Jessica Scott-Reid is a Canadian freelance journalist, independent animal advocate and regular contributor to Sentient.
The issue of climate change took a bit of a back seat in the recent U.S. presidential election. Americans were more focused on immigration, the economy and reproductive rights. But that doesn’t mean the climate crisis didn’t play a part in the results. In fact, it was climate misinformation and disinformation that helped usher a dangerous climate-change denier into office. And here in Canada, we may soon suffer a similar fate if we don’t get properly informed – quickly.
Most North Americans know that climate change is real – at least they did last year. A 2023 survey by Research Co. found that 60 per cent of Canadians believe climate change is a fact and that it is mainly caused by human activities. Only 8 per cent of Canadians claimed climate change “is a theory that has not yet been proven.” In the U.S., meanwhile, 51 per cent of Americans dismissed climate change as a “hoax” in 2011, according to a Yale University poll; by 2023, that number dropped to 39 per cent.
Of course, when political leanings are thrown into the mix, those numbers shift. Surveys by Pew Research Center find that those who lean left are more likely to accept human-caused climate change than those who lean right. No surprise there.
What may come as a surprise is just how much intentional disinformation around climate change has infiltrated our public discourses and poisoned political perspectives, particularly on the right.
In September, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two employees of RT, the Russian state-funded news outlet, for paying US$10-million to American company Tenet Media to spread climate misinformation across the U.S. and Canada through its roster of social-media influencers. The group Climate Action Against Disinformation looked at websites and social-media accounts associated with Tenet Media, including Canadians Lauren Chen and Lauren Southern, and found that between September, 2023, and September, 2024, the Russian-backed influencers had more than 16 million combined followers and subscribers, made 183 total posts, and gained more than 23 million views and more than a million shares and likes. Their content often mocked climate activists and opposed “disruptive” lifestyle changes like eating less meat and replacing gas stoves with electric. Some posts promoted conspiracy theories, including the false notion that Bill Gates wants to replace animal farming with lab-grown meat and bug burgers, further fuelling climate science skepticism. While the content creators have claimed they knew nothing of the Russian affiliation, media reports that they were specifically recruited for their right-leaning content and follower base.
This is in addition to the spread of myriad conspiracy theories about weather manipulation, bans on beef and ploys to feed Americans (and now Canadians) bugs, perpetuated by high-profile politicians and profit-minded influencers. Climate information has increasingly been hijacked by countries and leaders that profit off of climate inaction.
The fallout from the growing volumes of climate misinformation can be seen in Canada, too. As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre vows to dismantle Justin Trudeau’s climate and energy policies – a strategy increasingly at odds with the global push toward cleaner, renewable energy – his party leads in the polls. “For Canadians who appreciate the twin threats of climate change and collapsing ecosystems,” writes Canadian environmental journalist Arno Kopecky, “few phrases may be more frightening than ‘Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre.’ ”
Thankfully, we Canadians are not powerless. We have the power to identify misinformation and seek out facts from credible sources. We have the power to vote democratically for leaders who take climate action seriously and who know that climate chaos means costly responses, including wildfire recovery and flood cleanup. We also have the power to vote with our dollar, to support companies and causes that help lessen our individual and collective impacts, and to boycott those that do not, and we can vote three times a day when we choose what to eat. By opting for plant proteins, sustainably grown in abundance in our own country, over high-impact industrialized animal products, we can cut our own eco-footprint by up to half.
Making a difference can be that simple – as long as we have the right information.
President-elect Donald Trump has infamously called climate change a hoax. “Drill baby, drill” became an election rallying cry among many Republicans. In Canada, the election of a Conservative government next year will likely produce a similarly scary step back in important eco-initiatives. With the Tories making “axe the tax” a populist slogan ahead of the election, it’s time we get properly informed and vote like our planet depends on it.