“A disservice to our future”: Climate disinformation is a coordinated attack on communities

Local surfers banding together to protest gas exploration off their coast. Grandmas pushing for a liveable world for their grandchildren. Local residents looking for quality information on the environment. 

All have been targeted in the past decade by coordinated disinformation campaigns actively working to mislead Australians.

What happened: Last week, the Australian Senate handed down its final report from an inquiry into climate misinformation and disinformation. 

The report, backed by Labor, the Liberals, the Greens and David Pocock, found that inaccurate and misleading information about climate change and renewable energy was being circulated intentionally, with the purpose of causing confusion in communities and eroding trust in scientists.

What does it look like?: “It doesn't look like anything, that’s the problem,” Brendan Donohoe told the Lorikeet. Donohoe is a local surfer who has been involved in campaigns for cleaner oceans and against gas exploration off the coast of the Northern Beaches.

“If you don't wanna believe in climate change, there's plenty of misinformation that will bolster that view; that’s the real problem,” he said. “Disinformation, essentially, is comforting to a lot of people … but it is really a disservice to our future. We need good information. We need good media.”

Dr Jeremy Walker is a senior lecturer in political science who made multiple submissions to the Senate inquiry. His current research focuses on the history of the petroleum industry.

 He agreed with Donohoe that climate misinformation has become ubiquitous in Australia. “The point is to degrade the information environment,” he told the Lorikeet.

He said traditional media - TV, radio, newspapers — remained influential, but that social media was ripe for spreading mis and disinformation. One example was organised networks using anonymous Facebook profiles to create doubt about climate change.

“There's a whole architecture of strategic communications, making sure this gets out into every part of the internet,” he said.

A member of Sydney-based climate activist group Knitting Nanas, Kathy McKenzie, told the Lorikeet that misinformation she had seen typically promoted fears surrounding renewable energy.

These include claims that wind farms kill whales and the publication of false imagery depicting wind turbines along the Northern Beaches.

What now? The Senate inquiry resulted in 21 recommendations, including better digital literacy programs in schools and the establishment of a watchdog to monitor corporate greenwashing.

Any legislative changes would need to pass both houses of parliament.

Thumbnail: camilo jimenez via Unsplash