THE SET-UP: Climate science is being defunded, purged, scrubbed, erased and memory holed. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Trump ordered climate science to plowed over and sowed with salt. He has, however, flooded the zone with feces and effectively drowned-out much of the reporting on his regime’s coordinated effort to dismantle every environmental protection they possibly can—from auctioning-off forests to fast-tracking deep-sea mining, from fishing in endangered coral reefs to running pipelines through wetlands—you name it, they’re attacking it.
None of that is particularly surprising, though. Trump and his Evangelical base don’t care about the natural world. Trump views the Earth as unconverted wealth and his Evangelical base believes the Earth is “fallen” and, ultimately, doomed. For them, the Earth is just a temporary landing pad for Jesus. They’re just waiting to be medevac’d off this apocalyptic orb.
While it isn’t surprising, it is fascinating that Trump’s return to the White House came on the heels of two of the US’s most extreme weather catastrophes—the LA Fires and Hurricane Helene. Those two disasters punctuated three years of mounting evidence that anthropogenic climate change was not only happening, but it was accelerating … and a growing insurance crisis underlined the whole, undeniable mess.
And then Trump won the election … and it’s as if the heatwaves and tornadoes and floods have all been stuffed into the memory hole with the climate science. It now looks like his election was a costly act of defiance … and a sweeping denial of reality. - jp
TITLE: Global study finds political left more trusting of climate scientists than right
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-global-political-left-climate-scientists.html
EXCERPTS: A sweeping 26-country study reveals a consistent gap in trust toward climate scientists based on political ideology, with right-leaning individuals reporting lower trust than their left-leaning counterparts. The divide is especially stark in wealthier democracies and English-speaking nations, according to the research.
The work is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. The findings expand on past studies focused primarily on Western, English-speaking contexts.
Analyzing survey data from 10,641 participants across 26 nations, researchers found political ideology significantly influences trust in climate scientists—with a few exceptions. While right-leaning individuals showed lower trust in 22 countries, the pattern reversed in China and Indonesia, where left-leaning respondents were more skeptical. In Egypt and Georgia, political views made no difference, suggesting climate change remains less politicized in these regions. On average, participants identified as politically centrist.
The link between political views and distrust of climate scientists was strongest in wealthier, more democratic countries with high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers call this the "post-industrial paradox"—as nations develop, some people may see science as less essential to progress, making them more skeptical.
In democracies, political divides can deepen this distrust. High-emitting countries also face well-funded misinformation campaigns, often from fossil fuel interests, that undermine trust in climate science.
The study highlights the need for climate communication strategies that address ideological divides. To increase trust among right-leaning audiences, researchers recommend emphasizing climate change's immediate impacts rather than distant future consequences and partnering with trusted local figures—from community leaders to political representatives—who can authentically convey scientific consensus. These approaches must be carefully adapted to national contexts, given how the politics of climate trust vary across borders.
TITLE: From Climate Hoax to Hate: The Overlap Between Climate Denial and White Supremacy on Spanish TikTok
https://gnet-research.org/2025/04/28/from-climate-hoax-to-hate-the-overlap-between-climate-denial-and-white-supremacy-on-spanish-tiktok/
EXCERPTS: Extremist conspiracy theories pose a considerable risk of radicalisation, especially those that frame the world in terms of in-groups and out-groups, fostering the belief that out-groups are secretly working to manipulate events that affect the in-group. Climate change denialism is a prominent example, with narratives that global institutions, such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, or the European Union, fabricate climate change to control the population and consolidate wealth and power. These narratives are rooted in a broader right-wing distrust of ‘elites’ and are often linked to conspiracy theories such as the “New World Order”, the “Great Reset”, and disinformation about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Several studies indicate that white individuals with far-right views are the most sceptical about climate change. Given that right-wing extremism is rooted in racist and conspiratorial beliefs, it is crucial to examine whether and how white supremacist theories like the “Great Replacement”, the “Kalergi Plan”, or “White Genocide” intersect with climate change denial on social media.
This Insight will explain how some Spanish TikTok accounts promoting climate change denial, often framed as part of a secret agenda, are also advancing white supremacist ideologies. Through digital ethnography and content analysis, it will examine the ideological and rhetorical overlaps between these two narratives, both of which, according to TikTok’s Community Guidelines, should be moderated and removed, and analyse how the platform enables their intersection and amplification.
The research is based on a sample of 30 TikTok accounts in Spanish identified in mid-March 2025. The accounts were retrieved through a manual search using TikTok’s built-in search bar, by entering the following search terms in Spanish: ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming,’ ‘climate change is a hoax,’ and ‘Agenda 2030. ´ To ensure neutrality in the search process and avoid algorithmic personalisation, the searches were conducted using a newly created TikTok account that had no prior interactions or engagement with any content on the platform.
In the analysed sample, “Agenda 2030” is seen as an umbrella term for conspiracy theories about an elite group orchestrating a globalist world government, rather than as a sustainable development agenda. These theories associate UN Agenda 2030 with conspiracy theories about the “New World Order” and the “Great Reset”, claiming that global elites aim to centralise power, control global markets, and restrict individual freedoms, among other goals. Both climate change and immigration are seen as intrinsic elements of this plot, and the anthropogenic origin of climate change (that humans have caused the Earth’s temperature to rise through fossil fuel burning) is rejected.
The dominant rhetoric suggests the goal is to destroy the Spanish population through mass immigration, replacing native Spaniards with non-white immigrants, particularly from Africa, and by generating climate events using geoengineering, HAARP (High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), or chemtrails. The accounts share a common epistemological perspective, positioning themselves as bearers of hidden truth with exclusive knowledge of covert plans related to climate change manipulation and immigration. This narrative is in clear alignment with the concept of “redpilling”, a common thread in far-right extremism. In fact, six accounts had references to truth or consciousness in their usernames.
Aligned with this mindset, recurring droughts are interpreted as part of a malicious secret plan to deliberately dry out Spain, aiming to destroy its agriculture and cattle industry. Further, users disseminated videos on the alleged replacement of Spanish farmers with mass immigration and forcing Spain to rely on agricultural imports from Morocco, a country frequently blamed for the ‘replacement’ of the white population.
The October 2024 floods in Spain, which caused over 200 deaths and extensive infrastructure damage, generated significant disinformation around climate change. While many scientists link the floods to climate change, users in the sample claim they were caused by the Spanish government’s destruction of reservoirs and dams, an idea widely debunked, or by chemtrails. A particularly concerning narrative suggests that it was caused by Morocco using advanced technology to manipulate the weather. From this xenophobic perspective, Moroccan migrants are framed as an internal enemy, a Trojan horse undermining Spain. Many allege a secret pact between the Spanish government and Morocco to destroy Spanish society.
In clear alignment with the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, users sampled argue that the UN’s focus on sustainability is actually part of a deliberate global effort to reduce the white population. The “depopulation” of white people is seen as a preliminary step towards the “replacement” by immigrants. From this perspective, climate change, viewed as artificially produced, is seen as a tool, along with the promotion of women’s reproductive rights, LGBTIQ rights, and environmental sustainability. According to this narrative, users see these as essential to push for ‘depopulation,’ which they believe disproportionately affects white people.
On the other hand, environmental policies are interpreted as a tool for control, fitting into a continuum of conspiratorial ideas that range from vaccine microchips to 5G technology. Users argue that elites aim to deprive white people of their cars, prohibit meat consumption, destroy their wealth through environmental taxes, and establish total surveillance, with the “15-minute cities” conspiracy theory frequently cited as an example.
This narrative of control and lost privileges claims that white people will face misery while migrants become dominant and privileged. A key trend features AI-generated images of black people enjoying luxury in Spain while Spaniards live in poverty. To spread these ideas, rhetoric about Spain’s Islamisation fuels fears, particularly about its impact on Spanish women. Fake news about crimes allegedly committed by Muslims is widely shared to reinforce this belief. Additionally, a trend portrays past photos of Spain as idyllic, contrasting them with the supposed destruction caused by both artificially induced climate events and mass immigration, highlighting the decline of a peaceful era when the population was predominantly white and unaffected by manipulated climate events.
TITLE: Climate Displacement Can Permanently Hamper Children’s Education and Imperil Future Prospects
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/climate-displacement-education
EXCERPTS: Around the world, climate disasters are increasingly intersecting with other crises and driving forcible displacement, especially of children. While children under age 18 comprise 30 percent of the world’s population, they make up 40 percent of all forcibly displaced people. For these children and their families, displacement compounds the negative effects of disasters and makes it harder for them to maintain healthy development and well-being, particularly in terms of education.
Extreme-weather events and other repercussions of climate change are causing and exacerbating pre-existing drivers of displacement, creating knock-on effects on education access and completion. There were around 13 million displacements of school-age children due to climate shocks in 27 vulnerable countries from 2020 to 2023, according to an Education Cannot Wait tally. On its own, climate change directly impacts educational attainment for vulnerable children by increasing the likelihood of disasters that destroy schools and other infrastructure or reducing family income and pushing children to start work at a younger age; ensuing forced displacement adds further complications.
For instance, Pakistan was hit by devastating floods in 2022 that submerged about one-third of the country, displacing nearly 8 million people and disrupting the education of nearly 3.5 million children. Several months after the flooding started, more than 2 million children remained unable to reach their schools. In part this was because more than 7,000 schools were being used as shelters months later. The distance to access still-standing schools, education costs, and lack of learning supplies were the main obstacles for displaced children, community leaders told the International Organization for Migration (IOM) later. If not overcome, these kinds of barriers can solidify over time. After a previous disaster in Pakistan, an earthquake in 2005, evidence showed that only four weeks of school closures led to learning losses equivalent to 1.5 academic years, unless there had been targeted remedial education. Displacement-related disruptions can weaken or end a child’s formal education, with lifelong consequences.
One 13-year-old boy interviewed by Save the Children after being displaced by floods that submerged his village recounted his teacher turning him away from school three months later, because the building was not safe. Research shows that extended school closures lead to higher dropout rates. In fact, while 28 percent of affected Pakistani families one month after the floods said they believed their children would need to work instead of attend school, this number increased to 33 percent six months later. This example indicates how a climate disaster can lead to displacement, create obstacles to accessing education and derail education attainment entirely.
Slower-onset disasters can have similarly profound effects, especially when climate issues combine with other crises. For instance, an unprecedented drought in the Horn of Africa from 2020 to 2023 led to severe food insecurity and loss of livelihoods for pastoralists and others, spurring mass displacement on top of ongoing movement linked to regional conflict and instability. The drought caused concern that 3.6 million children might drop out of school due to climate displacement. More than 1 million people had been displaced in just the Somali region of Ethiopia due to drought as of late 2022 and early 2023. Meanwhile, 379 schools across the region were forced to close, leading approximately 81,600 students to drop out.
Elsewhere, Haiti has suffered hurricanes, extreme heat, and drought on top of political and socioeconomic risks linked to the government’s effective collapse, including food and economic insecurity, cholera epidemics, and gang violence. This situation has spurred migration typically towards urban centers, as well as internationally. In 2016, the Category 4 storm Hurricane Matthew displaced more than 175,000 Haitians. While many returned to their homes weeks later, others moved to less-damaged urban areas. However, Haiti’s urban centers can lack economic opportunities and access to education, among other necessities including food and water. Moreover, many internally displaced Haitians lacked legal documentation, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which hampered children’s enrollment for school exams, among other effects.
While the situation in Haiti is particularly dire, it is an illustration of how even rural-urban climate-linked migration can hinder education access and thus attainment. Similarly, in Bangladesh, nearly 500,000 people move from rural to urban areas each year due to factors including natural disasters and environmental changes that destroy livelihoods and land. This migration tends to result in urban poverty; for children, this can mean poor living conditions, dropping out of school, repetition of grades, and child labor rates at three times the national average.
In many of these countries, rates of children not attending school are generally high, even in the absence of climate shocks. Yet these cases nonetheless highlight that when climate change-prompted mobility occurs, children’s education can be especially precarious.
While the full impact of children’s displacement and inability to attain an education is not fully understood, its effects can be seen today and pose potentially severe consequences for the future. In a climate-pessimistic scenario in which countries fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank projects that slow-onset climate disasters could drive internal displacement for as many as 216 million people by 2050. The World Bank refers to the education impacts of climate change as “an economic time bomb,” because disrupted education limits opportunities to move out of poverty, which tends to condemn people to worse health outcomes and reduce their ability to invest in protections against future climate risks, among other developments.
Ultimately, addressing these issues has not just humanitarian implications but also affects long-term questions about future stability and prosperity in a climate-changed world. Ignoring this nexus—both the challenges of lost education and the promises of increased schooling—endangers displaced learners, perpetuates cycles of poverty, and misses an opportunity for proactive climate migration management.