3 days ago
- Politics
- National Observer
Canadian far right repeats Trump-fuelled conspiracy theories on wildfires
Trump-aligned congresspeople aren't spreading wildfire disinformation in a vacuum; American social media giants are enabling a haze of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the wildfires ravaging Canadian forests, and are disguising the fossil fuel industry's role in the crisis, researchers have found.
"The real worrisome trend for Canadians is the export of insane conspiracy theories from American politicians," said Micheal Khoo, policy and development co-director at Climate Action Against Disinformation, the group behind the research.
Between April 21 and June 20, seven conservative media content creators, influencers and think-tanks reached millions of users on social media with misleading information about the fires. They are Rebel News, The Daily Skeptic, Bjorn Lomberg, Jasmin Laine, Marc Nixon, The Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
The misleading and false information was particularly prolific on X (formerly Twitter), owned by Trump's far-right financier Elon Musk.
The posts promoted numerous conspiracy theories — asserting the fires were primarily caused by arson; that the government failed to adequately deploy firefighting resources, sometimes for nefarious purposes; that governments are using wildfires to push a "radical green-agenda," and that Canada is using fires to harm the US.
In fact, arson is responsible for a tiny fraction of wildfires. Industrial forestry practices, like monocultures and historic fire suppression, are part of the problem, but climate change is exacerbating their impact by making hotter, drier conditions more common. There is no evidence any Canadian government is attempting to use wildfires to push a green agenda or harm Americans.
That hasn't stopped far-right American politicians from turning some of these conspiracies into political theatre.
Trump-aligned congresspeople aren't spreading wildfire disinformation in a vacuum; American social media giants are enabling a haze of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the wildfires ravaging Canada's forests.
Last week, six Trump-allied House Representatives sent a letter to Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador in Washington, asking the country to stop smoke from wildfires from drifting south so Americans can "spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories."
Communities across the northern Prairie provinces and Ontario have been consumed by wildfires in recent months, forcing thousands to evacuate and leaving two people dead in Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba.
"This is what turns people off politics," said Wab Kinew, the Manitoba premier in an interview with CBC. "When you've got a group of congresspeople trying to trivialize and make hay out of a wildfire season where we've lost lives in our province."
The group laid blame for the "worrisome trend" on "a lack of active forest management" and arson. Four of the signatories — Tom Emmer, Tom Tiffany, Pete Stauber and Brad Finstad — have received at least $408,068 in campaign donations from fossil fuel-linked groups since 2020.
"The real arsonists are the ones trying to burn down the truth about extreme weather — and that it's made worse by the burning of fossil fuels," said Khoo.
He isn't surprised to see that wildfires and other extreme weather events are frequently targeted with misinformation by conservative commentators, who are often financially linked to the oil and gas sector. These disasters are the clearest examples of climate science being proven right and people being harmed, making them a clear target for far-right disinformation.
The glut of conspiracy theories about the fires has roots in a decades-old effort by the fossil fuel industry to sow doubt about climate change. For years, industry-funded advertising campaigns, lobbying efforts, academic positions and think-tanks have worked to sway public opinion on the problem it was knowingly creating.
Once those ideas are out in the world, conspiracy theorists and influencers have adopted and adapted them, wrapping them into MAGA-style conservatism that helps undermine people's belief in the links between climate change and fires, he said.
"This is deep, long-term and incredibly well-funded, and it's got a proven set of networks," explained Khoo. "The industry has been successful moving it into another social movement that just looks for opportunism to say the things that fossil fuel companies would never say — I don't think [former Exxon CEO and former Trump-appointed Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson would have ever said that your space lasers are causing the hurricane, or whatever other conspiracies."
Still, this haze of half-truths couldn't spread without the help of social media platforms like X that consistently let climate misinformation spread unhindered. The researchers singled out those companies' moderation efforts — or lack of moderation — as key drivers of the problem, and called on the Canadian government to force them to clean up their act.
In the same way Canadian regulators enforce safety rules on products like airplanes or foods, the government can force tech companies to meet certain safety standards. That might be tricky with Trump — earlier this month, federal officials were forced to back down on a proposed digital services tax after the US president threatened to halt trade negotiations with Canada — but Khoo emphasized that stronger rules are essential to sustaining support for climate action, and are supported by the EU and other countries.
