Big Carbon’s alternative reality of climate misinformation

The Integrity Gap Report identified widespread climate misinformation that distorts and dulls our perceptions of what an existential threat is. How does Big Carbon achieve this? Andrew Gardiner reports.

Report of the Senate Select Committee Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy it was It was published last month. The 294-page report reveals bots, paid influencers and well-funded astroturf “community groups” deployed for the sole purpose of spreading climate lies; Much of this is paid for by cadres of right-wing activists backed by dirty money from anonymous sources.

The report cited swarms of climate-denying bots and called for coercive powers. social media platforms to bust their fraud. This follows alarmist reports from the University of Queensland Pro Bono Center (among others): bots were pushing “conspiratorial narratives” alongside standard climate skepticism, and platforms were struggling to “keep up with (their) sophistication and scale.”

It also identified bot accounts and networks of fake social media profiles launching automated attacks on the Australian Greens in the weeks before the 2025 Federal election.

Stunned by the attack and a suspiciously coordinated anti-Green rhetoric from the mainstream media, the party lost 75 percent of its lower house numbers last may.

Black money. Far-right Progress targets Greens and Teals with $14m war chest

Fake accounts and influencers

Last year, around 66 fake accounts impersonated real Australian farmers by using Australian images (such as Vegemite and flags) to flood and attack the web pages of Climate Action Farmers, a group aligned with the Greens. “Deliberate corruption, which prevents our information ecosystems (voters) from receiving accurate, reliable and timely information, is one of the greatest challenges of our time,” the Greens’ presentation to the committee said.

Another presentation from the Digital Media Research Center at Queensland University of Technology points out that online influencers are vital to campaigns against the carbon pricing plan, Great Barrier Reef protection, renewable energy and our legal commitment to Net Zero by 2050. One such influencer is former MP Craig Kelly (“our next Prime Minister”, according to 2022 election ads for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, which these days have mysterious links to a group called the Australian Foundation for Economic Education (AFEE).

Kelly’s (or @CraigKellyAFEE (as he is now known) is on the payroll of this recently formed south-west Sydney-based organisation, but his posts this year seem to go hand in hand with the ostensible, attack on renewable energy agenda. “FACT: There is no climate emergency… but three groups of people are violently pushing this climate emergency scam,” Kelly wrote in a statement Monday, calling the groups “gullible idiots,” “sleazy grifters” and “authoritarian control freaks.”

FACT: There is no climate emergency.

But three groups of people are fiercely pushing this climate emergency scam.

😱The first are naive fools; simple-minded fools who can easily be fooled because they think with their emotions instead of using logic and reason. https://t.co/zEZgLyCvoX

— Craig Kelly:🇦🇺Foundation for Economic Education (@craigkellyAFEE) March 30, 2026

A confirmed case of influencers charging for fossil fuel services may have helped slow the shift away from carbon-emitting gas appliances. Utility has paid out Instagram influencers like Jemena, Melissa Lucarelli (a Married at First Sight contestant with over 100,000 followers) and ‘Hayden & Sara’ (The Block 2018 winners); both “greenwashed” methane with nearly identical posts, claiming that a “natural flame” lowers blood pressure and increases relaxation.

Citing a study by the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre, the report states that Australians are more concerned than people in other countries about influencers providing misinformation. “Influencers are more likely to be seen as a major misinformation threat than politicians” in Australia, according to the centre’s research. 2025 Digital News Report stated.

Advanced (d) astroturf sports

Appeals for “astroturfing” (in short, posing as grassroots organizations to mask ties to vested interests) have featured Australian Prosperity and the Australian Institute of Progress; Coal Australia gave almost $4.3 million to federal and Queensland pre-election campaigns, including targeted advertising for pro-climate candidates.

On a smaller scale, groups like ‘Nuclear Mothers’ (if you can believe it) targeted niche pre-election advertising at the federal level last year before getting into trouble for not being listed on the AEC Transparency Register. ensure electoral powers $16,000 in social media ads (then there are links to the atomic poster child) Will Shackel and pro-nuclear international networks, not to mention their dubious messaging on energy costs).

Finally we come to the Advance Australia spokesperson Sandra Bourkewho – when he doesn’t list the multi-million dollar operation as the “largest” grassroots movement in Australian political history” – accused of posting dubious claims in local Facebook groups in an attempt to stop solar, wind and offshore projects in Queensland and NSW.

“Astroturfing in climate and energy debates is not the job of fringe actors (but) is a systematic strategy of mainstream political and corporate players”, ADM+S delivery read.

Far from being grassroots, Advance Australia is a major player on the Australian political scene; The $14 million pre-election war chest is seen as a key factor in relegating the Greens to a lower seat in parliament and preventing the ‘Teals’ from expanding their footprint in parliament last year. This lucky winner was followed by someone else $13.45 million In 2024-25 $900,000 of this came from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and a whopping $8.3 million from anonymous ‘dark money’‘ donors.

Dark Money: Labor and Liberal join forces in attacks on Teals and Greens

Lots of misinformation

With widespread rumors that battery storage sites are at risk, a kaleidoscope of trickery has crept into Australia’s psyche: “blow up”, “fire prone” and “non-functional” solar farms when the weather is cloudy”, from inaudible wind turbine to nausea, fatigue or headache infrared.

Brought into our consciousness by right-wing conservative politicians like Malcolm Roberts or Matt Canavan think tanks And corporate mediaThis misinformation takes on a life of its own on social media. Beyond bots, influencers, and astroturf groups, it is powered by algorithms, made realistic by artificial intelligence, and embellished by online fanatics to the point where the urban myths they peddle seem plausible to many.

And these are myths: battery storage systems have multiple protective layers, solar panels to prevent explosions I’m still working on cloudy days (only 1 in 10,000 are likely to cause fires) and a study published in 2023 found that listening to wind farm infrasound for 72 hours, has no effect. The sheer audacity of many such myths reflects what we see in America, where the ‘Obamacare’ legislation was supposed to create: “death panels” and 60 million Americans thought Obama was born in Kenya.

Advance Australia is believed by many to be part of Atlas Network, a US organization rivals “It funds the hatred and deceptions of the far right,” they say. Atlas has close ties Donald TrumpAdvance seems to want something similar for us.

Climate misinformation is easily debunked, but it’s everywhere. Committee chair Senator Peter Whish-Wilson (Greens, Tasmania) said:

a “denial machine” that has blocked new climate and energy policy for decades.

“The integrity of Australia’s information ecosystem is threatened by misinformation that polarizes public discourse and erodes trust in science and information institutions,” the report said. states. But the consequences don’t end there: it affects your health Australian democracyIt harms renewable energy projects and job creation, delays self-sufficiency in the energy we need with the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, and jeopardizes our right to life clean environmentand security abuse by fanatics emboldened by all this propaganda.

Worst of all, the talking points of the “denial machine” are so well amplified that they are often viewed as “common sense realism” rather than fringe denial. This roughly creates a trust and permission structure for users. 40 percent Many of the climate skeptics among us repeat talking points like “the climate has always changed naturally” or “renewable energy will destroy the economy” without feeling the need to don a tinfoil hat.

No, we don’t live here MatrixBut sometimes it feels like it is.

DARK Money of the Election | West Report