In the latest CEDMO Special Brief, we published the results of a thematic survey focused on issues related to climate change, conducted as part of the longitudinal research CEDMO Trends. The findings are complemented by an overview of the most widespread false or misleading news and conspiracy theories circulating in the digital space of Central Europe in connection with climate change.
Attitudes towards climate change and the environment
42% of respondents to the CEDMO Trends long-term panel survey, which is representative of the general population of the Czech Republic over the age of 16, believe that climate change and related global warming are caused by humanity. Approximately the same proportion (43%) of respondents attribute climate change to natural factors in addition to human influence. The remaining 15% are inclined to the view that climate change is not linked to human activity. The Czech population most often assesses their attitude towards the environment as lukewarm. 44% of respondents consider it at least partially active. Despite the low level of their own activity, most people in the Czech Republic think that awareness of climate change needs to be raised (70%).
The domestic population has a largely supportive attitude towards tackling climate change. Less than two-thirds (59%) believe that there is a need to invest in technologies to capture emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Around the same proportion of respondents (58%) believe that climate change measures should be integrated into national policies and more money should be invested in mitigating the impacts of climate change. However, only a quarter (24%) also agree that the Czech government should invest in combating climate change in the world’s least developed countries. A tenth of respondents (13%) agree that humanity has the right to change the environment even at the expense of other species.
Attitudes toward technologies designed to cool the planet
Reforestation (i.e. increasing forest density in originally forested areas) and afforestation (i.e. planting trees in originally unforested areas) are considered by most respondents to be the most meaningful technologies for cooling the planet.
Chart: Attitudes towards technologies designed to cool the planet: average ranking of each technology on a scale of (1) most meaningful to (6) least meaningful. Source: CEDMO Trends, N=3,007
On the other hand, the worst rankings in terms of meaningfulness were given to technologies involving the placement of mirrors in space or the dispersion of sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere. Options for biomass energy generation with carbon capture and subsequent underground storage and direct capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its underground storage received intermediate ratings.
Climate engineering (geoengineering)
According to CEDMO Trends, a fifth of Czechs (20%) perceive climate engineering as a pseudo-science to secure funding for companies and research organisations. Less than a tenth (9%) believe it is a technology (e.g. chemtrails) that governments want to use to control the population. A third of respondents (34%) see climate engineering as a desperate scientific solution, applied when other means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions fail. Nearly a fifth (18%) believe that if humanity uses climate engineering, it will destroy the planet. Less than a tenth (9%) think the term climate engineering describes human intervention in the atmosphere to warm (not cool) the planet.
Relativising the impacts of climate change and carbon dioxide
Online, there are repeated posts downplaying the human contribution to the warming of the planet, questioning sea level rise or the impact of carbon dioxide on the climate. In the first half of 2024, the most frequent posts in this context, almost all over Europe, were those claiming that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is generally beneficial or at least not threatening in any way, as well as claims that humanity is not the culprit of climate change or that it has only a minimal impact on it.
Fires and other ailments of electric cars
“Posts on social media containing footage of alleged fires or explosions of electric cars are a recurring phenomenon,” says Petr Gongala of the Demagog.cz platform: “Viral posts, which have been circulating since last spring in most European countries, mistakenly pass off images of car fires with conventional combustion engines as electric car fires. Other posts include false or distorted information about the higher levels of air pollution from electric cars compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, or give examples of electric cars suddenly running out of batteries and blocking roads in cold or extreme weather.”
Image: a Facebook post showing electric cars blocking roads in Germany after suddenly running out of power in cold weather. The photo the author uses as evidence is actually from 2011 and shows cars stranded in a snowstorm in the US. Source: cedmohub.eu
Conspiracy Theories
False or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories related to climate change were more prevalent in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe in the first half of 2024, according to findings by members of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN).
“Conspiracy theories regarding geoengineering are common in the more radical part of the disinformation scene. They become relevant to a wider audience at the time of major natural disasters that enjoy extensive media coverage, such as floods, earthquakes or fires,” says Marcel Kiełtyka, board member of the Demagog Association from Poland that is part of the Central European hub CEDMO. “Although narratives vary depending on the specific context, one characteristic is the claim that devastating natural disasters are deliberately caused by governments or elites in order to control the population,” adds Marcel Kiełtyka.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the energy sector
Respondents overwhelmingly agree that incorporating AI into the power sector will increase the efficiency of electricity use and help detect impending faults. On the other hand, the negative and misleading statement that the involvement of AI in electricity management will not lead to a reduction in electricity consumption but rather to an increase in electricity consumption is supported by the lowest number of respondents, but not by a negligible number: 32%.
“Related to the claim of increased electricity consumption is the effect of respondents’ perceived exposure to misinformation; 45% of people who say they feel strongly exposed to misinformation believe that the inclusion of AI in the energy sector will increase electricity consumption. Only 29% of the weakly exposed,” comments Lukáš Kutil, data analyst at CEDMO Trends, commenting on the research findings, and continues, “At the same time, 40% of the weakly exposed do not know how to answer this question, compared to only 15% of the strongly exposed. Thus, exposure to misinformation in questions after AI involvement in the energy sector has an impact on the strength of conviction or indecision.”
