Why on Earth would countering climate disinformation be at odds with building clean energy? Can’t we just do two things at the same time? Why would these even compete?

Five years ago, I would have said, obviously, we need to do all the things. There are some areas where these activities do not compete, like securing federal funding for climate resiliency programs. But there are other domains, like climate philanthropy and media attention, where the incentive structure leans toward disinformation work being a stand-in for more expensive, more transformative work.

Aaron Regunberg wrote a thoughtful response to my recent Jacobin essay, “Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn.” He characterizes my essay as “essentially claiming that climate disinformation is not a serious obstacle to climate action.” But people believing things that are not true — in one of his examples, that wind turbines kill whales — is a very serious obstacle to climate action. There is no question about this.