“Climate disinformation follows similar patterns to antisemitic conspiracy theories,” two leading Jewish community figures in Australia informed an Australian Senate inquiry.
The Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy heard from both Simone Abel, head of legal at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and Joel Lazar, CEO of the Jewish Climate Network. The JCN is a non-partisan organization that has worked with over 14,000 Jews in Australia on education and projects about climate change and clean energy.
“When we saw that this inquiry had been set up to investigate the mechanics of mis- and disinformation about climate change and energy, we, as a climate-focused organization built on Jewish values and history, naturally felt we had an important and unique perspective to offer,” Lazar told the inquiry.
He explained that belief in one conspiracy theory tends to predict belief in other conspiracy theories. Therefore, conspiratorial mentality might predispose people to believing both climate and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, as well as believing misinformation and disinformation about other groups in Australia. He argued that by understanding these phenomena, Australia may be better positioned to combat disinformation about climate and energy.
Abel concurred that all misinformation is harmful to Australian society.
'Conspiracy theories have developed which suggest that Jews are responsible for causing climate change':
“As climate change is a dominant concern of our era, antisemitic conspiracy theories have developed which suggest that Jews are responsible for causing climate change – and paradoxically that Jews invented climate change as one of the tools by which they seek global control.”
She provided an example of how, in 2018, Trayon White Sr., a member of the DC council in Washington, posted a video claiming that the Jewish banking Rothschild family controls the climate. Another example was during the wildfires in Los Angeles, which some blamed on the Jewish community.
“These antisemitic conspiracy theories, built on tropes such as the global-domination power trope, create hostility toward Jews in environmental movements and feed a cancel culture,” she added.
Another issue within this sphere is that environmental scientists of Jewish background increasingly feel marginalized in scientific circles because of their identity and the assumptions that are made about them, Abel said.
It is not just climate conspiracies that overlap with antisemitic theories. Abel and Lazar pointed out the way in which many health misinformation campaigns interact with antisemitic ones, such as during the COVID pandemic, where conspiracies spread that Jews were responsible for COVID.
“That borrows from an ancient antisemitic trope, which is the disease and filth trope,” Abel said. “A lot of these things are not new phenomena. It’s just that they attach to whatever the dominant values or issues of the day are.”
Part of the fight to stop the spread of conspiracies must be carried out by platforms themselves, the two argued. This would need to include better monitoring and policies by platforms such as Meta and X/Twitter.
“Tackling climate disinformation is not an isolated challenge; we can learn from our community’s experience of antisemitism to address disinformation more holistically,” Lazar said.