Climate disinformation is sprouting up all over the world: on the ground, on platforms, and throughout public and private airways, landscapes, and flow zones. How bad is it? How does it work? And what can we do about it? This talk will review the communicative conditions of climate denial, delay and distraction with an eye to the established infrastructures that enable these conditions. It will also consider styles and strategies of response and resources of hope amidst the overgrowth.

Melissa Aronczyk is an associate professor in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. She is the co-author (with Maria I. Espinoza) of A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and the Politics of American Environmentalism (Oxford University Press, 2022); and chairs the Greenwashing Working Group for the Climate Social Science Network. Her research has been profiled on the BBC and in The Nation; Grist; Foreign Policy; the Washington Post; and other national and international outlets. Her research articles can be accessed at melissaaronczyk.com