By Ivy Scott

The Boston Globe

View Original Article Here

We’ve all been there. You’re scrolling through LinkedIn, and your distant cousin has a new post about how wind turbines cause cancer. Or that global warming is a hoax started by scientists looking to cash in on research money.

Exasperated, you just don’t have the energy to counter these claims — and digging up the right statistic from sources you trust can be time-consuming. In an effort to make debunking climate myths faster and easier, a New England nonprofit launched a Misinformation Tracker on Thursday, geared at combating some of the most pervasive misconceptions. Just type in a claim, or search by topic, and let the experts settle the debate for you.

Beyond launching the new tracker, the Alliance for Climate Transition’s broader campaign is to accelerate the clean energy transition. The group’s president, Joe Curtatone, said the tracker’s goal is “to put the facts first and democratize the science around [climate change] and some of these technologies.”

The tool, which debunks 63 common myths related to climate change using academic and federal data, organizes misinformation by state across the Northeast, from Maine down to New York. Much of the information is also applicable to climate myths sprouting up across the country, meaning the tool can be just as useful in a debate with your great-uncle over Facebook as it is at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Curtatone stressed that as environmental misinformation has shifted in recent years, people now encounter less outright denial of climate change, and more attacks on specific technology or potential solutions.

”This is a big deal this election cycle. This is on the ballot... [and] we can’t let the lie become the truth,” he said. “False narratives regarding climate technologies like EVs, wind energy, and battery storage are [being used to] confuse the public, erode their confidence, and cause concern that delay critical infrastructure projects.”

The tracker is designed to integrate fluidly into social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter), said Curtatone, with a quick-post feature to allow users to research and respond to misinformation in real time. So if you see someone on X railing about how hurricanes are artificially created and controlled by the government, you can point them directly to the researchers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who say otherwise.

Natasha Perez, one of the Alliance’s vice presidents, said the team hopes to react quickly to current events, in the style of similar fact-checkers like Politifact, while also fielding user questions about new misinformation as it arises.

Current myths addressed by the tracker range from practical questions about cost (”Are electric stoves more expensive to operate than gas stoves?”) to hesitations about human health and animal welfare (”Do offshore wind cables disrupt marine life by emitting electromagnetic fields?”) to conspiracy theories that have gained traction over the past several years (”Is the government making hurricanes, or not?”).

Jared Rennie, a research meteorologist in Asheville, N.C. with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, said these kinds of tools are indispensable as misinformation not only breeds resistance to green technologies, but skepticism and even open hostility toward those who speak out about climate change and its link to natural disasters and changing weather patterns.

”It’s important to have the experts out there debunking misinformation,” said Rennie, whose team routinely produces weather reports stating that yet another record has been shattered as the Earth continues warming.

“We get a lot of questions: how reliable is the temperature record? How reliable is your methodology? … How can you say tropical storm Helene is a 1-in-1,000 year event if you don’t have 1,000 years of data?” he said. “It’s so easy for people to live in their bubbles, so we have to come at their level and put the facts out there and say this is why you should care.”

Rennie said he knows several meteorologists who spend much of their workday on Facebook, responding to misinformation they see posted online. That’s where myth-busting tools can really come in handy, he added, distilling complex information down quickly into easy-to-understand facts, while still pointing to reputable sources for readers who want to go deeper.

Perhaps the bigger challenge, however, is getting people to believe experts in their field, something that’s become increasingly difficult in recent years as segments of the country have lost faith in academic institutions, the press, and the government.

Still, the creators of the new climate Misinformation Tracker say that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up.

“We’re empowering communities with the tools to combat this information in real time ... to make sure facts are really shaping that path forward, and not fear,” Perez said. “It’s really about fighting for our collective future, everyone’s future, and making sure we act in a way that everyone’s voice matters.”

Ivy Scott can be reached at ivy.scott@globe.com. Follow her @itsivyscott.