Disinformation Designed to Ingrain Erroneous Beliefs and Lies

Google search can bring results that confirm disinformation, not debunk it.

Source: Center for International Media Assistance (

70% of Americans regard misinformation as a major threat, outpacing fears about climate change and infectious disease.

— Editorial in Science Advances

Social media and the digital information landscape has become dangerously riddled with disinformation. We all know this. However, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between propaganda and the truth.

Disinformation operations are sophisticated, cleverly twisting real events and facts to push their agendas.

Note: Misinformation is unintentional, such as honest mistakes, outdated facts, or misunderstood data. Disinformation aims to deceive or manipulate to influence public opinion, sow distrust, or push an agenda.

There is a significant amount of ongoing research on how disinformation operates. Some findings:

1. No one is immune.

2. People perceive something to be true the more they are exposed to it, regardless of its veracity.

3. The vast majority of disinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Need-to-Know: Disinformation is designed to ingrain erroneous beliefs and lies

I found #3 to be the most surprising and significant. In other words, the primary use of misinformation is not to change people's beliefs, but to reinforce their distorted worldview.

For example, rather than dealing with the realities of a warming planet and rising levels of dangerous extreme weather events, some folks completely ignore what is happening around them. It’s as if they think their eyes are lying to them.

Instead, they would rather attack the messengers—weather forecasters, journalists, and media.

Disinformed beliefs are displacing scientific consensus, often weaponized by right-wing populist movements.

— Frankie Graves, EKOS Research

Need-to-Know: Warning! Google Search reinforces bias.

Using Google to evaluate the accuracy of news stories is tricky. It will provide you with sources that align with your personal biases. If you believe climate change is a hoax, a Google search is far more likely to show you sources to confirm your belief. (Google remembers your searches, how long you spend on a site, etc., the better to give you what it thinks you want to see.)

An example from a recent study in the journal Nature.

Say you use Google to check out claims that the US government engineered a famine by locking down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply using the term “engineered famine” will bring results claiming that this really happened. (It didn’t.)

FYI. Google does not manually remove content, nor does it moderate or edit content.

Need-to-Know: Using key phrases from inaccurate news stories in a Google search reinforces misinformation

Google is aware of this. It offers a guide to help verify the accuracy of search results. See: Five new ways to verify info with Google Search.

To help distinguish fact from lies, be aware that disinformation attempts to push our emotional buttons, promote logical fallacies, and use conspiratorial theories, according to several studies.

Here’s what I use to wade through disinformation to find the truth.

1. Find the original source of a search result.

2. Examine the source for potential bias.

3. Find other legit sources to verify the accuracy of the information.

It’s tedious, but I really hate to be conned. Once you have determined reliable and verifiable sources, it becomes much easier.

Until next time, be well.

Stephen

Source: Rick McKee, Georgia Chronicle

Cooler Cities Save Lives

Cities and towns need to go green to survive a hotter world

Vision of a future green city

Heat is a killer in many urban areas, with more than 3 million heat-related deaths globally between 2000 and 2019.

Increasing vegetation in urban areas by 30% would have prevented 1.16 million of those heat-related deaths, according to a new study in The Lancet.

Urban greenery can cool urban areas by an average of 3 degrees C during summers—a vital difference during a heatwave, the study found.

For example, botanical gardens, wetlands, rain gardens, green walls, tree-lined streets cool city air by 4 to 5 degrees C, according to a global study of green spaces.

Parks, playgrounds, and urban farming bring about 3 degrees of cooling.

Here’s how trees, shrubs, and grasses cool urban areas.

1. By providing shade, some of the sun’s heat is reflected, decreasing heat retention.

2. Plants absorb heat from the air and use that heat convert water into water vapor. This lowers the local air temperature and increases air movement.

Need-to-Know: Cities are far hotter than rural areas

Urban areas are almost always hotter than surrounding areas because roads and buildings absorb and radiate heat from the sun. Road traffic*, air conditioning, industrial and energy production, among other everyday activities, generate heat. This is known as the urban heat island effect.

*Note: 70 to 75% of the fuel burned in cars and trucks is converted into heat, which adds lots of heat to already hot cities.

Need-to-Know: Road traffic is the second-largest source of urban heat after buildings.

Even a 10% or 20% increase in vegetation could have prevented 27% or 32% of heat-related deaths, respectively.

Now is the time to start preparing cities for a much hotter world, while doing everything we can to slash emissions.

—Rogier van den Berg, of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

Greener cities bring a host of co-benefits:

• Trees can lower air pollution as they can absorb harmful gases and provide oxygen.

• Reduce noise levels.

• Provide critical habitat for pollinators and many bird species, both of which are in sharp decline.

• Enhance outdoor physical activity, social engagement, and psychological wellbeing.

• Lower rates of chronic disease.

Singapore is one of the world’s greenest cities Source: Getty Images

By cooling cities, green spaces reduce cities’ energy consumption for air conditioning. They can also improve flood control. For example, China’s “sponge cities” have increased green space, created rain gardens, permeable surfaces, and other green infrastructure, and have reduced flooding as well as urban temperatures. (For more on this see Extreme Water Requires Collaboration Not Control.)

What can we do?

• Plant trees, rewild your yard, and grow vegetables.

• Protect the public trees and greenspaces we currently have.

• Lobby our representatives for more greenspace.

Until next time, be well.

Stephen

Anyone under 40 will experience extreme weather conditions that no one has witnessed before.

We can take action to prevent this grim future.

Source: Children's Mercy Kansas City

There are more than three billion children and young people under the age of 25 today. Most of them will face unprecedented exposure to heatwaves, crop failures, floods, droughts, wildfires, and tropical cyclones in their lifetimes, according to a landmark study in the science journal Nature.

Need-to-Know: Youth will face unprecedented extreme weather

“Unprecedented exposure” is defined as climatic events that might occur only once every 10,000 years.

Here’s an example from the study:

Anyone born in Brussels in 1960 and who has spent their life there will experience three extreme heatwaves during their lifetime. However, a child born in Brussels in 2020 and who spends their entire life there will experience 18 heatwaves during their lifetime—an unprecedented exposure—if global warming rises to 2.5 degrees Celsius (C).

In other words, a young child today will be forced to endure 6 times as many extreme heatwaves as their 50-something parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents will over their lifetimes.

We’re on course for 2.7 degrees C with our current level of emissions.

Need-to-Know: When a child born in 2020 is 60 years old, it could be 2.7 degrees C hotter.

I have kids. My grandkids were born in 2017 and 2020. I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around this.

The younger a person is, the higher the likelihood of unprecedented exposure to climate extremes.

— Luke Grant, co-author of the study and a climate researcher at the Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Reducing CO2 emissions to near zero will dramatically reduce the levels of extreme weather our kids and grandkids will have to endure.

Here are three things you and I can do today:

1. Walk, bike, or use public transportation (bus or train) instead of driving. Limit your flying. Transportation is the first or second largest source of CO2 emissions in most countries

2. Eat less meat, especially beef, along with limiting dairy consumption. Buy local, organic when you can. Food production is a major source of CO2 emissions and the biggest driver of deforestation.

3. Talk to people: “Like most people, I am worried about how badly global warming will impact young people, so I’m doing what I can, like xyz.”

   Let them know that more than 80% of people in nearly every country want stronger climate actions from their government and corporate leaders, despite the headlines. (See: The 89% Climate Solution: A majority of people know climate change is a serious threat to our health.)

Here are three things we can do tomorrow and the day after:

1. If you have two cars, get rid of one.

2. Electrify everything: heat pumps, water heaters, stoves (induction stoves are big energy savers), electric vehicle (An EV Uprising), E-bike/scooter (Micromobility: An Urban Transportation Revolution), lawn mower/trimmer. Better yet, replace your grass with native plants. See: Rewild Your Yard

3. Support and participate in local groups that are making a difference.

Until next time, be well and do something to help, you’ll feel better.

Stephen

Three Easy Ways to Protect Yourself from Plastic Pollution

Get rid of black plastic in your kitchen ASAP

Source: Beyond Plastics

The air around us is an invisible fog of microplastic particles and fibers—as many as several thousand particles per cubic meter of air.

Need-to-Know: Microplastic fallout is akin to being constantly exposed to radiation

Microplastic fallout is like radiation exposure: Invisible microplastics enter our bodies daily and penetrate virtually every organ.

Microplastic particles (MNPs) have been found throughout the body, including blood, kidneys, bladder, liver, and even in the brain.

On average, five grams of MNPs—the weight of a plastic spoon or a US nickel—were found in the brains of deceased people, according to a new study in Nature Medicine. Those with dementia had up to 10 times more MNPs.

Need-to-Know: Plastics linked to increases in many diseases

They damage the delicate tissues in our bodies while leaching some of the 16,000 chemicals in plastics, 25% of which are classified as highly hazardous to human and environmental health.

Yes, plastic pollution is really bad for our health.

Here are three easy ways to protect yourself:

1. Throw out all black plastic cooking utensils, food containers, toys, etc. Black plastic contains unregulated levels of toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, phthalates, and flame retardants. (It’s sometimes made from E-waste.) Throw them out now!

2. Drink filtered tap water instead of water in plastic bottles. Plastic bottled water can expose you to nearly as many microplastic particles annually as all other ingested and inhaled sources combined. (Avoid any beverage in plastic.)

3. Avoid microwaving food or storing food in plastic containers. Choose glass, ceramics, or steel instead. Microwaving can release 4 million to 2 billion MNPs per square centimeter in just three minutes. Even at room temperature, plastic containers shed particles.

   

   Source: Plastic Education

I’ve interviewed many experts and read dozens of research papers on plastics over the years. Here are three other things you Need-to-Know to help reduce your plastic exposure.

• Chicken nuggets contain 30 times more MNPs per gram than chicken breasts. Industrial food processing involves the use of plastic at various points.

• Meats and seafood contain higher levels MNPs than plants.

• A HEPA filter can remove significant amounts of airborne MNPs.

If you want to learn more about the health impacts of plastics, check out these three NtK posts from 2024.

• Strong Plastics Treaty Needed to Protect People and Planet: +3600 chemicals in plastic food packaging

• Microplastic Pollution Linked to Rise in Chronic Diseases

• Becoming Plastic People on a Plastic Planet

Please share this with family and friends so that they can protect themselves.

Until next time, be well.

Stephen

The 89% Climate Solution

A majority of people know climate change is a serious threat to our health. Time to act and vote like it

Need-to-Know Fact: The vast majority of the human population—80 to 89%—want governments to do more about climate change.

That’s based on numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies.

However, most people are unaware of this because it hasn’t been widely reported in the media. In other words, the global climate majority does not realize it is the majority by far.

Loud, shouty people on digital forums give the impression that climate is a minor, even fringe concern, despite the overwhelming evidence of harm. Persistent and widespread disinformation is being pushed by vested interests in the fossil fuel industry and their extremist supporters to deny and delay efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

They also want to discourage people from insisting that the majority of people want more climate action by governments and industry.

And we want action now, not 2050!

Need-to-Know: 75% of Americans understand climate change harms health, and the health risk is increasing

In a brand new survey of Americans, 75% of registered voters want federal agencies to maintain or increase their efforts to protect people from the health harms of global warming.

The survey was conducted in December 2024—after the presidential election, but before the Trump administration took office. It is the latest Climate Change in the American Mind survey by George Mason University.

Many Americans understand that climate change harms health, and an increasing percentage believe climate-related health harms will become more common in their community over the next 10 years, the survey found.

Americans who want federal agencies to increase their efforts to protect people outnumber those who want to see fewer efforts by the government by more than 3 to 1.

Need-to-Know: Only a tiny minority of Americans want to see less climate action

Some other results of the survey:

• A majority of registered voters (55%) said federal agencies should do more than they are currently doing to protect people from the health harms of global warming.

• 20% of registered voters said agencies should continue to do the same amount, and only 15% said they should decrease their efforts.

Taken together, 75% of registered voters want federal agencies to maintain or increase their efforts to protect people from the health harms of global warming. (See NtK Harmful Air Pollution is Getting Worse: Pollutants from Road Transportation and Wildfires on the Rise.)

Even more evidence.

Last June, I wrote about the largest-ever global survey, which included over 73,000 people speaking 87 different languages across 77 countries. It yielded similar results. For example, 86% of people want to see their countries set aside geopolitical differences and collaborate on climate change. (See NtK You are not alone. Most people in 77 countries want stronger, faster climate action.)

What can you do?

1. Share the fact that 80 to 89% of people around the world want more action on climate to protect our health and the health of our children.

   For example: “Did you know that the vast majority of people want their governments to reduce CO2 emissions to protect their families’ health?”

2. Share this post on your social media.

3. Be confident that you are in the majority and are doing the right thing for your family and our shared home.

4. Vote for and support candidates who represent the climate majority.

Until next time. Be well

Stephen