Climate, lies, and unfitness for office

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I was unprepared for the story of an anti-government group using disinformation and conspiracy theories to create a foothold in Rutherford County, NC, in the aftermath of hurricane Helene (An anti-government group took over hurricane relief in this small town, WP, Oct 23, 2024). I often visit extended family in that county’s Lake Lure. A close relative got married there. I have shopped at the supermarket referenced in the story. This is a region that I hold dear to my heart, even from distance. A region that Helene devastated.

Helene fits a pattern of many recent natural hazards rendered more frequent and more intense by climate change. In the case of Helene (and Milton, a few days later), the specific connection were the substantially warmer than normal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Climate change is fueled by human caused global warming and has been understood, documented, and forecasted by the scientific community for decades. Scientists have actively communicated their climate findings to society, from the public to politicians and decision makers.

Informed by established science, 195 countries and the European Union signed the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement to address climate as an urgent existential threat to Humanity. The signatories represent over 98% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the known primary driver of global warming. The Agreement called for an aggressive reduction of those emissions, to keep global average temperatures from reaching irreversible thresholds. 

But both the Agreement and climate science met a foe that they were unprepared for: Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories—‘DCT’ for brevity. DCT have existed throughout human history, most notably at the service of dictatorships (think Hitler’s Germany). With the advent of social media, though, the scale of DCT exploded: It is now at the forefront of our lives, fueled in part by unscrupulous politicians who see great opportunity in it.

Donald Trump is a consummate example. When, in his 2016 campaign, he referred to climate change as a ‘hoax’ he was deploying DCT for political gain. He had already tested DCT at national scale, most notably by spreading rumors that Barack Obama was not US born. For Trump, DCT are a natural megaphone consistent with a lifelong modus operandi of lying and distorting reality for personal and business gain.

The idea is simple: Repeat a lie enough times, loud enough, until it becomes ‘truth.’ Once you discredit facts, fact checkers, science, and reality, you can control what people believe in. You can, in fact, create an alternate reality that suits your agenda. DCT allowed Trump to win in 2016, kept him competitive in 2020, and make him shockingly viable in 2024. Like climate change, DCT are an existential threat to Humanity. And as in climate change, the danger is clear and present rather than fuzzily located in some remote future.

Countries are using DCT to cause chaos in other countries’ elections, politicians are advancing meritless and harmful political agendas via DCT, and unsavory criminals and cults are spreading their influence via DCT. Perpetrators all have something in common: a total disregard for the people they hurt with their lies. This disregard is on display in the Helene and Milton aftermaths—and at Rutherford County specifically.

Communities affected by major natural hazards often come together in mutual assistance, which is a testament to human resilience and spirit. But even strong communities need external help, from their governments and/or international organizations.

In the US, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates federal response to natural hazards. Their job is grueling, with a complexity seldom recognized by the public. As an oceanographer, I interacted for decades with FEMA staff in efforts to prepare Pacific Northwest communities for coastal hazards. I met good people, knowledgeable, seasoned, and deeply committed to protecting the populations they serve, at times at significant personal and family sacrifice.

When Donald Trump called global warming a hoax and withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, he slowed down responses to climate change, bringing the world closer to the climate brink and rendering the US less prepared for increasingly more frequent and intense hazards. When he and others spread untrue rumors about FEMA’s response to Helene (and later Milton), they helped create the conditions that resulted in FEMA staff being physically threatened, and the agency having to temporarily suspend their post-event assistance at certain locations.

Of note, the non-government groups that established a foothold in Rutherford County post-Helene carried and amplified the conspiracy theory that FEMA was on the ground to steal minable, lithium-rich land from those affected by the Hurricane. More broadly,  GOP-fueled DCT went to the absurd extreme of suggesting that the federal government can control the weather and direct hurricane to specific regions for political gain. Those distracting absurdities happened when communities were scrambling to put themselves back together, and when FEMA was trying to help them do so.

FEMA employees don’t deserve being disparaged and threatened. Instead, they deserve our thanks for handling very complex responses to major disasters, with professionalism and under trying conditions. They can and have failed (remember Katrina?), but when they do it is because the magnitude of the challenge overwhelms them. If FEMA underpredicts the extent or timing of the needs, or lack specific resources, fair accountability and process improvements are certainly in order—including asking Congress why they did not provide the necessary legislative support. But FEMA does not fail out of malice or because of a devious government plan.

It verges on criminal that post-Helene and post-Milton DCT have made affected communities reluctant to even apply for the resources they so desperately need, and that FEMA can provide or coordinate. It breaks my heart that, at a time when we all should be pulling together, misguided political agendas further divide and imperil Americans—at Rutherford Country and beyond.

This November, we can and should send two clear messages: Those who deny or downplay climate change will not be elected to public office—at local, state, or federal level; and those who use DCT to re-victimize natural hazard victims will be repudiated at, and beyond, the ballot box. Our vote, our choice.

— Antonio Baptista