[TheClimate.Vote] January 17, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Jan 17 09:02:59 EST 2020
/*January 17, 2020*/
[Part of the Problem]
*YouTube Has Been 'Actively Promoting' Climate Denialism Videos: Report**
*Emma Tucker
Published Jan. 16, 2020*
*YouTube has been "actively promoting" videos containing misinformation
about climate change through a feature that determines what users watch
for 70 percent of the time they spend on the platform, according to a
report released Thursday. The nonprofit activist group Avaaz examined
5,537 videos that appear by search terms such as "climate change,"
"global warming," and "climate manipulation." The group subsequently
found that for each of those terms respectively, eight percent, 16
percent, and 21 percent of the top 100 related videos featured in the
"up next" sidebar contained false information about climate change, such
as denying it exists or claiming that humans are not to blame for the
crisis. "We've found that it's very likely that at least one in five
users who search for a term like global warming or climate change could
be sent down this type of misinformation rabbit hole," said Fadi Quran,
a campaigns director at Avaaz. "Scientists are working so hard to
educate people about the existential threat we face and YouTube is
allowing bad actors among us the last word on this issue for many people."
The "up next" feature has an algorithm that dictates recommendations,
and it is designed to engage users and keep them on YouTube. Avaaz
claims that the platform has still used these tactics despite announcing
in January 2019 that it would curb "content that could misinform users
in harmful ways," including climate change denying videos. *
*https://www.thedailybeast.com/youtube-has-been-actively-promoting-climate-denialism-videos-report-claims
- - -
["Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach"]
*Why is YouTube Broadcasting Climate Misinformation to Millions?*
YouTube is driving its users to climate misinformation and the world's
most trusted brands are paying for it.
January 16th, 2020
*Executive Summary*
Climate misinformation threatens the health and
safety of our societies and our planet. Protecting
citizens around the world from fake news
designed to confuse and poison the debate
about climate change must be a key priority
for governments, advertisers and social media
platforms.
[download full report PDF
https://avaazimages.avaaz.org/youtube_climate_misinformation.pdf]
*Key Findings of the Report*
YouTube is actively promoting climate misinformation to millions of
users:
*For the search term "global warming," 16% of the top 100 related
videos included under the up-next feature...had disinformation about
climate change.*
For the related videos recommendedto users who searched "climate
change" this number equals 8% and rises to 21% for the search term
"climate manipulation."
*The climate misinformation videos Avaaz reviewed had 21.1 million
views collectively.*
This is just the tip of the iceberg: Assuming a similar ratio for
the thousands of other videos recommended through these and similar
search terms,*the total views on climate misinformation on YouTube
likely add up to hundreds of millions.*
Ads for some of the world's most trusted brands were found on
climate misinformation videos:
*Avaaz was able to identify 108 brands running ads on these climate
misinformation videos,* including household names like Samsung,
L'Oreal, Decathlon, Danone, Warner Bros and Carrefour.
*One in five ads found were from green or ethical brands including
Greenpeace International, WWF and Save the Children.*
Greenpeace International, WWF, L'Oreal, Samsung, Danone, Decathlon,
Carrefour, Ecosia, Nikin and Save the Children have confirmed that
they were unaware that their ads were accompanying these videos and
funding their creators.
- - -
The videos found and analysed in this report cover a broad range of
misinformation themes, from videos titled "ACTUAL SCIENTIST: Climate
Change is a Hoax" and "CIA Whistleblower Speaks Out About Climate
Engineering Vaccination Dangers and 911" to claims that there is no
evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor in climate change.
- - -
Sixty-four percent of the climate misinformation videos Avaaz analyzed
for this report were found to have an information panel from Wikipedia,
containing general information about global warming. However, there was
no flag to users that these videos contained misinformation and they
were still being suggested by YouTube.
In order to effectively protect societies from this harmful
misinformation, YouTube must take a more systemic approach. After
consultation with industry experts, advertisers and legislators around
the world,
*Avaaz recommends that YouTube:*
*Detox the YouTube Algorithm* -- The company must end its free
promotion of misinformation and disinformation videos by extracting
such videos from its algorithms, starting immediately by including
climate misinformation in its borderline content policy.
*Demonetize Disinformation* -- Add disinformation and misinformation
to YouTube's relevant monetization policies, ensuring such content
does not include advertising and is not financially incentivized.
YouTube should start immediately with the option for advertisers to
exclude their ads from videos with climate misinformation.
*Correct the Record* -- Work with independent fact-checkers to
inform users who have seen or interacted with verifiably false or
misleading information, and issue corrections alongside these videos.
*The instrumental role of the algorithm*
Recommended videos are a key part of the YouTube user experience:
According to the platform's chief product officer, Neal Mohan, 70%
of the time users spend on YouTube is driven by the platform's
recommendations. In order to keep viewers on the site longer, the
YouTube algorithm makes personalized recommendations to the user
either in the form of videos on the platform's landing page, as the
"up next" video played after the video, or in the sidebar. These
recommendations are meant to help viewers find content they might
want to watch among millions of videos available on the site.
However, there have been harmful unintended consequences to this
model. For instance, for every climate misinformation video someone
watches or likes, similar content is likely to show up in that
person's recommendations, thereby trapping the viewer in an online
bubble of misinformation.
- - -
*Detox YouTube's Recommendation Algorithm*
As this study shows, YouTube itself is actively recommending
misinformation content to millions of users who wouldn't have been
exposed to it otherwise. To stop the spread of such dangerous content,
YouTube must detoxify its algorithm by:
*A. Extracting every video that has been identified as misinformation
from its recommendation engine...*
This means that YouTube must ensure that lies and misleading content are
not freely promoted to users across the world...
- -
*B. Three strikes rule for misinformation channels...*
Avaaz believes YouTube should change its policy on this front, and hold
channels that spread misinformation and disinformation accountable to an
optimised version of its existing three strikes rule.
This would mean that if a channel is detected to have spread
misinformation or to have violated YouTube's guidelines in an effort to
spread misinformation, deceive users or manipulate the YouTube algorithm
(fake views, spam comments... etc) more than three times, all the
channels' content should be extracted from the algorithms. The channels
should not be deleted, but neither should they be further accelerated...
- - -
*C. Demonetize misinformation actors...*
In order to disincentive creators from spreading false content to
generate revenue, YouTube should add misinformation and political
influence operations to its "Advertiser-friendly content guidelines" and
demonetize content and channels spreading misinformation. Additionally,
YouTube should start immediately with the option for advertisers to
exclude their ads from videos with climate misinformation...
*In order to disincentive creators from spreading false content to
generate revenue, YouTube should add misinformation and political
influence operations to its "Advertiser-friendly content guidelines" and
demonetize content and channels spreading misinformation. *Additionally,
YouTube should start immediately with the option for advertisers to
exclude their ads from videos with climate misinformation...
- - -
*There is no censorship -- Correct the Record adds the truth but leaves
the lies alone.*
for example [Monkton misinformation]-
https://avaazimages.avaaz.org/youtube_climate_misinformation_39.jpg
Full report at -
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/youtube_climate_misinformation/
[Davos looms]
*Climate crisis dominates the top risks in World Economic Forum report
ahead of Davos*
Jan 16, 2020
Betting against BlackRock and others taking climate change head on could
be a losing proposition
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/climate-crisis-dominates-the-top-risks-in-world-economic-forum-report-ahead-of-davos-2020-01-15
[visualizing the normal in hotter times]
*Glimpsing the future*
January 15, 2020
Ed Hawkins
In December 2019, the average temperature across Australia was about 2C
above what would be expected for the present-day, which is another 1.5C
above temperatures that were normal for December before humans started
warming the climate. These extreme temperatures have contributed to the
catastrophic bushfires which have devastated large areas.
But what may be considered 'normal' is constantly changing.
In a world which has warmed by 3C – roughly the current global
trajectory – what was extreme will be entirely normal.
[see the graphic
http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/files/2020/01/aus_dec_temp_risk.png]
The extreme temperatures experienced in Australia are therefore a
glimpse of the future. Similar unusual weather patterns to those
experienced in December in that future world would cause extreme
temperatures that are unimaginable now.
This graphic uses observations of average December temperature for
Australia and regresses this against a smoothed global annual average
temperature. Land areas warm faster than ocean areas, and so it is found
that December temperatures in Australia are warming 1.4x faster than the
global annual average. Assuming the same relationship holds in future
allows the estimates of what Australian temperatures will be normal for
different levels of total global warming.
About Ed Hawkins
Climate scientist in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
at the University of Reading. IPCC AR5 Contributing Author
http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2020/glimpsing-the-future/
[concept of biggest risk from Climate Reality Project]
JANUARY 07, 2020
*HOW FEEDBACK LOOPS ARE MAKING THE CLIMATE CRISIS WORSE*
If you want to understand how our climate will change in the coming
decades, you've got to understand feedback loops.
At its most basic, the science behind why our climate is changing is
pretty straightforward. When we burn fossil fuels to produce
electricity, heat, and more, they emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) like
carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. These gases trap the sun's energy in
Earth's atmosphere as heat. As more and more GHGs are released, more
heat gets trapped and the planet warms up, disrupting the long-standing,
delicate climate systems that have made life on Earth possible.
The stronger storms and longer droughts we see becoming a dangerous new
normal are a direct result. But how these impacts play off each other is
far more nuanced. In many cases, the wildfires or disappearing glaciers
we see in the headlines have unseen knock-on effects that lead to, well,
more wildfires and disappearing glaciers.
Think of it like dominoes lined up in an infinite spiral - once one
domino falls, it creates a reaction that pushes over another and then
another right on down the line.
Scientists call this process a "feedback loop" - and it's got profound
consequences for the planet.
WHAT IS A FEEDBACK LOOP?
Climate feedback loops are "processes that can either amplify or
diminish the effects of climate forcings." ("Forcings" here are the
initial drivers of our climate - things like solar irradiance, GHG
emissions, and airborne particles like dust, smoke, and soot that come
from both human and natural sources and impact our climate.)
In plain English, feedback loops make the impacts of key climate factors
stronger or weaker, starting a cyclical chain reaction that repeats
again and again.
For our purposes, there are two major categories of climate feedback
loops: positive and negative.
Negative feedback is a process that causes a decrease in function, often
in an effort to stabilize the system.
A positive feedback loop, however, "accelerates a response."
Using the water vapor cycle as an example, it goes a little something
like this:
1. As more and more heat-trapping greenhouse gases are emitted, the
atmosphere warms up.
2. This warmer air leads to more water evaporating from our oceans,
rivers, lakes, and land, and entering the atmosphere.
3. Warmer air also holds more water vapor, and water vapor itself
traps heat.
4. The extra water vapor in the already warmer air retains even more
heat, amplifying the initial warming.
5. Even more warming leads to even more water evaporating, starting
the cycle over again. And again. And again.
It's a vicious cycle - climate change causing a cascade of effects that
result in even more climate change. A problem we created taking on a
life of its own…to potentially devastating effect.
Without the regulating action of the negative feedback loop, a positive
loop can eventually spiral out of control, creating changes in the
climate system we cannot ever undo. This is called a "tipping point."
According to NOAA, "The accelerating effects of positive feedback loops
can be at risk to irreversible tipping points, which are changes to the
climate that are not steady and predictable. Basically, tipping points
are small changes within the climate system that can change a fairly
stable system to a very different state. Similar to a wine glass tipping
over, wine is spilt from the glass as the tipping event occurs and
standing up the glass will not put the wine back; the state of a full
wine glass becomes a new state of an empty glass."
All of which is to say, while we aren't quite to a tipping point just
yet, many facets of our climate system are already acting as part of
dangerous positive feedback loops - creating compounding climate
conditions and worsening impacts for people all over the world.
more at -
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-feedback-loops-are-making-climate-crisis-worse
[Tardigrades - aka water bears]
*Even 'the most indestructible animals in the world' cannot survive
global warming, as experts find the Achilles' heel of Tardigrades is
long-term exposure to high temperatures*
Tardigrades can survive some of Earth's harshest environments
A new study found their weakness is long-term exposure to high temperatures
Tests showed they have a 50% chance of surviving temperatures above 98.78F
Experts now question how these creatures will survive global warming
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7886931/Even-tardigrades-indestructible-animals-world-wont-survive-global-warming.html
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - January 17, 2006*
The Fred Barnes book "Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial
Presidency of George W. Bush" is released. In the book, Barnes notes
that in 2005, Bush had a private meeting with overrated novelist and
climate-change denier Michael Crichton, during which Bush and Crichton
"were in near-total agreement" about the supposed alarmism of climate
activists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19warming.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2006/02/16/the-full-barnes-treatment-of-b/
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2008/11/07/michael-crichton-author-of-state-of-fear-leaves-global-warming-disinformation-legacy/
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