The Council of Canadian Academies, chaired by Alex Himmelfarb, recently published a report called Fault Lines. It clearly states that “targeted misinformation campaigns have played a documented role in creating opposition to policies addressing climate change.” The study highlights how misinformation can cause real harm—and warns of the threat that it poses to dealing with future crises by eroding trust in science and make people more susceptible to falling down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.
And the recent exposure of Exxon’s conspiracy to deny the climate crisis shows just how wide and deep the rabbit hole can be. We have now passed the Rubicon of climate denial and beware the attempts to reduce human agency to act, by minimizing the urgency and claims there is nothing we can do collectively to avert the climate crisis.