Get PolitiFact in your inbox.

Loreben Tuquero
By Loreben Tuquero September 28, 2023

Biden and UN official did not warn of a planned disaster

If Your Time is short

  • The statements mentioned in the video were not warnings about a planned disaster.

  • President Joe Biden misspoke about "accelerating the climate crisis" and immediately corrected himself.

  • U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ was discussing climate change when he said humanity had opened the "gates of hell."

A man in a viral video claimed President Joe Biden and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned of wide-scale planned disaster.

"Biden and the head of the U.N. at this U.N. summit, they both just came out separately and said devastating things that confirm what we thought was happening," the man said in a Facebook video posted Sept. 25. "We know that there is this plan, implementing to change everything to change our world. As we know it."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)


(Screenshot from Facebook)

This video was originally posted Sept. 23 by YouTuber Patrick Humphrey. His channel gained a following after he began regularly publishing false or misleading videos that stoke fear of impending disaster.

In this video, Humphrey showed a screenshot of a Sept. 20 ABC News article headlined, "'Humanity has opened the gates of hell,' UN Secretary-General says of climate urgency."

Featured Fact-check

But, in his opening remarks for the Sept. 20 Climate Ambition Summit in New York City, it was clear that Guterres was discussing the threat of climate change caused by carbon emissions from human activities.

"Our focus here is on climate solutions," Guterres said in the article. "And our task is urgent. Humanity has opened the gates of hell. Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods, sweltering temperatures spawning disease and thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage. Climate action is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge."

Humphrey then showed a screenshot of a Sept. 19 YouTube video posted by The Telegraph, a London-based newspaper, of a Biden gaffe at the U.N. General Assembly. But Biden’s full comments Sept. 19 make it clear he misspoke and immediately corrected himself. 

"We also stand ready to work together with China on issues where progress hinges on our common efforts," Biden said. "Nowhere is that more critical than accelerating the climate crisis — than the accelerating climate crisis."

Humphrey acknowledged this correction, but maintained that Biden "keeps giving these warnings." Biden’s gaffes are routinely taken out of context to claim a more sinister plot exists. 

Humphrey’s claim distorts the context of both statements. We rate the claim that Biden and Guterres’ statements are warnings of a planned disaster False.

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Loreben Tuquero

Biden and UN official did not warn of a planned disaster

Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up