like "climate change debunked" and "climate change doesn’t exist." During the height of the pandemic, looking for COVID-19 videos would also bring up suggestions that include "covid vaccine hiv." In addition, misinformation was especially prevalent during the presidential election season in the US. TikTok had ended up removing over 300,000 election-related videos and over 50,000 videos sharing COVID-19 misinformation. 

When TikTok introduced its new policy regarding climate change, it also added new rules covering AI tech that creates content. All digitally manipulated or created media on TikTok must now come with the appropriate tag, such as "synthetic," "fake" or "altered."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-begins-removing-videos-with-climate-change-misinformation-105652995.html?src=rss

COP27 conference approves historic climate damage fund for developing nations

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Following two weeks of negotiations that felt doomed to go nowhere, the COP27 climate conference delivered a breakthrough deal to help developing nations cope with the often catastrophic effects of climate change. The Washington Post reports dignitaries agreed to create a “loss and damage fund” in the early hours of Sunday morning after two extra days of negotiations. The Alliance of Small Island States, an organization that includes countries whose very existence is threatened by climate change, called the agreement “historic.” However, as with the Glasgow Climate Pact that came out of last year’s COP26 conference, the consensus is that COP27 failed to deliver the action that is desperately needed to meet the demands of the current moment.

For one, the conference failed to see nations agree to new and stronger commitments to reduce their carbon emissions. According to The Post, China and Saudi Arabia were strongly against language calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels, as were many African nations. Alok Sharma, the chair of COP26, said (via Phys.org) a clause on energy was "weakened, in the final minutes.”

The conference also left many of the most important details related to the loss and damage fund to be sorted out by a committee that will need to answer some difficult questions in the coming months. Among the issues that need to be decided on is how much the United States, historically the greatest emitter of greenhouse emissions globally, should pay out to vulnerable countries. The conference also ended without a clear commitment from China to pay into the fund.

The committee now has a year to draft recommendations for next year’s climate meeting in Dubai. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said governments took “an important step towards justice,” but fell short in pushing for the commitments that would ultimately protect the world’s most vulnerable people from the worst effects of climate change. "Our planet is still in the emergency room," Guterres said. "We need to drastically reduce emissions now and this is an issue this COP did not address."

COP27 conference approves historic climate damage fund for developing nations

Posted on by

Following two weeks of negotiations that felt doomed to go nowhere, the COP27 climate conference delivered a breakthrough deal to help developing nations cope with the often catastrophic effects of climate change. The Washington Post reports dignitaries agreed to create a “loss and damage fund” in the early hours of Sunday morning after two extra days of negotiations. The Alliance of Small Island States, an organization that includes countries whose very existence is threatened by climate change, called the agreement “historic.” However, as with the Glasgow Climate Pact that came out of last year’s COP26 conference, the consensus is that COP27 failed to deliver the action that is desperately needed to meet the demands of the current moment.

For one, the conference failed to see nations agree to new and stronger commitments to reduce their carbon emissions. According to The Post, China and Saudi Arabia were strongly against language calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels, as were many African nations. Alok Sharma, the chair of COP26, said (via Phys.org) a clause on energy was "weakened, in the final minutes.”

The conference also left many of the most important details related to the loss and damage fund to be sorted out by a committee that will need to answer some difficult questions in the coming months. Among the issues that need to be decided on is how much the United States, historically the greatest emitter of greenhouse emissions globally, should pay out to vulnerable countries. The conference also ended without a clear commitment from China to pay into the fund.

The committee now has a year to draft recommendations for next year’s climate meeting in Dubai. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said governments took “an important step towards justice,” but fell short in pushing for the commitments that would ultimately protect the world’s most vulnerable people from the worst effects of climate change. "Our planet is still in the emergency room," Guterres said. "We need to drastically reduce emissions now and this is an issue this COP did not address."

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is turning to the metaverse to preserve its culture

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With global temperatures expected to rise as much as 2.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the island nation of Tuvalu says it has no choice but to build a digital version of itself. On Tuesday, Simon Kofe, the country’s foreign minister, told the COP27 climate summit Tuvalu would look to the metaverse to preserve its culture and history amid rising sea levels (via Reuters).

“As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation. Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people. And to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we’ll move them to the cloud,” Kofe said in a video that sees the camera slowly zooming out to reveal that he’s in front of a greenscreen recreation of his home.

At last year’s COP26 summit, Kofe famously addressed the conference standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight the existential threat climate change poses to island nations like Tuvalu. In his latest address, the metaverse is framed as a potential home for all countries if there's not a global effort to address the problem.

“Only concerted global effort can ensure that Tuvalu does not move permanently online and disappear forever from the physical plane,” he said. “Without a global conscience and a global commitment to our shared well-being, we may soon find the rest of the world joining us online as their lands disappear.

Tuvalu is an archipelago consisting of nine islands located between Australia and Hawaii. It’s home to approximately 12,000 people. Climate scientists anticipate the entire country will be underwater by the end of the 21st century.

To achieve the 1.5C target put forward by the Paris Agreement and avoid significantly worse climate outcomes, the world has eight years to reduce annual global emissions by a further 45 percent, compared with projections based on current policies. To limit the rise in temperatures to under 2C, an extra 30 percent reduction in emissions is needed.

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is turning to the metaverse to preserve its culture

Posted on by

With global temperatures expected to rise as much as 2.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the island nation of Tuvalu says it has no choice but to build a digital version of itself. On Tuesday, Simon Kofe, the country’s foreign minister, told the COP27 climate summit Tuvalu would look to the metaverse to preserve its culture and history amid rising sea levels (via Reuters).

“As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation. Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people. And to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we’ll move them to the cloud,” Kofe said in a video that sees the camera slowly zooming out to reveal that he’s in front of a greenscreen recreation of his home.

At last year’s COP26 summit, Kofe famously addressed the conference standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight the existential threat climate change poses to island nations like Tuvalu. In his latest address, the metaverse is framed as a potential home for all countries if there's not a global effort to address the problem.

“Only concerted global effort can ensure that Tuvalu does not move permanently online and disappear forever from the physical plane,” he said. “Without a global conscience and a global commitment to our shared well-being, we may soon find the rest of the world joining us online as their lands disappear.

Tuvalu is an archipelago consisting of nine islands located between Australia and Hawaii. It’s home to approximately 12,000 people. Climate scientists anticipate the entire country will be underwater by the end of the 21st century.

To achieve the 1.5C target put forward by the Paris Agreement and avoid significantly worse climate outcomes, the world has eight years to reduce annual global emissions by a further 45 percent, compared with projections based on current policies. To limit the rise in temperatures to under 2C, an extra 30 percent reduction in emissions is needed.

UN initiative will use satellites to detect methane emission hotspots

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The United Nations is betting that satellites could help the world catch up on emissions reductions. The organization has unveiled a Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) that, as the name implies, will warn countries and companies of "major" methane emission releases. The technology will use satellite map data to identify sources, notify the relevant bodies and help track progress on lowering this output.

The initial MARS platform will focus on "very large" energy sector sources. It'll gradually expand to include less powerful sources, more frequent alerts and data from animals, coal, rice and waste. Partners in the program, such as the International Energy Agency and UN's Climate and Clean Air Coalition, will provide help and advice. The information also won't remain a secret, as the UN will make both data and analyses public between 45 to 75 days after it's detected.

The system will get its early funding from the US government, European Commission, Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Methane Hub. Both Bezos' fund and GMH are backing related efforts, such as studies on spotting and counteracting agricultural methane emissions.

This is the first publicly available system of its kind, the UN claims. It will theoretically lead to faster, more targeted methane emissions reduction than you see today. That could be crucial in the years ahead. The UN warned at the COP27 conference that Earth was nowhere near limiting global warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius from the Paris Agreement. As human-released methane is both a major contributor to climate change (about 25 percent, the UN says) and quick to leave the atmosphere, an effective use of MARS could help get environmental strategy back on track.

As you might imagine, though, MARS will only work if governments and businesses cooperate. There's not much point to alerts if emissions contributors ignore them. An oil company might be reluctant to spend the money need to fix its flaring, for instance. The UN can point out a problem using this system, but it can't require action.

UN initiative will use satellites to detect methane emission hotspots

Posted on by

The United Nations is betting that satellites could help the world catch up on emissions reductions. The organization has unveiled a Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) that, as the name implies, will warn countries and companies of "major" methane emission releases. The technology will use satellite map data to identify sources, notify the relevant bodies and help track progress on lowering this output.

The initial MARS platform will focus on "very large" energy sector sources. It'll gradually expand to include less powerful sources, more frequent alerts and data from animals, coal, rice and waste. Partners in the program, such as the International Energy Agency and UN's Climate and Clean Air Coalition, will provide help and advice. The information also won't remain a secret, as the UN will make both data and analyses public between 45 to 75 days after it's detected.

The system will get its early funding from the US government, European Commission, Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Methane Hub. Both Bezos' fund and GMH are backing related efforts, such as studies on spotting and counteracting agricultural methane emissions.

This is the first publicly available system of its kind, the UN claims. It will theoretically lead to faster, more targeted methane emissions reduction than you see today. That could be crucial in the years ahead. The UN warned at the COP27 conference that Earth was nowhere near limiting global warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius from the Paris Agreement. As human-released methane is both a major contributor to climate change (about 25 percent, the UN says) and quick to leave the atmosphere, an effective use of MARS could help get environmental strategy back on track.

As you might imagine, though, MARS will only work if governments and businesses cooperate. There's not much point to alerts if emissions contributors ignore them. An oil company might be reluctant to spend the money need to fix its flaring, for instance. The UN can point out a problem using this system, but it can't require action.