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Trending: The Denial Files: 1. The 'd-words' v the planet

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The Denial Files

23/10/2021 GMT

1. The 'd-words' v the planet

BBC World Service - Trending, The Denial Files, 1. The 'd-words' v the planet

Could disinformation and denial sabotage the fight to prevent runaway climate change?

Ahead of the crucial COP26 conference, climate change pioneer Professor Michael Mann warns that disinformation and new forms of denial threaten the fight to save the planet.

How much do disinformation and new forms of climate change denial threaten the fight to save the planet?

In the first episode of a special new series running around the COP26 climate conference, BBC Trending speaks to a leading scientist who says the battle to prevent catastrophe may depend on winning the information war.

Professor Michael Mann first made headlines in 1998 when he published the pioneering “hockeystick graph” which showed how carbon emissions caused by human activity are harming the planet.

Since then mounting evidence has made it harder for the fossil fuel industry and its allies to deny the existence of man-made climate change.

The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that we are now at a turning point where only urgent and dramatic action can save humanity.

In November world leaders will gather at in Scotland to agree targets for cutting admissions. Many observers regard it as our last best chance to avert disaster.

Professor Mann argues that in the face of this reality, what he calls “the forces of inaction” have developed new strategies to try to prevent humanity from kicking its addiction to oil, gas and coal.

So does the future of life on earth depend on understanding the playbook of these new climate war tactics?

Trending: The Denial Files

How disinformation and denial are threatening the fight to prevent climate catastrophe.

Does the battle to prevent catastrophic climate change depend on winning the information war? 

In a special series coinciding with the crucial Cop 26 summit, BBC Trending investigates how disinformation and denial are threatening efforts to combat man-made climate change in different ways around the world. 

The overwhelming weight of global scientific opinion agrees that humanity is at a turning point where only urgent and dramatic action will save the planet from disaster. 

But even as evidence of the dangers mounts up, the push to avert crisis is under attack on a range of fronts. 

This series will explore how vested interests are adopting new tactics to delay, block, or distract attention from what science says needs to be done. And it will examine the role of social media in spreading baseless conspiracy theories that warp debate with potential real life consequences. 

The series will also speak to the scientists and activists who are determined to fight back against the disinformation before it’s too late.

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1. The 'd-words' v the planet

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