“I ask TikTok scientists for help: convince me that there are still solutions, because I feel that my depression is getting worse the more I read about the climate crisis& rdquor ;, says a ‘centennial’ in a TikTok video. “Already There is nothing we can do to avoid climate change & rdquor ;, adds another. “In 10 years we will be climate refugees and governments will not be able to manage it,” they said in another video. “If you have money, don’t buy houses in states like California. Go to Michigan, Wisconsin or Alaska, which have more water resources & rdquor ;, commented another with scientific articles in hand, while she considered some territories of the United States devastated in the face of an inevitable drought. Like these videos, hundreds more.
It is pointed out by both the BBC and tiktokeros activists: the climate apocalypse is an upward trend in the ‘app‘. It is fed by young pessimists, obsessed, paranoid and, apparently, depressed, by something they consider inevitable: a imminent global collapse in the face of a climate crisis that is not resolved, and whose point of return has already been crossed. “There are sounds of birds that I will never hear because your generation has allowed their habitats to be destroyed,” another user complained, indignant, pointing to the “old people,” including 30-year-old millennials.
viral apocalypse
“Is a stream that is gaining a lot of ground on TikTok& rdquor ;, says Elise (@elisejoshi, in the ‘app’), a 21-year-old activist and disseminator on the climate crisis on the platform. “I have spent a long time here analyzing the climate discourseand the messages that they are made viral are always those of the ‘doomers‘ (apocalyptic, in English), the pessimists who give everything for lost, although the scientific evidence show that It is still not too late”.
According to Elise, young “doomers” they view the ‘boomers’, generation X and even the ‘millennials’ with suspicion, because they put voting every four years as a solution to everything: “Young people go out with banners, complain, demonstrate, and the only solution they give them is to go to the polls. But then, when the parties that in theory should help alleviate the crisis win, they don’t & rdquor ;, she explains, trying to explain the impotence that has led so many ‘centennials’ to embrace collapse as the only possible outcome of the current crisis.
Between pessimism and conspiracy
‘Doomer’ speech takes many forms. Marco Silva, a specialist in combating climate hoaxes for the BBC, compiles some testimonies from young people who, in the midst of a wave of viral pessimism, adopt pessimistic attitudes with speeches between apocalyptic and ‘conspiracy theorists’‘, in which they are endorsed pseudoscientific theories about him collapseor those who use climate evidence to create a post apocalyptic survival plan worthy of the series ‘The last of us’.
Also noteworthy are those who focus on a pit of negativity and suffering, describing on camera symptoms of depression, obsession, and even paranoia caused by the weather situation. For example, there are cases of young people who claim that it is impossible for them to get out of bed at night. ecological anxietyothers who describe compulsive thoughts that force them to return home after having turned the key to make sure that the taps and light are closed, even a user declared that she had given up studying since in 2050 “we will all be submerged under water& rdquor ;.
climate inaction
The tiktokera Alaina Wood (@thegarbagequeen) denounces that these pessimistic messages and apocalyptic, in the end, what they do is empower the climate inaction. In short, tiktoks in which young people are encouraged not to invest in the real estate market because the sea will swallow their house or to emigrate to countries with water resources like Norway before climate refugees from desertified European countries arrive promote the maxim “if it’s too late to save the planet, why try?”
For Wood, these speeches serve as a replacement for the denial hoaxes of climate change, prohibited in the ‘app’. That is to say, on TikTok you will not find people denying that cars pollute. However, you will find people saying that it is “too late” and? nothing is worth doing anymore. Both messages end with the same result: demobilize. According to the BBC, in addition, the first messages are vetoed by TikTok’s ‘fact-checkers’, while those of resignation are not.
climate communication
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“The causes of the catastrophe that we are addressing are so palpable that they make the feeling of helplessness even greater,” says Olivia Mandle, a 16-year-old activist and ambassador of the European Climate Pact of the European Commission. She qualifies as “sad & rdquor; political and citizen inaction in the face of the climate crisis, which explains the pessimism that so many young people display on TikTok.
However, Mandle is positioned in the line of Wood and Elise, and affirms that the climate communication you should go accompanied by optimism, focusing on the victories and results of climate actions, and thus continue to encourage action. There is, for example, the Colombian from 14 years Francisco Veraa international benchmark in the fight against climate change, and whose presence in networks stands out for explaining news and eco-hopeful news. Faced with a wave of climate misinformation in the form of pessimism and frustration, there are still young voices that continue to fight without giving up.