From Covid misinformation to climate denialism, understanding the divergent paths of Australia and the US can help us fight the powerful forces that threaten our world
A
s two scientists who lived through Australia’s black summer bushfires and the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, we have seen firsthand how science in modern societies is under siege from an even more insidious “antiscience virus” of weaponised disinformation that undermines our ability to confront these crises.
There are five primary, interconnected forces behind the assault on science and reason. We call them the “five Ps”: the plutocrats, the petrostates, the pros (eg paid promoters of anti-science), the propagandists and – with important exceptions – the media. Together they have generated a perfect storm of antiscientific disinformation that now threatens humanity.
A nefarious web of actors including plutocrats in the US and Australia, along with libertarian tech bros, and petrostates such as Russia and Saudi Arabia fund and amplify deceitful, ideologically motivated antiscience. They collectively employ weaponised social media outlets, podcasts and rightwing cable news broadcasts as their preferred tools. The objective is to inundate the public with fossil fuel-friendly propaganda that undermines climate action or public health measures including vaccinations. Scientists are often portrayed as enemies or villains. The well of public opinion so critical to informed voting is poisoned.
