HE climate denialism remains the protagonist of the universe of lies circulating on the Internet; However, there are now more and more misinformation narratives attacking green technology: fires caused by electric cars, offshore wind turbines killing whales, or solar panels causing more waste than nuclear power.
The Twenty-ninth Climate Conference of the Parties (COP29), which will be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) in the coming days, will try to find financing channels for the transition of countries with fewer resources to zero-emission economies. Policies are constantly under attack by misinformation.
According to data provided by Elections24Check projectAt the event attended by 40 European fact-checkers, including EFE Verifica, 20% of the climate-related lies debunked by the coalition in the first seven months of this year were against green technologies.
Of the 234 debunked false claims about climate and environment, 47 devoted their efforts to: Misinformation about the effectiveness of policies and technologies aimed at mitigating the consequences of the climate crisis.
Example 1: “Roads blocked by battery-less electric cars”
“Germany’s roads are closed because electric cars “They stay unpaid because of the cold”, Last winter, they claimed messages contained disinformation by including an image showing dozens of cars stopped on a snow-covered road. Another statement was made ironically: “How smart it is to have electric vehicles.”
First of all, as confirmed by EFE Verifica, the photo with the messages It did not correspond to a road in today’s Germany, but to a road affected by the powerful snowstorm that hit the city of Chicago and other parts of the United States in February 2011.
But in addition, different studies show that:Electric cars can run for hours and travel hundreds of kilometers in extreme temperaturesHowever, its charge may decrease slightly due to intense cold.
Example 2: “Electric cars catch fire”
Another recurring narrative against such tools is that they It is highly flammable and subject to spontaneous fires.
When a public bus caught fire in Barcelona last May, numerous messages indicated that it was an electric bus and that this was the reason it caught fire. Registration of the vehicle with the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) It showed that it was a diesel-powered bus.
Example 3: “Green energies pollute more than nuclear energies”
“Where did they put it? solar panels It can never be raised again. “They use too much water and chemicals to clean them and release heavy metals into the soil,” read one message last June, recalling an alleged Harvard study that found solar panels produce 300 times more toxic waste than nuclear power plants. .
But the truth is, the magazine Harvard Business Review Did not publish any article giving this figureHowever, he warned about the importance of improving solar panel recycling technologies in the face of exponential growth in their use.
Madrid III. Beatriz Galiana Blanco, professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Carlos, told EFE Verifica: “It is well known that nuclear waste retains its radioactivity for decades,” while there is more room for the development of solar energy “even greener.”
Within the same narrative, they spread this October Messages claiming hailstorm in Texas destroyed thousands of solar panels and released toxic materials such as cadmium.
However, as Maldita.es, a member of the International Verification Network (IFCN) and EFE Verifica, confirmed, the broken solar panels were made of solid silicon, the most common material for these devices. It does not pose a risk to the environment and human health.
Example 4: “Artificial grass will be banned”
In addition to attacking these technologies, disinformation narratives attempt to mock climate change measures with falsehoods, attributing wrong political decisions to institutions or governments.
An example of this was other messages that went viral, assuring that the European Union would ban artificial turf in sports facilities. What the community body did was to regulate the use of granular rubber filler.
Along the same lines, they attribute the fake proposals to political figures who favor the promotion of green policies, such as Hillary Clinton, who proposes the elimination of cash, or Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Prohibit people from washing their pants more than once a month.
Source: Informacion
James Sean is a writer for “Social Bites”. He covers a wide range of topics, bringing the latest news and developments to his readers. With a keen sense of what’s important and a passion for writing, James delivers unique and insightful articles that keep his readers informed and engaged.