Terra Firma: The Climate Crisis and the Battle Against Misinformation
'International Panel of the Information Environment' Report Reveals a Dark Alliance
Above: Monroe Power Plant. Source: Detroit Free Press
A report from the International Panel of the Information Environment (IPIE) has found that action to save the planet from climate change is being delayed and obstructed by misinformation and disinformation on social media.
The source of this manipulation has been found to be threefold:
• Fossil Fuel Oligarchs
• Right Wing Politicians
• Some Nation States
Bots and trolls are amplifying false narratives and playing a major role in climate lies. The experts also said that politicians, government administrators and regulators are being targeted in order to deter them from dealing with climate action.
Dr Klaus Jensen of the University of Copenhagen, who co-led the report, said:
“It is a major problem.
“If we don’t have the right information available, how are we going to vote for the right causes and politicians, and how are politicians going to translate the clear evidence into the necessary action? Unfortunately, I think the [bad actors] are still very, very active, and probably have the upper hand now.”
She added:
“We have about five years to cut emissions in half and until 2050 to go carbon neutral. Without the right information, we’re not going to get there. So the climate crisis being translated into a climate catastrophe is possible, unless we handle the climate information integrity problem.”
UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change Elisa Morgera called for misinformation on climate change to be criminalised, as well as the practice of ‘greenwashing’ (where companies deceptively present their products as environmentally friendly) by the fossil fuel industry.
The report added that fossil fuel companies are engaged in a “dual deception” whereby they deny climate change, deny they are responsible for it, obstruct action on it and then say their oil, coal, gas or whatever they’re flogging is environmentally friendly.
This follows a call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to ban advertising by fossil fuel companies, calling them:
“godfathers of climate chaos”.
The Consequences
In Michigan, the Trump administration moved to keep two coal-fired power stations open beyond their original closing date.
Trump has called the science of Climate Change: “a giant hoax” and “bullshit”.
He was labelled by the Ipei report as a key manipulator “whose logical fallacies, unfounded claims and cherrypicking of findings were heavily” spread by other social media users, including bot accounts.
The US Department of Energy has now ordered the JH Campbell plant to remain open past the original shutdown date of 31 May and the administration is likely to keep the Monroe plant on Lake Erie open until 2028. These two plants account for around 45% of Michigan’s greenhouse gas pollution.
As reported by The Guardian, it is understood that the state’s utilities administration did not ask for the plants to remain open.
It is likely, then, that this is an ideological move that Trump can take to his base, who have unfortunately been persuaded (by the alliance Ipei mentions) that climate change is not a real phenomenon. When unusually large storms driven by climate change have occurred, such as Hurricane Milton in 2024, conspiracy theories about government weather control spread through right wing channels.
MAGA Christian nationalist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Twitter (X):
“Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
It got so bad that former President Joe Biden had to issue a denial, calling Greene’s claims “beyond ridiculous” and “stupid”.
In Michigan we’re seeing the consequences. The state will continue to emit nearly half of its greenhouse gases where there was an opportunity to cut that figure. This is not being done because the state needs the energy, it is being done because Trump et al want the power stations open.
If they had been wind farms, Trump would likely be trying to close them.
The Axis of Climate Chaos
In its conclusion, the IPIE report states:
“Misleading information has undermined public trust in climate science and other key social institutions. This crisis of information integrity is intensifying and exacerbating the climate crisis.”
Jensen said the issue was deeper than just the social media companies:
“Alliances of industry and conservative think tanks actually target misinformation at the key people who will be making decisions. Those links are particularly worrisome because it’s something approaching a conspiracy.”
In Europe, the report states that populist demagogue parties such as AfD in Germany, National Rally in France and Vox in Spain are “actively contravening climate science”.
It is fair to add Reform UK in Great Britain to that list as well. Attacks on Labour’s net zero emissions policy are a common talking point from them.
As for the alliance that Jensen mentions, well, let’s take the infamous oligarchic Koch brothers as an example. They were owners of 84% of the enormous oil conglomerate ‘Koch Industries’. They used their fortune to support such paragons of good science as: Cato Institute, which Charles Koch cofounded in 1977, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the George C Marshall Institute, the Manhattan Institute, the Reason Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity.
The report also named Russia as one of the key states involved in climate misinformation. Russian-funded right wing propaganda outlet Tenet Media regularly posted climate change disinformation prior to their $10 million indictment for taking Russian money in influence operations.
Here are some examples:
Source: Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition (CAAD)
Source: Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition (CAAD)
These individuals all worked for an organisation that was taking Russian money to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda. They have denied knowledge of this, to stay out of prison.
The IPIE report gives us an idea of the kind of forces we are up against. Those that would destroy democracy would also have us ignore or exacerbate climate change. They believe they can survive it. They are wrong.
To fail to tackle climate change is undemocratic, as Snyder says:
“Democracy is the only way we have to take responsibility for a common world while recognizing that every person is a partner in making and dwelling in the world we make together. Once you see that the planetary future is a political question, what alternative is there?”