Former Conservative MPs Maxime Bernier and Derek Sloan are quoted in an English study that analyzed misinformation on social media about climate change during COP26 in Glasgow last fall.
The study, published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank, notes a shift in strategy by opponents of measures to tackle climate change. Whereas previously they were inclined to completely deny this reality, these opponents, often associated with a right-wing or far-right ideology, are increasingly using misinformation to try to delay action against climate change and discredit those who are trying to tackle the problem.
The report, titled Deny, Deceive, Delay: Documenting and Responding to Climate Disinformation at COP26 and Beyondfocused on social media misinformation posts about the climate published before, during and after the 2021 Glasgow Climate Change Conference.
Discredit the organizers
The researchers point out that the fake news that circulated during COP26 far outperformed their corrections.
Among this fake news, different types of social media posts went viral that the summit was powered by fossil fuel.
Publications alleged, for example, that diesel generators were powering COP26. An article, published by the site NetZero Watch, explained that the inefficiency of electricity production by wind turbines had forced the organizers of the summit to resort to diesel.
This article was notably shared by Derek Sloan, a former MP for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), who was kicked out of the party’s caucus in January 2021 after receiving a donation from a white supremacist.
Under the article in question, the former CCP leadership candidate wrote, “They are using the energy derived from burning coal to power this useless festival of virtue display that is COP26. »
In response to the circulation of fake articles and photos that showed generators on the COP26 site, event organizers posted a message on Twitter that said the generators were powered by hydrogenated vegetable oil, ” which produces 90% less carbon emissions than diesel,” and that these would only be used if the site needed additional power. The summit organizers added that “all the electricity on site at COP26 [était] provided by renewable energies.
But this post, which rectifies the facts, only generated about a hundred interactions on Twitter, while the first message referring to diesel had been broadcast 3,000 times and had collected 8,700 “likes”. Derek Sloan’s post garnered 1,000 likes, and Alberta Proud, a right-wing group that defends the oil sands industry, garnered 1,300 reactions by posting similar content.
This example “shows how fact-checking can not achieve the desired results”, underline the authors of the study, who recommend that this type of fake news be removed by platforms like Twitter and Meta, and that action be taken. against repeat offenders.
Failure to stem online misinformation allows ‘junk science’, ‘climate retardation’ and attacks on climate policies to resonate with ‘general public’, say researchers who studied posts only published in English.
Poor Renewables
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue study argues that opponents of measures to counter the climate crisis seem to have focused their messages on the supposed “mediocrity” and “poor performance of renewable energy” during COP26, a discourse popularized for several years. years by Donald Trump, a staunch opponent of wind energy.
On November 9, 2021, during COP26, Maxime Bernier, who is followed by 190,000 Twitter followers, wrote a post in which he rejected “global warming hysteria” and called for investment “in nuclear energy rather than in mediocre renewable technologies”.
The report finds that a significant portion of the content against renewable energy comes from a handful of influential people, some of whom have verified social media accounts, such as Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish statistician.
In the period from October 25 to November 21, 2021, tweets and quotes of tweets against renewable energy from just 16 Twitter accounts totaled 507,000 likes.
The study also indicates that Maxime Bernier was a “key amplifier” of the content published by Bjorn Lomborg during COP26.
Bjorn Lomborg is recognized for his fight against electric vehicles. He acquired a notoriety which allows him to have forums at Fox News and in the wall street journal notably. A video he made on electric cars in 2016 resurfaced and was shared thousands of times during COP26. In six years, the video, in which Bjorn Lomborg claims that electric vehicles are as polluting as gasoline vehicles, has been broadcast several million times on social networks.
Researchers from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue point out that “among other misleading claims, Lomborg assumes that the energy grid (where electricity for electric vehicles comes from) is entirely coal-fired and, therefore, that vehicles electricity is not really a green technology. In an already large and growing number of places around the world, this is far from true and the situation will change even more in the years to come”.
On this subject, a study by the University of Cambridge recently concluded that in 95% of countries in the world, driving an electric car is better for the environment than petrol-powered models.
Economic measures
Analysis of 16 Twitter accounts that promote climate misinformation, ‘superspreaders’, revealed the existence of 13 subgroups that converge around the anti-science and conspiracy communities in the US, UK United and Canada.
“During COP26, there was a very high level of interconnectedness between these communities,” the study reports.
Report authors call for there to be an internationally agreed definition of misinformation and climate disinformation, and for big tech companies to restrict access to ad revenue to groups and individuals who reciprocate misinformation .
According to the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, economic and political interests have organized and financed disinformation about climate change, which is delaying action by governments.
The IPCC points out that “misinformation and the politicization of climate change science have created polarization in the public and political domains,” particularly in North America.
A few hours before the release of this report, Maxime Bernier had written to his 190,000 subscribers that global warming was so far – “mostly beneficial” and that “this surprising fact is hidden from the public by the alarmists and their media allies who are determined to use the language of crisis and urgency”.
Under the message, he had published an article which argues that “nature is generally better off because of global warming” and “generally, the effects of global warming are positive on agriculture”.