Levka#ClimateCrisiis #misinformation
"Debunking climate misinformation is becoming a full-time job – but you can help defend the facts
The political pushback against positive green progress has been shocking. But as corporations and those in power turn away, the overwhelming majority of people in the world want more ambitious climate action.
About nine out of every 10 people in the world want their governments to take stronger climate actions, yet we’ve witnessed a dramatic shift away from the progress we need to avert climate disaster.
Powerful governments, financial institutions and big oil companies are turning their back on climate promises and some are funding secretive lobby groups and far-right politicians that want to shift away from the progress we need to make real, positive change.
The pushback has been shocking. Debunking climate disinformation is a full-time task for Guardian environment teams across the world, particularly in the United States, now that the world’s biggest fossil fuel producer appears intent on undermining hard-won progress on reducing emissions.
The most obvious elements of disinformation are the wild conspiracy theories spread by social media influencers and bots. Instead of attributing disasters to fossil fuels and cuts to emergency services and the US National Weather Service, in July they spread unfounded rumours that the deadly floods in Texas were caused by sinister weather modification technology. In this anything-but-the-truth realm, California wildfires were supposedly planned by officials to destroy child-trafficking tunnels, while the devastation in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene was apparently the result of a hushed-up dam failure and cloud seeding."
Debunking climate misinformation is becoming a full-time job – but you can help defend the facts
The political pushback against positive green progress has been shocking. But as corporations and those in power turn away, the overwhelming majority of people in the world want more ambitious climate action, writes Jonathan Watts
Miro Collas