Dear Activist,

The United Nations defines climate change as long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. These changes can happen through natural factors; however, since the 20th century, humans have been contributing to climate change the most. In other words, climate change describes a change in average conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, in a region over a long period of time. When we speak of global climate change, we refer to a similar definition, but the average long-term changes are happening over the entire Earth. A few effects of climate change are:

• Earth’s rising sea levels.
• The melting of mountain glaciers.
• Irregular weather patterns; for instance, low rainfall in areas where heavy rainfall was recorded eight to ten years ago.
• Ice melting at a faster rate than usual in Greenland and the Antarctic.
• Changes in the life cycles of flowers and plants.

What is Climate Misinformation?

Climate change is no longer a phenomenon covered by news channels and flashing on multiple TV screens. Instead, it has become a part of our everyday lives. This means that the general public will be in conversation about climate change regularly. Furthermore, this creates a scope of circulation of fake news or myths about climate change. For instance, some people still believe that ”climate change is a future problem” or “it is not happening, as it is still cold in winters.”

None of those statements are true. They are myths about climate change that must be debunked to get everyone on board to act now. This is known as climate change misinformation. Climate misinformation occurs when misleading information about climate change is created and spread regardless of an intent to deceive. When there is an intent to deceive, it is known as climate change disinformation. In this article, we will be primarily focusing on misinformation.

Origins of Climate Misinformation

Misinformation about climate change stems from the denial of climate change or considering climate change as a natural process. Those who believe in this idea justify it by claiming there are no significant changes in weather alterations.

According to a report by ‘Stop funding heat’ and the ‘Real Facebook Oversight Board,’ published in the first week of November during the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, an estimated 45,000 posts downplaying or denying the climate crisis have received a combined total of between 818,000 and 1.36 million views. These pages had headings such as “Climate Change is Natural” or “Climate change is crap.” Various memes had also been found on these pages, which denied climate change. These social media posts further intensify the denial towards climate change and lead to misinformation about it as well.

However, recent messages have gone through a makeover. The new sources of misinformation seem to be more sophisticated, suggesting that climate change can never be resolved, or we must not act upon it until other countries do so. These circulated messages lead others to delay this issue and eventually convey a denial of climate change. With changing sciences around climate change, making it a more concrete phenomenon, misinformation about it is also becoming increasingly difficult to spot. One of the most eminent platforms where this takes place is social media.

Activate Change

Climate change affects each one of us and thus, the cooperation of each one of us is expected. However, the rampant spread of misleading information about climate change halts the process. Thus, there is an urgent need to act against climate change misinformation. Here is what you can do:

• Break the chain: When you spot a message doubting climate change or climate scientists, do not forward it. If you have received the message as a text, reply back to it clearing the misinformation and educate them about climate change misinformation.
• Fact-check prior to forwarding messages regarding climate change. These include statistics or solutions that might appear accurate or possible but actually are not.
• Learn to distinguish between fake news and actual news through processes like prebunking. Verify the quality of the source and underlying evidence, since these can be a few ways to identify fake news.
• Multiple scientific articles present debunking facts about climate change. Try sharing them.
• Educate the people around you about climate change misinformation and its effects (perhaps, you can even share this article).

It is also important to remember that those who forward misleading information regarding climate change might not know that the information is misleading. Therefore, we must not hate on people who unintentionally share climate change misinformation. Rather, educate them about the incorrect information. We are capable of tackling this issue head on, but we must work together to do so.

Cordially,

Sarah Brahma