As natural disasters and extreme environmental conditions became more common around the world this summer, scientists pointed to a common factor: climate change.
Conspiracy theorists pointed to anything but that.
Some falsely claimed that record heat waves in parts of North America, Europe and Asia were normal and were promoted as part of a global hoax. Others made up tales that cloud-seeding planes or a nearby dam, rather than heavy rain, had caused the unusually intense flooding in northern Italy (and places like Vermont and Rwanda). Social media that racked up millions of views blamed the devastating Maui wildfire on a “directed energy weapon” (the evidence: years-old footage not recorded in Hawaii).
The unfounded claims that often appear in the wake of natural disasters and dangerous weather conditions, contradicting all scientific evidence, can often seem frivolous and fantastical. But they attract large audiences and frustrate climate experts, who say the world has little time to evade a global warming catastrophe.
The claims may begin with blog posts paid for by the oil and gas industry, or with rumors shared among neighbors. Online forums are filled with comments in multiple languages rejecting both the science behind fossil fuel emissions and the authority of scientists. Sometimes they are amplified by important politicians and experts.
“It really is one of the worst challenges we have to deal with,” said Eleni Myrivili, heat director for the U.N. human settlements program. For decades, the oil and gas industry spent billions on a coordinated and highly technical campaign to sway public opinion against climate science and then climate action.
“You have the informal and the formal, the traditional and the very digital occupying the same ecosystem and taking it to new extremes,” said Jennie King of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms.
Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions would still occur without global warming, although on a smaller scale. That helps fuel false narratives. Susannah Crockford, an environmental anthropologist at the University of Exeter in England, said she sympathized with the need to invent explanations that shift the blame to bad actors, such as arsonists or “the elite.”
“Blaming a specific enemy makes it easier to fight — you just have to get rid of the bad people who are causing this, and then the problem goes away,” he said.
On Maui, fears that predatory developers would swoop in after the fire quickly morphed into unfounded claims that wealthy real estate investors had caused the fire. The video of the Governor of Hawaii saying that the State could acquire land in Lahaina to protect it for locals was manipulated into misleading evidence that his plan was to buy land to create a technologically advanced “smart city.” A video on YouTube shared unfounded claims that Oprah Winfrey participated in starting the fire in hopes of taking land from indigenous residents.
Experts have said the crash may have been caused by worsening drought conditions, low humidity and gales related to a hurricane hundreds of miles away.
However, global warming was not a factor in the false theories on social media. A TikTok user said that “some people took pictures of lasers falling and causing the fire in Maui.” He shared two images: one from SpaceX’s Instagram account showing the launch of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from California in 2018, and the other from a five-year-old photo posted on Facebook after a controlled flare at an oil refinery. in Ohio.
Scientists and other experts are being besieged by personal attacks, including claims that they are complicit with a global cabal or other dark forces, King said.
“The danger is not that people have unpleasant opinions,” he said. “It’s more about our inability to have a good faith conversation about these absolutely critical issues for years to come.”
By: Tiffany Hsu
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6907143, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-09-25 18:40:06
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