Conspiracy theorists who distort extreme weather events point the finger at state agencies in Italy, Spain and Greece for the causes of such climate disasters.
They are part of Europe’s climate change denial. report This is what the European Fact-Checking Institute has found. This report examines specific climate-related misinformation stories that have spread across these three countries.
This report analyses several extreme weather events that have occurred in Italy, Greece and Spain in recent years and explores the misinformation that has emerged in their wake.
storm
The report highlights how these incidents involve state actors and the role that prominent politicians and public figures play in spreading this misinformation.
The first case looks at the severe flooding in Italy, which gave rise to conspiracy theories blaming local government and weather manipulation for the flooding.
In Spain, misinformation narratives have blamed water shortages on state actors. In this case, the political campaign of the far-right Spanish party Vox was found to have played a role in spreading the narrative that the government was draining dams to exacerbate the water crisis.
Finally, the report analyses the situation in Greece, where misinformation has spread, building on existing false narratives linking forest fires to green infrastructure such as wind turbines.
In June, a heatwave struck across Southeast Europe, adding to the already extreme weather conditions of the summer. Greece to Hungary and TürkiyeAnd strong storms and floods Influencing the UEFA European Football Championship held in GermanyThe report’s authors agree that these types of conspiracy theories are likely to continue to emerge in the future.
