Are climate conspiracy theories undermining disaster response?

The age of climate disaster is here, as is the age of climate conspiracy theories. Those competing theories are turning dangerous.

Threats against FEMA responders have "hampered relief work" from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, said The Washington Post. Authorities arrested a 44-year-old man on Monday, saying he was behind the threats. But the problem may be bigger. "Misinformation and rumors" forced federal workers to pause their relief efforts to avoid danger. The threats came after a false social media rumor charged that officials planned to seize one destroyed town and "bulldoze bodies under the rubble," said the Post. "Folks who need assistance are refusing it because they believe the stuff people are saying about FEMA and the government," said a Forest Service official.

The conspiracy theories "stoked by Donald Trump and his followers" have even sparked threats against meteorologists who predict and cover weather disasters like Helene, said The Guardian. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X that "they control the weather," while Trump called climate change a "scam" after the hurricane struck. Forecasters are incredulous. "I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather," said Katie Nickolaou, a Michigan meteorologist. Her response to one threat: "Murdering meteorologists won't stop hurricanes."

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What did the commentators say?

"Weather forecasters aren't out to get you," Lara Williams said at Bloomberg Opinion. Weather should be "apolitical." No longer. Meteorologists who play a "crucial role" in covering weather disasters, helping viewers and listeners protect themselves, now deal with death threats and are "forced to spend time" debunking misinformation. (One theory posits that recent hurricanes were created to "kill Trump supporters and interfere with the election.") We should be saying thank you to "meteorologists, scientists and honest brokers of the world."

"This is where climate denial has led us," author Mary Annaïse Heglar said at Teen Vogue. Large portions of the country have been told that climate change is a "hoax." Now the warming climate is producing bigger, nastier storms — and many Americans have decided to believe in "conspiracy theories" instead of the warnings that scientists have offered for decades. Those folks are "victims of a manipulative, deliberate lie."

What next?

Apparently it needs to be said: "Humans still can't control the weather," said The Associated Press. Yes, techniques like cloud seeding exist — to try to prompt rains in dry conditions — but they are "relatively puny" compared to the power of a hurricane. "If meteorologists could stop hurricanes, we would stop hurricanes," said the University at Albany's Kristen Corbosiero. Conspiracy theories are "discounting common sense," said the AP.

"People have a fundamental need to feel safe and secure in their environment," psychologists Daniel Jolley and Iwan Dinnick said at The Conversation. Climate change appears to pose an "existential threat" to humans. For some people, conspiracy theories "preserve their sense of safety" by helping them regain a sense of control. But it does mean we might see more conspiracy theorizing as the number of disasters increases, Jolley and Dinnick said, "creating a harmful and self-perpetuating cycle."