The hurricanes that hit the southeast of the United States in recent weeks have generated a flood of disinformation, politicians and Internet users, reviving conspiracy theories about climate manipulation, a few weeks before the presidential election on November 5.
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On the internet, false claims accusing the American government of waging “meteorological war” have multiplied in recent weeks.
Some publications even went so far as to claim that these events “were deliberately deployed” in states that lean in favor of the Republican Party for the vote.
“We are in a ‘collapse’ of geoengineering by globalists who want to ‘control’ humanity,” we read in X.
According to some, these disasters are also linked to an American research program dedicated to the study of the upper layer of the atmosphere, called HAARP, using antennas installed in Alaska in the United States.
This wave of false claims emerged after the hurricanes Helenethe second deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States in more than half a century and which killed at least 237 people, and Milton two weeks later which left at least 16 dead.
Getty Images via AFP
For Ethan Porter, professor and researcher at George Washington University, some use disinformation “as a convenient way to express their political opinions.”
The underlying message being “that neither science nor government can be trusted, that climate change is not real, and that somehow Democrats are responsible for the unfolding catastrophe.”
“A scary world”
The elected Republican and supporter of Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene has even repeated several times to her subscribers that the American meteorological observatory (NOAA) authorizes programs which “control the weather”.
Getty Images via AFP
Methods such as cloud seeding can increase rain or snow in demarcated areas, but cannot create hurricanes like Helene.
Worrying statements for researchers like Callum Hood, from the American organization combating online disinformation CCDH.
“This comes at a time of real political tension,” he told AFP, adding that “the world of social networks is more conducive to hatred and disinformation today than it was previously. has been for a long time. Especially in X.”
An observation shared by Joseph Uscinski, of the University of Miami, pointing out that “elected representatives of Congress” were passing off false ideas as reality.
Climate change, by warming the seas, makes rapid intensification more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes, scientists warn.
AFP
These weather phenomena can now cause damage on the coasts, but also inland, Jayantha Obeysekera of Florida International University told AFP.
“A hurricane passing through mountainous areas with lots of moisture […] is a bad combination,” he adds, citing the example of the city of Asheville in North Carolina, the state which was most affected by the hurricane Helene with more than 100 deaths.
In a context of strong division around climate change in the United States, scientist Katharine Hayhoe points out that these false rumors bring a false sense of “security” and “comfort” to people seeking to understand “a world that is quickly becoming very scary “.
Furthermore, they can further delay or even prevent an action plan on the ground to combat global warming.
“This takes us in exactly the opposite direction that we should be going,” she says.
