Despite July 2023 being the hottest month in the last 120,000 years, a portion of the general public capable of blocking equitable and meaningful action on climate continues to deny the reality that fossil fuel pollution is heating the climate. While social media algorithms facilitate the viral spread of climate disinformation online, with Google once again caught selling ads on climate disinformation on YouTube, the climate counter-movement is showing off its “Project 2025” plan to further dismantle climate policy, should Republicans win the White House in the 2024 election.
The denial is hardly relegated to social media, either. There’s the potential for ChatGPT-generated disinformation for the future-minded, Mike Huckabee’s books of climate disinformation for kids, and right wing pundits for adults. But all that denial is apparently just providing fodder for litigation, as a new UN Environment Programme report found climate accountability lawsuits have doubled in number in just the last five years to over 2,000 cases filed over 65 jurisdictions worldwide.
(Project 2025 and climate disinfo: Politico, The Guardian, DeSmog, BBC, Common Dreams, Sky News, NowThis Earth; Election disinfo: AP; Huckabee kids disinfo: Inside Climate News; ChatGPT: DeSmog; Right wing pundits: Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley column $, Washington Examiner, Christopher Tremoglie column; Litigation: Reuters, Vox, Inside Climate News, The Guardian, E&E $, Slate, Dharna Noor interview; Project2025 commentary: Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch column)