Australien muss sich gegen Fehlinformationen über den Klimawandel wehren, heißt es in einem Senatsbericht

How can Australia tackle the scourge of online bots and trolls, and orchestrated disinformation campaigns, that are trying to prevent action on climate change and keep our economy reliant on fossil fuels?

The Senate’s select committee on information integrity on climate change and energy released its final report last week.

It sounded an alarm about the health of Australia’s digital town square and the erosion of trust in society, and said we have to clean up our online debates.

„A robust information ecosystem is critical to the health of Australia’s democracy and to its ability to meet the challenges arising from climate change — including the need to transition to renewable energy sources,“ the report argued.

„However, the committee heard that the integrity of Australia’s information ecosystem is threatened by a proliferation of misinformation and disinformation, which is polarising public discourse and eroding trust in science and knowledge institutions.

„Worryingly, the committee heard that Australia has some of the highest levels of concern about information integrity globally.“

The majority report, backed by Labor, Liberal, and Greens senators, made 21 recommendations for the federal government

This is a problem in the US and Canada too. I suspect it is a global issue. It’s painful to think that perhaps one of the most existential threats to life on this planet is getting assistance from people willing to end everything just to have had a bit more luxury and excess before joining the pile of dead bodies a few decades from now.