{"id":572593,"date":"2026-03-29T18:37:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/572593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T18:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:37:37","slug":"how-ai-slopaganda-is-helping-fossil-fuel-interests-obstruct-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/572593\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018AI slopaganda\u2019 is helping fossil fuel interests obstruct climate action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

March 29, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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Climate action has a new enemy \u2013 the rise of \u201cAI slopaganda\u201d. Thanks to generative artificial intelligence platforms, climate misinformation is now propagating itself, a federal Senate inquiry has found.<\/p>\n

The old enemies have not gone away \u2013 climate falsehoods are also spread by vested interests representing the fossil fuel industry, community members with genuine concerns but misguided beliefs, and sites serving clickbait to drive advertising revenue.<\/p>\n

\"AA common misinformation meme is offshore wind turbines hurting whales. Matt Davidson<\/p>\n

The select committee on information integrity on climate change and energy put these issues under the microscope for almost eight months. The report, which dropped last week<\/a>, makes for grim reading.<\/p>\n

The report says proliferation of misinformation (false information) and disinformation (deliberate deception) is polarising public discourse, reducing understanding of climate science and support for action, and eroding trust in science and knowledge institutions.<\/p>\n

Australia has some of the highest levels of concern about information integrity globally, the report says. \u201cIn addition, false and misleading information about climate change or the environment was one of the top misinformation topics encountered by Australian audiences, with levels of disinformation tending to spike around extreme weather events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Misinformation campaigns against renewable energy projects have also been inflaming tensions and fuelling conflict in communities, the inquiry says, including bushfire survivors, landholders, and community group members being subject to harassment, intimidation, physical abuse and even death threats.<\/p>\n

Yet silencing debate would probably further undermine trust in communities, science, experts, public institutions and the democratic system, the inquiry says.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn artist\u2019s impression purporting to show what wind farms 10km off the Illawarra coast would look like, as distributed by the group Responsible Futures at a public meeting in Unanderra. Unless you have a second person to hold it up at least a metre away, this artist\u2019s impression provides a misleading visual reference for what the wind turbines off the coast of Wollongong would look like.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n

So, in a nutshell, climate misinformation is not only undermining our ability to tackle the most pressing problem of our time, but the collateral damage includes community cohesion, political discourse and democracy itself.<\/p>\n

What do we have to thank for this toxic cocktail of consequences? Why, the same fossil fuel interests that caused the greenhouse pollution behind global warming in the first place.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Parliamentary privilege for submissions enabled the publication of detailed and compelling evidence on the growing use of \u201castroturfing\u201d and the role of \u201cdark money\u201d<\/a> to influence mainstream public debate.<\/p>\n

Astroturfing is where a campaign looks \u201cgrassroots\u201d but is in fact highly co-ordinated and well financed, often with links to think tanks, commercial interests, lobby groups, donors or political parties. The concern about dark money is the lack of transparency around donations to think tanks and third-party affiliated organisations.<\/p>\n

The report highlights a submission (No. 105) by Climate Social Science Network (CSSN) \u2013 an international collaboration of 800 scholars \u2013 that discusses \u201cclimate obstruction\u201d or \u201cintentional actions and efforts to slow or block policies on climate change that are commensurate with the current scientific consensus of what is necessary to avoid dangerous human-caused interference with the climate system\u201d.<\/p>\n

In its submission, QUT Digital Media Research Centre describes the tactics as similar to those used by the tobacco lobby to fight anti-smoking regulation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth reading the 75-page submission by University of Technology Sydney academic Dr Jeremy Walker, which lays out detailed evidence for a global climate misinformation campaign co-ordinated by the Atlas Network. It starts with an image of a cheque issued by Exxon to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate policy has not failed, it has been defeated,\u201d Walker writes.<\/p>\n

Walker points to archived documents that suggest ExxonMobil directly commissioned Atlas to seed hundreds of new think tanks around the world to defeat climate policies such as carbon taxation and an effective United Nations treaty.<\/p>\n

In Australia, Walker says, Atlas affiliates include the Institute of Public Affairs, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), the Australian Taxpayers\u2019 Alliance, the H.R. Nicholls Society, Australian Institute for Progress, LibertyWorks, Mannkal Economic Education Foundation and election campaigning vehicles Advance Australia and Australians for Prosperity. He does not claim these are members of a legal entity called Atlas, or that they are all directly funded \u2013 since there are many wealthy Australians willing to fund them \u2013 but that they are in regular contact and use co-ordinated messaging.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn example of a meme spreading disinformation about offshore wind found on social media.\u00a0X<\/p>\n

Most of the more-established organisations did not respond directly, though CIS anticipated it in its own submission, saying it was founded several years before Atlas and did not take Atlas funding or direction.<\/p>\n

Advance Australia responds that Walker is a \u201cconspiracy theorist\u201d and the progressive climate movement in general are \u201chumanity-hating anti-prosperity scolds who want to make your life worse\u201d and who use the term \u201cdisinformation\u201d to discredit people who disagree with them.<\/p>\n

\u2018Climate policy has not failed, it has been defeated.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Jeremy Walker, University of Technology Sydney<\/p>\n

Walker also argues that No Offshore Turbines, Responsible Future Illawarra and National Rational Energy Network are astro-turfing efforts by the Atlas network, while Rainforest Reserves Australia is a legitimate charity that has been co-opted. These organisations have contested his claims and their responses are published alongside Walker\u2019s submission.<\/p>\n

It is depressing how impotent we are to prevent misinformation without risking further harm.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s recommendations include joining global efforts to combat misinformation, strengthening the role of regulators to tackle greenwashing, ensuring greater transparency in campaign materials, providing more funding for social science and independent monitoring, and greater oversight of corporate involvement in school systems. But it also rightly calls \u201cfor a nuanced approach that does not dismiss legitimate community concern or stifle public debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"House<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the dystopian findings is the ways in which the sources of misinformation are multiplying. The committee finds that widespread use of generative AI has led to a self-perpetuating cycle of misinformation in which AI uses existing misinformation to create new content, which then becomes the basis for further AI-generated misinformation \u2013 described as \u201cAI slopaganda\u201d.<\/p>\n

The inquiry considers the role of certain mainstream media companies (not this one) in amplifying climate obstruction, but finds false information has been spreading fastest via digital platforms, including recommendation algorithms and bot networks.<\/p>\n

When the information environment is so heavily polluted, quality independent journalism is more important than ever. It is also under increasing threat. This is not the time to roll back copyright protection<\/a> so that AI companies can simply grab whatever they want.<\/p>\n

Big Tech has stolen our attention, mental health, children\u2019s wellbeing, livelihoods and elections. Now it\u2019s coming for reality. We shouldn\u2019t fall over ourselves to help it.<\/p>\n

Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"CaitlinCaitlin Fitzsimmons<\/a> is the environment and climate reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the social affairs reporter and the Money editor.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 29, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-572593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}