Extreme Weather, Extreme Content

The report identifies a 'dangerously polluted' digital information landscape where Big Tech platforms allow 'super-spreaders' to propagate debunked claims against renewable energy and electric vehicles. It highlights how disinformation operations weaponise extreme weather events, such as wildfires, to decouple them from environmental drivers and fuel opposition to climate policies. Additionally, the analysis reveals that eight fossil fuel advertisers spent at least $17.6 million on Meta for over 700 million impressions to greenwash their image and lobby for US policy changes. The document warns that degrading researcher access to data is hindering the ability to track these trends and argues that systemic architectural problems and profit motives must be addressed rather than relying solely on fact-checking.

• Big Tech platforms continue to host a small number of 'super-spreaders' who disseminate debunked claims targeting electric vehicles and renewable energy, some of which are similar to claims from COP26. Renewable energies are increasingly being portrayed as instruments for social control.
• Disinformation campaigns are leveraging extreme weather events, specifically wildfires, to oppose climate policies and decouple these events from their environmental causes, which has resulted in threats of violence against emergency response staff.

APA

Climate Action Against Disinformation (2024). Extreme Weather, Extreme Content. https://caad.info/analysis/reports/extreme-weather-extreme-content/

Chicago

Climate Action Against Disinformation. Extreme Weather, Extreme Content. 2024. https://caad.info/analysis/reports/extreme-weather-extreme-content/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Action Against Disinformation |title=Extreme Weather, Extreme Content |date=10 November 2024 |url=https://caad.info/analysis/reports/extreme-weather-extreme-content/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateactionagainstdisinformation2024extreme, author = {{Climate Action Against Disinformation}}, title = {{Extreme Weather, Extreme Content}}, institution = {Climate Action Against Disinformation}, year = {2024}, month = nov, url = {https://caad.info/analysis/reports/extreme-weather-extreme-content/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }