Mis/dis-information is bad for climate and health
This week The Lancet published this editorial “Health in the age of disinformation” that applies equally to climate and human health – as well as many other areas. They note that “Disinformation has become a deliberate instrument to attack and discredit scientists and health professionals for political gains.” They cite that Meta’s decision to stop fact-checking “opens the floodgates for harmful content“.
The effort to combat misinformation in climate draws from medicine:
- find & (if possible) contain the source;
- identify the most vulnerable to its effects;
- Immunize the population against false claims.
Education is the key coupled with restraint (fact-check before sharing or reposting) and tactful courage to call out mis- & dis-information. An excellent resource for fact-checking and trustworthy data is Skeptical Science.
We need to call out lies as well as accidental/misinformed mistakes at all levels from friendly (but incorrect) posts to inaccurate main-stream media reports. We also need to lobby our elected officials not only to not engage in spreading mis- and dis-information but also preventing its spread under the false banner of “free speech”.
For a deeper dive into how fossil carbon companies (fuel, plastic, agrochemical) network to spread mis-information & dis-information to maintain our dependence on their products, check out this article from 1/15 in PLOS Climate.
As always, please let me know your thoughts on these articles, and share your thoughts on how best to fight this pernicious effect.
Cheers
Bill
