Climate Censorship? (CAAD pushing on a string)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 27, 2025

“Sounds like the alarmists are losing when they call in the thought police. And they are losing.”

A new international group, Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), advertises itself as the policer against “climate change misinformation and disinformation.”

We are a global coalition of over 50 prominent climate and anti-disinformation organisations, calling for decisive, unified action against widespread climate misinformation and disinformation.

Why? CAAD continues:

Climate change misinformation and disinformation create a distorted perception of climate science and solutions; meanwhile they weaken the public mandate for effective domestic and international policies aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Nothing subjective about it. CAAD’s “Universal definition” is stated:

Climate disinformation and misinformation refers to deceptive or misleading content that:

Undermines the existence or impacts of climate change, the unequivocal human influence on climate change, and the need for corresponding urgent action according to the IPCC scientific consensus and in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement;

Misrepresents scientific data, including by omission or cherry-picking, in order to erode trust in climate science, climate-focused institutions, experts, and solutions; or

Falsely publicises efforts as supportive of climate goals that in fact contribute to climate warming or contravene the scientific consensus on mitigation or adaptation.

Their recommendation?

Governments should encourage social media, advertising technology, and broadcast and publishing companies to take these steps:

1 Acknowledge climate disinformation as a major threat damaging the information ecosystem, hindering climate action and policy, risking public safety and health and further widening societal and political divides.

2 Produce, publicize and resource a transparent company plan to stop the spread of climate disinformation.

3 Report on the prevalence of climate disinformation on their products and services.

4 Allow researchers access to all data needed to conduct research and prevent the monetisation of climate disinformation.

5 Implement platform-wide inoculation efforts to expose mis- and disinformation.

6 Implement strong labor policies for content moderation staff.

7 Produce and enforce transparency, safety, equity, and accountability measures related to company use of AI and other emerging technologies.

Government? Big Brother? The one institution that has a legal monopoly on the initiation of force? Shame on Climate Action Against Disinformation.

Losing Arguments

Sounds like the alarmists are losing when they call in the thought police. And they are losing. WUWT is the world’s most viewed climate information site. Judith Curry’s Climate Etc. reigns as the go-to for bottom-line science. LinkedIn and X are populated with skepticism and debate with all-things-climate. DeSmog’s climate disinformation database cannot keep up with all the individuals and groups that criticize climate alarmism and point out exaggerations and failed predictions.

And who won the U.S. election and is replacing the Podesta-Biden-Harris ‘all-of-government’ climate policy with none-of-government? Don’t even mention “climate change” and “decarbonization” in polite company.

Course Correction?

New opportunities abound for questioning climate alarm and debating climate policy. Climate censorship is dead on arrival in a new political world. CAAD should change its name and call out the exaggerators and climate cult. A new organization could reject the Sunrise Movement, Climate Defiance, and other groups who are expected to rev up their civil disobedience in 2025? That would turn down the heat.

Appendix: Pushing Censorship against Heartland Institute

On October 24, 2024, a group of far Left organizations wrote an open letter to Google’s “Trust and Safety Team” to censor the Heartland Institute. [1]

“We are urgently asking Google to fully enforce its existing policy and immediately and permanently demonetize Heartland Institute and all other outlets that continue to spread climate disinformation on YouTube,” the letter read. Continuing:

As evidenced by the above research and reporting, Google ads are directly contributing to the spread of outright lies about our planet’s changing climate– with dire impacts…. We urge immediate and thorough action to end Google’s monetization of accounts that spread and profit from climate disinformation….

Sorry, but the bullying and censorship days are over. It is cool to question the heat of climate change activism, intellectually and politically.

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[1] Accountable Tech; Action Center on Race & the Economy; Center for Countering Digital Hate; Check My Ads; ClimateVoice, a project of Tides Center; Ekō; Friends of the Earth; Greenpeace USA; Kairos Fellowship; The Tech Oversight Project; UltraViolet; Union of Concerned Scientists

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Appendix: The Censors Are Out