Misattributed videos, recycled lies and warped fears are fueling unfounded claims about the recent record-breaking heat, floods and wildfires.
“Those two universes of actors have collided with each other in the online space and basically found a marriage of convenience,” said Jennie King, head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that studies online platforms. “You have the informal and the formal, the traditional and the very digital now occupying the same ecosystem and ramping it up to new extremes.”
“Blaming a specific enemy makes it easier to fight — you just have to get rid of the bad people that are making this happen, and then the problem goes away,” Dr. Crockford said.
Ms. Winfrey did not respond to a request for comment.
Scientists and other climate change experts are being besieged by personal attacks, including claims that they are shills for a globalist cabal or other shadowy forces, said Ms. King of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Eroding trust in experts traps everyone in an “antechamber of discussion,” bickering about credibility rather than taking action.
“The danger is not that people hold unpalatable views in and of themselves,” she said. “It’s more our inability to have a good-faith conversation about these absolutely critical issues in the years ahead.”
Category: Technology
Source: NYTimes Technology
