According to John Cook, research fellow at Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub in Australia, climate misinformation used to be more focused on undermining the science, but over time, the strategies have been moving more towards attacking solutions and creating fear, as well as leaning towards “cultural-war” type misinformation.
“It’s about scaring people and ‘othering’ people who care about climate change or who are concerned about climate change and advocating for action,” said Cook.
At its core, this new approach relies on fear. When the IPCC published its latest report in August 2021, the climate denial machine attempted to scale back the report’s urgency and gravity by promoting the fossil fuel–savior narrative: that oil has provided wealth and a higher quality of life, and that banning fossil fuels only endangers lives and “drives humanity back to medieval times.”
“It polarizes the public and then that makes it harder to get consensus and progress.”
— John Cook, climate misinformation expert
