What is it about?
Climate misinformation came to prominence around 2016, in the aftermath of the Paris Agreement and the adoption of the SDGs, almost as a reaction to this global effort to fight climate change. There has since been a great deal of work studying misinformation. This paper discusses Yotam Ophir's 2025 book "Misinformation & Society" to contextualize the state of efforts to prevent and preempt mis and disinformation campaigns aimed at stopping urgent and necessary climate action.
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Photo by Tania Malréchauffé on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This work is vital as misinformation is only growing in reach, spread, and impact. AI has created conditions where deepfakes, synthetic content, and hallucinations are not distinguishable from authentic content. We urgently need to be able to understand the information environment surrounding climate politics, and studies of misinformation can help prevent delays in changing policy at national and international levels.
Perspectives
Drawing on recent research, I project that climate misinformation will increasingly manifest through narratives of technological futurism and transformation, the pretense of economic crisis through environmental catastrophe, and the social implications of international weaponized uncertainty inflamed by misinformation. The essay proposes an integrated intervention framework that reviews proposed solutions including psychological inoculation, systemic media literacy, and structural reforms to digital and online platform governance.
James Rice
University of Essex
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Beyond post-truth: Projecting the future trajectory of climate misinformation, PLOS Climate, May 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000916.
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