Why Climate Fatalists Are Going Viral and Who’s Fighting Them

Climate “fatalists” believe that the world has already lost the battle against global warming. But that’s not true. And while the videos that sow despair spread on the Internet, other people fight against this viral tide.

Walking down the street in a Jurassic Park cap, Charles McBryde picked up his smartphone, looked into the camera and hit the record button.

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“Okay, TikTokI need your help,” he said.

Charles is 27 years old and lives in California. His quirky TikTok videos on news, history, and politics have earned him more than 150,000 followers.

In the video in question, recorded in October 2021, Charles decided it was time to make a confession.

“I am a climate fatalist,” he said. “As of about 2019, I think there is little or nothing we can do to reverse climate change on a global scale.”

The climate fatalism it is the idea that we can no longer do anything to stop global warming, and that humanity is very likely to become extinct.

Scientists point out that this is not correct, but the argument is gathering steam online.

“I am a climate fatalist,” Charles McBryde confessed in 2021 to his followers. (CHARLES MCBRYDE/TIKTOK)

“give me hope”

Charles admitted to feeling overwhelmed, anxious and depressed about global warming, and followed up with a plea.

“I call on TikTok activists and scientists to give me hope,” he said.

“Convince me there’s something worth fighting forthat in the end we can manage to beat this, even if it’s only temporarily.”

It didn’t take long before someone responded.

Facing the “fatalists”

“give me hope”

Charles admitted to feeling overwhelmed, anxious and depressed about global warming, and followed up with a plea.

“I call on TikTok activists and scientists to give me hope,” he said.

“Convince me there’s something worth fighting forthat in the end we can manage to beat this, even if it’s only temporarily.”

It didn’t take long before someone responded.

Facing the “fatalists”

Alaina Wood is a Tennessee-based sustainability scientist. On TikTok she is known as thegarbagequeen or the queen of garbage.

After seeing Charles’ video he posted a reply, explaining in layman’s terms why he was wrong.

Alaina has a habit of defying climate doom, a mission she took on with a sense of urgency.

“People are giving up activism because they say, ‘I can’t take it anymore… This is too much…’ and ‘If it really is too late, why am I even trying?'” he said.

“Fatalism ultimately leads to climate inaction, which is the opposite of what we want“.

Scientist Alaina Wood has been dedicated to debunking videos with false information and telling young people that it is not too late to act. (ALAINA WOOD)

Why isn’t it too late?

Climate scientist Friederike Otto, who has been working with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, says: “I don’t think it’s useful to pretend that climate change will lead to the extinction of humanity.”

In his most recent report, the IPCC presented a detailed plan that could help the world avoid the worst impacts of rising temperatures.

The plan calls for “deep and immediate” cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat from the Sun and further warm the planet.

“There is no denying that there are big changes happening around the world and some of them are irreversible,” says Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in London.

“This does not mean that the world is going to end, but we have to adapt and stop emitting greenhouse gases.

Fertile soil

Why isn’t it too late?

Climate scientist Friederike Otto, who has been working with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, says: “I don’t think it’s useful to pretend that climate change will lead to the extinction of humanity.”

In his most recent report, the IPCC presented a detailed plan that could help the world avoid the worst impacts of rising temperatures.

The plan calls for “deep and immediate” cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat from the Sun and further warm the planet.

“There is no denying that there are big changes happening around the world and some of them are irreversible,” says Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in London.

“This does not mean that the world is going to end, but we have to adapt and stop emitting greenhouse gases.

Fertile soil

Last year, the Pew Research Center in the United States conducted a survey that covered 17 countries and focused on attitudes towards climate change.

An overwhelming majority of those surveyed said they were willing to change the way they live to address the problem.

But when asked how confident they were that climate action would significantly reduce the effects of global warming, more than half said they had little or no confidence.

Fatalism takes advantage of and exaggerates that feeling of hopelessness. In Charles’ case, it all started with a community on Reddit dedicated to the possible collapse of civilization.

“The most apocalyptic language came from ancient climate scientists,” says Charles.

It is impossible to know if the people who posted the messages Charles read were genuine scientists.

But the posts had a profound effect on him. “I think I fell into a negative spiral,” he admitted.

“It cannot be denied that there are big changes…and that some of them are irreversible. This does not mean that the world is going to end, but we have to adapt and stop emitting,” says scientist Friederike Otto. (REUTERS)

Alaina Wood, the sustainability scientist, says Charles’s story is not unusual.

“At this point, I rarely come across climate change denial,” he says.

“It’s not like people are saying, ‘Fossil fuels don’t cause climate change’…But they’re saying instead, ‘It’s too late.'”

TikTok’s rules prohibit misinformation that causes harm. We sent TikTok some videos that Alaina has debunked in the past, but the company said none of them violated her rules.

TikTok added that it works with fact-checkers to “limit the spread of false or misleading climate information.”

young and pessimistic

Although it can take many forms (and is therefore difficult to measure precisely), Alaina says that climate fatalism it is particularly popular with young people.

“There are people who are climate activists who are very scared. They want to promote change, but they feel they need to spread fear-based content to do so,” he says.

“There are also people who know that fear in general goes viral, and they just follow the trends, even if they don’t necessarily understand the science.”

I have seen several of the videos debunked by Alaina. They invariably feature young users expressing despair about the future.

“Let me tell you why I don’t know what I want to do with my life and why I don’t make plans,” a young woman says in one of the videos.

“By 2050, most of us should be underwater due to global warming.”

But that’s a huge exaggeration of what climate scientists are really telling us..

“Many of the claims are examples of fatalistic humor, but people on TikTok interpret it as fact,” says Alaina.

And what happened to Charles after seeing Alaina’s debunkings? Is he still a climate fatalist?

“I would say no,” he says. “I am convinced that we can get out of this.”

Source: Elcomercio