Hope you enjoyed yesterday's creationist diversion. Today we're back to COP drop and roll with COP27 disinfo readout. (This weekend, we hear there may be a special edition, so be sure to sign up!)
As we finish up the first week of COP27, it's been interesting to see how Loss and Damages, the very simple idea that polluters should pay for the damages they cause, but on an international scale, has made a splash in disinfo circles.
Not because of the negotiations, but because of "a Nov 6 interview with former Labour Party leader and current Shadow Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning BBC programme." In response to Miliband's discussing the issue, "the conservative ecosystem surrounding GB News immediately attacked Miliband, attempting to rebrand Loss and Damage as ‘climate reparations’ and make that idea toxic for citizens - a disinformation playbook made explicit by Chris Rufo in his work pushing the anti-Critical Race Theory narrative."
The report found:
The main lines of pushback were those claiming ‘climate reparations’ would benefit China and Pakistan, the latter of whom suffered unprecedented floods earlier this year and strongly endorses a negotiated loss and damage outcome at COP27 - its diaspora have also been a regular target of racial discrimination since communities established in Britain in the 20th century.
Though the racism isn't fully vocalized, commentators are clearly playing to such sentiments:
One widely shared post demanded COVID reparations from China in turn, while others reframed the discussion to play on identity politics and national pride, claiming that Britain is being punished for spearheading the industrial revolution and thus global human flourishing. The issue was also widely linked to the cost of living crisis, with arguments around strained public finances and high energy cost for British citizens (compared to housing "illegal migrants in 4/5 star hotels".)
Meanwhile, in Australia, we're getting some advanced notice about a new anti-Net Zero campaign from Advance Australia, which "at first appears to be a far-right and ’culture wars’ advocacy group," but upon closer inspection, it appears that "climate denial and messages opposing climate action have been at the core of their campaigning."
Advance Australia "announced their aim to launch the ‘biggest campaign yet’ to shift conservative Australian political powers against climate action" on Nov 3.
In the past two weeks, researchers found they "have been trialling Facebook and Instagram ads targeting mostly men above 45 in two Australian states, Queensland and New South Wales. It deployed 25 visual variations of an ad with text, spending under AU$2675 (US$1700). This is very low compared to their regular investments and likely indicates an ‘A/B testing’ or ‘ramping-up’ phase of a campaign."
It's still impossible to predict the future, but seeing that the opposition is testing its ads is the next best thing!
