TRUTH DECAYOn Hurricanes and Hoaxes: A Case for Finding Common Ground
Conspiracy theories offer an easy, emotionally satisfying answer to a complicated problem. Instead of facing the reality of climate change, or reckoning with their own complicity, people can choose a different story: that climate disasters are manipulated, that scientists are corrupt, and that the crisis is exaggerated for political gain.
In early November 2024, I sat with some friends on the steps of Columbia University’s Low Library, feeling the sun beat down on us in our t-shirts and summer dresses. It was a whopping 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
“It’s not supposed to be this warm,” we all agreed.
My little sister called from the U.K. to commiserate about a recent conversation with our parents. “They just said climate change isn’t real. Well, not isn’t real, but that it’s natural and it’s not as serious as people say it is,” she complained.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I am in New York studying at the Climate School, devoting my life to understanding and combating the crisis, yet my own parents don’t think it’s a big deal.
I bet most people have someone like this in their lives. The conspiracy-theorist uncle, the skeptical cousin, the grandmother who shares YouTube videos claiming global warming is fake news. A 2020 survey found that roughly 25% of the U.S. population expressed some agreement with the sentiment that climate change is a hoax.
Lately, I’ve become a little obsessed with climate conspiracies. Douglas and Sutton define conspiracy theories as “a belief that two or more actors have coordinated in secret to achieve an outcome, and that their conspiracy is of public interest, but not public knowledge.” Climate change is fertile ground for these theories because the science is so complex. It’s full of intricate models, probability ranges and uncertainties that require us to grasp long-term trends rather than just immediate cause and effect. The public is expected to trust scientists as they warn about shifting jet streams, ocean currents and radiative forcing, while fossil fuel lobbyists, podcast hosts and social media sometimes push a simpler, more enticing narrative: it’s all a hoax.
Hence, conspiracy theories offer an easy, emotionally satisfying answer to a complicated problem. Instead of facing the reality of climate change, or reckoning with their own complicity, people can choose a different story: that climate disasters are manipulated, that scientists are corrupt, and that the crisis is exaggerated for political gain.
