WATCH: ‘4 Days to Save the world’ was a reality show with big ambitions. See a preview of the Star’s investigation in the video above.
The last time we saw a major climate change story go viral was on Sept. 30, 2015, when a pair of U.S. climate-change deniers tried to spread disinformation about the climate crisis. But that was a while ago. Now, with the help of the same social media platforms and news networks pushing out misinformation on a daily basis, climate change has gone viral in a major way.
“4 Days to Save the World” — an HBO docudrama based on a real-life group of scientists — premiered last week and has already racked up almost 5 million views since its premiere on YouTube. It is the fastest-ever increase by a U.S. docudrama on the platform, which has grown from about 10 million to more than 22 million views in just four days.
4 Days to Save the World is one of the highest-rated documentary series on YouTube. In the days since the premiere, much has changed. The world of fake news has been on the rise and, on top of that, the spread of misinformation through social media and Facebook has been increasing.
The science of climate change is complex and still developing, which makes it particularly difficult for conspiracy-minded deniers to make it more complicated and more challenging for people to comprehend. There are lots of experts who are critical of the climate-skeptic movement. Some are funded by fossil fuel and oil companies and others are funded by governments. There’s broad disagreement on the causes of climate change.
But the documentary exposes the fact that climate skeptics have been spreading disinformation for years, using misleading statements and outright lies. The people in the film are scientists. But they’re also activists and they’re motivated in part because they want people to see that the world is being destroyed before they have even had a chance to talk about it.
By its very nature, the documentary is meant to be confrontational. It does not shy away from the challenges
