Flame Wars: Misinformation and Wildfire in Canada's Climate Conversation

Résumé analytique

In June 2023, as Canada's forests burned, false and misleading information surged into online conversations about the wildfires. References to lasers, drones, weather control, eco-terrorism, and state-driven arson circulated widely as people sought information on evacuation, support services, loved ones, and fellow residents, affecting political leaders managing the crisis, firefighting, evacuation routes, media reporting, and residents making decisions about health and community safety. Researchers at Carleton University's Re.Climate, McGill's Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy (MTD), McGill's Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO), and Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) investigated by mapping Canada's climate conversation on Twitter/X to understand the information environment during what has been called the most devastating wildfires in Canada's history, how it shaped climate conversations, and what to expect with fires to come.

Key findings show the online conversation about wildfires surged initially in early May within the Alberta group, with the most widely shared posts criticizing the United Conservative Party (UCP) for its lack of preparedness and activity peaking on May 6 when a state of emergency was declared; right/anti-establishment accounts responded by amplifying fringe claims that arsonists, not climate change, caused the fires. The conversation surged to its highest point in early June as impacts reached U.S. cities and drew international attention, with narratives becoming more conspiratorial, alleging eco-terrorists, left extremists, and governments set the fires to advance a climate agenda, prompting legacy media attention; it spiked again in mid-August with a state of emergency declared in BC and the commitment of military assistance, drawing counter-narratives from civil society and provincial and left-leaning groups debunking the arson conspiracy.

The report also finds that networks formed during the pandemic are widening the scope of adversarial narratives targeting public health to include climate and energy policy, running pandemic and climate-emergency skepticism together on the grounds that experts and officials are overly alarmist or using crisis as a pretext to expand political control. An ongoing effort by some members of the right/anti-establishment community to mobilize farmers against Canadian climate policy, involving figures such as Pierre Poilievre and Jordan Peterson and National Post outlets, and spreading misinformation about fertilizer bans/mandates, failed to gain traction in Canada's climate conversation. Finally, the carbon tax dominated the climate conversation online heading into the 2024 wildfire season, a narrower focus than the wider range of subjects discussed during the 2023 season.

Points saillants

• During Canada 2023 wildfires, false claims about arson, eco-terrorism, and government conspiracy surged on Twitter/X, with conspiratorial references to lasers, drones, and weather control circulating widely and reaching millions.
• The RIGHT/ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT community drove the highest engagement during the June 2023 wildfire peak, amplifying narratives that fires were being used to justify climate policy.
• Pandemic-era anti-establishment networks are widening their scope to incorporate climate crises, combining skepticism of pandemic and climate emergency planning into a unified anti-government narrative.
• An effort by right-wing accounts to mobilize Canadian farmers against climate policy failed to gain traction despite involvement of Pierre Poilievre, Jordan Peterson, and National Post outlets.
• The carbon tax dominated the climate conversation online in the lead-up to the 2024 wildfire season, a narrower focus than the wider range of subjects discussed in 2023.