Facebook claims it's aggressively stopping climate change misinformation on its platform, but scientists and environmentalists think the effort is too little.

(Photo: Pixabay)
Facebook claims it’s aggressively stopping climate change misinformation on its platform, but scientists and environmentalists think the effort is too little.

New Information Center on Facebook

Facebook has recently launched the Climate Science Information Center to connect users with climate information based on real science.

Facebook's announcement came only days after Pacific Northwest emergency responders responded to the fight against misinformation on the giant social media platform, while also fighting catastrophic wildfires.

Facebook's announcement appears as a precursor to Climate Week, the international non-profit organization Climate Group's conference held in partnership with New York City and the UN.

According to Chris Cox, chief Facebook product officer, they intend to provide correct climate change information.

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Scientists Not Impressed

Unfortunately, environmental groups and scientists are not convinced that the effort is significant enough to curb conspiracy theories and falsehoods.

They said that Facebook allowed entities to reject climate science to continue to peddle their disputed, misleading, and wrong information concerning climate change. Such misinformation includes the government's use of so-called chemtrails and all the conspiracy theories surrounding the issue.

Penn State Earth System Science Center director Michael Mann says that this is convenient for certain quarters who want to stop climate policies' progress. According to Mann, all social media entities should exert more effort to prevent the spread of wrong climate change information on their platforms.

He only named Facebook, however. He singled it out because he says that Facebook never took enough steps to deal with the matter, enabling entities to promote misinformation.

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Environmentalists Unimpressed As Well

Various environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace also accused Facebook of being half-hearted in stopping climate misinformation. They issued a joint statement saying that Facebook's new policy fails to address the broader crisis of disinformation.

George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication research assistant professor John Cook says that Facebook's success regarding COVID-19 information shows that they did not exert their will in pushing correct climate change information. Facebook provided timely information to over two billion users.

Cook says that they were slow to act against climate misinformation at best, and at worst, even actively reversed efforts by climate experts to fact-check information. This enabled climate change deniers to continue spreading falsehoods.

The climate science community began to distrust Facebook further when in September last year, the Carbon Dioxide Coalition got Facebook to label its misleading post as a mere "opinion" and did not block it. The Coalition believes carbon dioxide is good for the Earth.

However, Cox says that Facebook does its job of eliminating misinformation and that it works with 70 independent organizations that identify, fact-check, and reduce false information regarding climate change.

Cox says that Facebook also removes posts that threaten public safety. He says that Facebook teams pay closer attention when disasters strike. Facebook is working, he says, ensuring that it provides correct information during crises.

#OurPlanetChallenge

The new effort will be seen on top of Facebook news feeds and will provide authoritative climate change information worldwide. It will also promote the hashtag #OurPlanetChallenge to show people what they contribute to saving the environment.

The challenge, aside from discouraging climate change misinformation, also enables users to nominate others to participate. When 100,000 have joined, Facebook pledges to donate 100,000 dollars to the non-profit, tree-planting Arbor Day Foundation.

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Check out for more news and information on Climate Change on Nature World News.