Misinformation & Disinformation

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Greenwashing is when an organization spends more time and money on marketing itself as environmentally friendly than on actually minimizing its environmental impact.

Misinformation is when they simply deceive. Whether it is the fossil fuel industry representing gas as green, safe and natural or the meat industry discrediting plant-based diets, misinformation is the foundation of a recent congressional report on Big Oil entitled Denial, Disinformation and Doublespeak.

CURRENT NEWS

Oct 08 2026

Heated

Who’s telling you climate change is no big deal?

By Emily Atkin 10/08/26

Is climate change actually a big deal anymore? Or is everything, like, totally chill now? Earlier this spring, the answer across conservative politics and media was a resounding: It’s chill.

Oct 05 2026

The Tyee

I Used to Believe Climate Change Was a Hoax

By Erin Blondeau 10/05/26

I used to believe that climate change was a hoax — that chemtrails, geoengineering and a shadowy U.S. military program to control the weather could explain destructive storms like Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the monstrous…

Sep 15 2026

Columbia Law School

Rebutting 38 False Claims About Solar, Wind, Electric Vehicles, and Battery Storage Authors

By Andrew Kieffer 09/15/26

Achieving the United States’ ambitious emissions reduction goals depends in large part on the rapid adoption of wind and solar energy and the electrification of consumer vehicles. However, misinformation and coordinated disinformation about renewable energy…

Sep 10 2026

Covering Climate Now

The Tech Bros’ War on Climate Action

09/10/26

We live in a time, journalist Amy Westervelt laments in her new book, Brought To You By, when “millions of people have been convinced that it is patriotic to be antidemocracy [and] that doctors are…

Sep 05 2026

The Climate Brink

The Worst Case Is Still on the Table

By Andrew Dessler 09/05/26

The Trump administration is continuing it’s war on climate science. This time, instead of attacking climate science in general, as they tried (and failed) to do with the DOE Climate Working Group, they are going…

Aug 27 2026

The Washington Times

Trump administration relied on flawed logic to justify scrapping vehicle emission rules, study says

By Alexa St. John 08/27/26

The Trump administration relied on flawed logic to justify scrapping vehicle emissions standards this year, making errors in how it accounted for fuel savings, the price of technology and mileage, according to a new study…

Aug 25 2026

Canary Media

As Ohio grapples with fake comments on clean energy, some want crackdown

By Kathiann M. Kowalski 08/25/26

A troubling trend has shown up in some communities around the U.S.: Public officials are being inundated with seemingly fake public feedback that aims to block renewable energy and promote fossil fuels.

Aug 13 2026

UCS

The threat isn’t over: Tell Trump to keep his hands off science!

08/13/26

When the best available science is replaced by political preferences, everyone pays the price. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has just proposed major changes in its procedures for awarding research grants. Essentially, the proposed changes—which…

Aug 10 2026

The New York Times

Top Science Body Deletes Climate Chapter From Judges’ Manual

By Karen Zraick 08/10/26

The nation’s top scientific body has removed a chapter on climate science from a reference manual for judges after an outcry from critics on the right, including President Trump.

Aug 03 2026

The Climate Brink

Fixing one of climate’s worst plots

By Andrew Dessler 08/03/26

The plot covers the continental U.S., and it dramatically shows that temperatures in the 1930s were more extreme than those of the present period. The metric plotted, the heat wave index, is constructed as a…

Jul 30 2026

The Climate Brink

Why Hansen may end up being right about 2026

By Zeke Hausfather 07/30/26

Jim Hansen and I have spent much of this year making seemingly opposite predictions about where 2026 will end up in the global temperature record books. He has argued since the spring that 2026 will…

Jul 30 2026

Heated

The influencer teaching millions to fear solar

By Alex Hannaford 07/30/26

On Instagram, a young woman with dark hair stares intensely into the camera. “We’re losing our country,” the text reads.

Climate Action Against Disinformation

Climate Mis-/Disinformation Backgrounder

09/23/23

A global coalition of over 50 leading climate and anti-disinformation organisations demanding robust, coordinated and proactive strategies to deal with the scale of the threat of climate misinformation and disinformation.

The New York Times

With climate panel as a beacon, global group takes on misinformation

05/24/23

Two years ago, at a virtual gathering organized by the Nobel Foundation, Sheldon Himelfarb outlined the idea that the world’s leading scholars should join forces to study misinformation the way that scientists of the Intergovernmental…

The New York Times

Oil Executives Grilled Over Industry’s Role in Climate Disinformation

10/28/21

At a heated hearing on Thursday, Democrats had some big questions for the chief executives of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell: Would they pledge to stop lobbying against efforts to reduce emissions? And were…

MORE NEWS

The Climate Brink

Raw Data, Wrong Answers

By Andrew Dessler and Zeke Hausfather 07/27/26

Here on The Climate Brink, we’ve written many many posts about whether temperatures were more extreme in the 1930s than today. Just last week, we wrote about one such plot and pointed out one problem…

The Climate Brink

Hot days, cold thermometers

By Zeke Hausfather 07/22/26

A graph has been making the rounds on social media showing the average number of days per weather station above 95F, 100F, and 105F across the contiguous US since 1895. It comes from CFACT analyst…

E&E News

Trump threatens National Academies with debarment. Here’s what it is.

By Lesley Clark and Chelsea Harvey 07/21/26

The oil industry and its allies gained a major supporter in their yearslong effort to derail climate science programs at the National Academies: the president of the United States...

The New York Times

Trump Attacks Nation’s Top Scientific Body Over Climate Chapter in Manual

By Karen Zraick 07/20/26

President Trump has jumped into the fray over a hotly contested chapter on climate science in a reference manual for judges.

Heatmap

How to Unlock Republican Support for Climate Action

By Alex Flint 07/20/26

The New York Times recently profiled former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and his increasing engagement on climate change.

The New York Times

Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee Flagship Report

By Maxine Joselow and Brad Plumer 07/11/26

The Trump administration has appointed a critic of mainstream climate science to oversee the federal government’s flagship report on how climate change affects the United States.

Luma

20 years of DeSmog: A celebration of high-impact climate journalism

07/06/26

The world is in the midst of a climate backlash. But DeSmog isn’t backing down.

Propublica

How the fossil fuel industry turned the plan to solve climate change into a plan to save itself

06/25/26

An investigation by ProPublica and Drilled has found that fossil fuel companies have been funding climate research at prestigious U.S. universities for more than 30 years. Their support has helped amplify the work of scientists…

Heated

The gas industry is sneaking into kids’ science classes

By Marin Scotten 06/24/26

As a science teacher, Helen is trained in practicing skepticism. So perhaps it was only natural that, at this year’s Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers Conference, she detected the distinct odor of B.S.

Springer Nature Link

The symptoms of climate denial: tracing the intersections of denial, right-wing extremism and masculinity

By Debra J. Davidson and Others 05/27/26

Confronting climate denial requires inquiries into the social factors that lend denial frames their receptivity. We seek to extend recent research focused on the role of masculinities and right-wing extremism in climate denial by integrating…

Bloomberg

Lee Zeldin Touts EPA Rollbacks at Climate Denial Conference

By Zahra Hirji 04/09/26

Lee Zeldin touted his deregulatory record as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency before the staunchest supporters of his policies. The EPA chief, who has been floated as a possible pick for attorney general,…

The New York Times

Climate Change Denial Sees a Resurgence in Trump’s Washington

By Maxine Joselow 04/09/26

Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by “leftist politicians.” Fossil fuels are the greenest energy sources. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be harmless.

The Guardian

Trump’s EPA chief Zeldin gives keynote speech at climate-denying group’s event

By Dharna Noor 04/08/26

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned…

Heated

Why smart people believe myths about electric cars

By Tracy Wholf 03/26/26

Before the U.S. and Israel launched their war in Iran, the national average for a gallon of gas was $2.94. One month later, gas is now averaging $3.98 a gallon—the largest one-month jump in U.S.…

Canary Media

Ohio blocks big solar farm, despite apparently fake public comments

By Kathiann M. Kowalski 03/24/26

Ohio regulators have blocked yet another major solar project because of local pushback, even though a significant number of public comments opposing the array appear to be fabricated. It’s the latest blow to solar in…

resilience

Why Science Communication Fails: How to Break Down Misleading Arguments and Inoculate Against Misinformation

By Nate Hagens 02/27/26

Humans aren’t rational. We don’t evaluate facts objectively; instead, we interpret them through our biases, experiences, and backgrounds. What’s more, we’re psychologically motivated to reject or distort information that threatens our identity or worldview –…

DeSmog

Q&A: Tech Billionaires’ AI Space Empire Fantasies Are ‘An Insidious Form of Climate Denial’

By Rei Takver 02/04/26

In the wildest dreams of tech billionaires, humans colonize the solar system on giant space stations, dodge mortality by uploading their brains into computers, and solve climate change in a single swoop of god-like AI-generated…

The Crucial Years

Thinking about lying

By Bill McKibben 02/02/26

The past stretch of days—say, since the murder of Renee Good—has been marked by brutality, but also by a dishonesty so deep and stupid that it’s begun to finally turn on the liars. Following the…

CNN

Trump claims blue states have less-reliable, more expensive electricity. Here’s the reality

By Ella Nilsen 02/02/26

Electricity costs are climbing nearly everywhere in the United States. But, in recent months, the Trump administration has framed the problem as one impacting only blue states.

Medium

How LA Smog Triggered 80 years of Climate Change Misinformation

By K.G.Abbot 01/16/26

In 1943, Los Angeles was an energetic city, its population ballooning, its industry robust, and its wider prospects increasingly rosy. World War II may well have started to leave its mark — where white US…

ExxonKnews

ExxonKnews: The year in review

By Emily Sanders 12/23/25

Hey there, Emily here. Folks, you already know it’s been an extremely shitty year for anyone who cares about the future of our planet, let alone basic rights and dignity for all of the people…

E&E News

It’s the gold standard of US climate research. Contrarians could write the next one.

By Scott Waldman 12/22/25

The Trump administration has invited a small group of climate contrarians to help write the next installment of the National Climate Assessment, the nation’s preeminent report on global warming, says one of the researchers involved.

ExxonKnews

Exxon’s new greenwashing ploy

By Emily Sanders 12/18/25

ExxonMobil has a new plan to sell more methane gas in a warming world: Frame it as a climate-friendly solution for artificial intelligence.

Trellis

Why 2025 was the Year of Greenhushing

By Jim Giles 12/11/25

I spoke this summer with a communications professional at a large U.S. company. The company operates a substantial fleet of electric vehicles and I wanted to profile its work. No chance, the employee said: “Trump…

The New York Times

E.P.A. Erases Mention of Humans Causing Climate Change From Some Web Pages

By Lisa Friedman 12/09/25

The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly removed the fact that human activity is driving climate change from a handful of pages on its website.

E&E News

EPA erases references to human-caused climate change from websites

By Jean Chemnick 12/09/25

EPA has scrubbed references to people’s contribution to rising temperatures from some of its climate change webpages.

Evolutionshift

The Big Stupid

By David Houle 11/18/25

I have never understood people who willingly choose being stupid or ignorance as an okay place to be. That is the problem I am now having about the climate crisis.

Euronews

‘COP of truth’: Countries commit to tackling climate disinformation at UN climate summit

By Euronews Green 11/13/25

Climate disinformation and information integrity are on the agenda at the UN climate summit for the first time this year.

Los Angeles Times

Scientists who pioneered carbon capture warn it’s being misused to delay emissions cuts

By Olivia Rudgard 11/13/25

Back in 2001, Kenneth Möllersten and Michael Obersteiner came up with a novel idea that transformed the math of carbon emissions — and the world’s path to net zero.

Earth911

How To Spot Greenwashing

By Gemma Alexander 11/10/25

Whether we’re shopping online or browsing store aisles, we’ll feel better in the long run if we don’t give up on shopping based on our values. When you don’t have time to research every single…

Yaleclimateconnections

Five ways Joe Rogan misleads listeners about climate change

By Dana Nuccitelli 11/07/25

Joe Rogan has one of the most popular podcasts on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and a combined 50 million followers on YouTube, Spotify, and Instagram. And like nearly all of today’s most popular online shows,…

Bloomberg

US Officials to Skip UN Climate Talks Trump Derided as ‘Scam’

By Jennifer A Dlouhy 10/31/25

High-level US representatives are staying away from the UN climate negotiations in Brazil, even as President Donald Trump seeks to influence energy policy globally.

Zoom

CCNow Basics: Disinformation & Greenwashing

10/27/25

This session will explore how disinformation, misinformation, and greenwashing shape public understanding of climate change. We will examine real data, common examples in media and politics, and the tactics used to mislead or confuse audiences.…

Exxonknews

Oil giant Total’s net zero claims broke the law, court rules

By Emily Sanders 10/24/25

A Paris Court ruled Thursday that French oil giant TotalEnergies is misleading consumers with claims that it aims to reach “net zero” emissions and help lead the energy transition even while it makes plans to…

Independent

Takeaways from AP’s investigation on anti-science legislation in US statehouses

By Michelle R. Smith and Laura Ungar 10/21/25

A wave of anti-science bills has been introduced in statehouses across America this year, pushed by people with special interests who have close ties to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Covering Climate Now

Climate Blueprint: Myths & Disinformation

10/21/25

Myths about climate change continue to proliferate online, but such disinformation campaigns are nothing new. Journalists can strengthen their reporting by learning about the history of climate disinformation, by practicing strong accountability journalism, a necessary…

Sustainability Next

Is Greenbleaching Replacing Greenwashing?

By Dr. Marko Selakovic 10/16/25

In the ever-evolving arena of corporate communications, a new phenomenon is emerging. Greenbleaching – misuse of green communication to paint an organization more favorably during crises that have nothing or little in common with environmental,…

Trellis

Half-truths and hidden lies: How large corporations undermine climate action

By Bill Weihl 10/15/25

Companies, especially big ones, rarely tell the whole story. Instead, they focus on what makes them look good. Their half-truths not only conceal their harmful impact on the climate, but also create the false impression…

Yaleclimateconnections

Fact-checking a Trump administration claim about climate change and crops

By Dana Nuccitelli 10/14/25

A draft report commissioned by the Trump administration’s Department of Energy, or DOE, misleadingly claims that increasing levels of carbon dioxide could be beneficial for agriculture. In fact, mainstream climate experts have found that rising…

E&E News

Fact-checking Chris Wright on energy

By Brian Dabbs and Christa Marshall 10/08/25

There’s no clean energy revolution afoot, and climate change isn’t an existential crisis. You’re just looking at the data incorrectly.

abc news

Fact-checking what Trump said about climate change during the UN General Assembly

By Matthew Glasser, Daniel Manzo, and Daniel Peck 09/24/25

President Donald Trump spent a considerable amount of his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday disparaging renewable energy sources and challenging the scientific consensus on climate change.

Bloomberg

Trump Uses UN Speech to Spread Climate Misinformation

By Brian Kahn 09/24/25

US President Donald Trump used his address to world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday to denounce climate change and green energy, making a series of misleading claims in a rambling speech that went…

Reuters

Trump tells UN that climate change is ‘greatest con job’ globally

By Valerie Volcovici 09/23/25

President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, doubling down on his skepticism of global environmental initiatives and…

DeSmog

Scores of Climate Experts Condemn Trump Climate Report as ‘Junk Science’

By Sharon Kelly and Emily J Gertz 09/02/25

A group of more than 85 climate experts today released a scathing review of the Trump administration’s “Climate Working Group” report on climate change science, condemning it as “biased, full of errors, and not fit…

Zoom

Prep Your Climate Coverage: Autumn Extreme Weather

09/02/25

Don’t wait until an extreme weather event strikes to learn how climate change is fueling changes to our weather systems.

Takeaways from scientists on the Trump administration’s work on climate change and public health

By Seth Borenstein and Michael Phillis 08/26/25

A Trump administration proposal to reverse a landmark finding that climate change is dangerous to the public relies heavily on a report from the Department of Energy that dozens of scientists say is flawed.

E&E NEWS

Trump administration escalates push to discredit mainstream climate science

By Scott Waldman 08/18/25

One author of a recent Department of Energy report that assailed established climate science said the 141-page document is only the beginning — and that the Trump administration plans to do more to undercut research…

E&E News

Trump team readies more attacks on mainstream climate science

By Scott Waldman 08/18/25

Carbon Brief

Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims

By Ayesha Tandon and Others 08/14/25

A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading…

nature

Outrage over Trump team’s climate report spurs researchers to fight back

By Jeff Tollefson 08/07/25

Dozens of scientists are scrambling to respond to a report released last week by the US Department of Energy (DoE), which concluded that global warming is “less damaging economically than commonly believed”. The researchers say…

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MISINFORMATION & DISINFORMATION