What is real and what is not?

According to Coan et al, 2021, misinformation can shape the debate on climate change, delaying meaningful action to mitigation and leading to reduced climate and eco-literacy - which comprises an awareness of and concern about the environment and its associated problems (McBride, Brewer, Berkowitz and Borrie, 2013). Coan et al (2021) developed an interesting taxonomy of climate contrarianism, which categorizes climate misinformation across five major categories which are composed by 27 sub-claims and 49 sub-sub-claims. The five main major categories and some of the sub and sub-sub-claims contained in them are the following:

1. Global warming is not happening: claims within this category include arguing for instance that the extremes aren't increasing and that the ice isn't melting.
2. Climate impacts are not bad: this includes claims that sensitivity to weather extremes is low, that species can adapt and that CO2 is not a pollutant.
3. Human-produced greenhouse gases (GHG) are not causing global warming: claims within this category include arguing that the global warming is part of a natural cycle.
4. Climate movement/science is unreliable: this includes arguments that there is no consensus within the scientific community around climate change, that the media and environmentalists are alarmists, and that climate is a conspiracy.
5. Climate solutions won’t work: claims within this category argue that policies are ineffective or harmful (e.g., increase costs and limit freedom) and that clean energy in unreliable.

All these claims are overwhelmingly refuted by the scientific community. In fact, there is broad acknowledgement and agreement around global warming and the fact that the climate crisis is driven primarily by human action - including burning coal, oil, and gas for energy.

In fact, 2023 was the year that marked the breach of the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels which was the goal of the Paris Agreement (2015). More than that, 2024 started "with another record-breaking month – not only is it the warmest January on record but we have also just experienced a 12-month period of more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial reference period” (Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess cited by Dewan, 2024). As a consequence, the world is seeing a series of disastrous extreme weather events (such as droughts, floods, and wildfires) that bring about strenuous social, economic, and political challenges.

Addressing these challenges require many solutions, among which nature based solutions (NBS), which can deliver a third of the climate mitigation needed by 2030 (Ellis, Page, Wood, et al, 2024).

The subject of climate misinformation and disinformation is explored in the ECOLitAct project, which is led by SwIdeas and includes partner organisations from Germany (Iberika Education Group gGmbH), Andragoski zavod Ljudska univerza Velenje (Slovenia), Greece (Active Citizens Partnership), and European Grants International Academy srl (Italy).

This subject is currently being untangled through six lessons that our partnership is developing. In our project, "eco-literacy" assumes a second meaning, related to media and information literacy (MIL): MIL applied to topics related to ecology and climate change. In short, our project seeks to boost knowledge and skills necessary to both understand climate change and environmental issues and to counter online misinformation.

If that sounds interesting, the six lessons of the ECOLitAct project will soon be ready and integrated into a handbook for educators. If you want to learn more about them, get in touch with the Consortium at info@swideas.se

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Eco-Literacy and Green Education for Climate Action (ECOLitAct) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, and led by SwIdeas in Sweden. The project consortium includes partner organisations from Germany (Iberika Education Group gGmbH), Andragoski zavod Ljudska univerza Velenje (Slovenia), Greece (Active Citizens Partnership), and European Grants International Academy srl (Italy).

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References:

Coan, T.G. et al. (2021) “Computer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change,” Scientific Reports, 11(1), p. 22320. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01714-4.

Dewan, Angela (2024) "The world just marked a year above a critical climate limit scientists have warned about". Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/climate/global-warming-limit-climate-intl/index.html

Ellis, P.W., Page, A.M., Wood, S. et al. The principles of natural climate solutions. Nat Commun 15, 547 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44425-2

McBride, B. B., C. A. Brewer, A. R. Berkowitz, and W. T. Borrie. 2013. Environmental literacy, ecological literacy, ecoliteracy: What do we mean and how did we get here? Ecosphere 4(5):67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES13-00075.1