The TRuST Network hosts lecture on climate misinformation

The Trust in Research Undertaken in Science and Technology (TRuST) scholarly network at the UW hosted a lecture on Sept. 16 to discuss how we can find trusted information on climate action in a world of excess misinformation. The event – “Charting a Course in the Sea of Climate Misinformation” – was moderated by Fatima Syed, an award-winning Mississauga-based journalist with The Narwhal, an online news publication that covers the natural world. She is also the vice-president of the Canadian Association of Journalists. 

The lecture included three panelists who were asked a variety of questions about climate misinformation. Dr. Sarah Burch was one of the panelists who is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at University of Waterloo. She also holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Governance and Innovation. She is the Executive Director of the Waterloo Climate Institute. Dr. Juan Moreno-Cruz was another panelist who is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo. He is also the Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions, recently extended until 2029. His research focuses on global energy consumption, climate change, and solar geoengineering economics. The last panelist was Janna Wale, an Indigenous climate researcher. She is Gitxsan from Gitanmaax First Nation, and is also Cree-Métis on her mother’s side. Janna’s research at the University of British Columbia focuses on climate resilience in Indigenous communities. 

The lecture focused on questions about how we can trust the information regarding climate change in Canada. Dr. Sarah Burch started off by talking about how one of the main misconceptions about climate change is that people think that nothing is working. She explained that, “emissions here in Canada would have been 40 per cent higher in 2030, which is only a few years away than they would be if we didn’t have the climate policies that are now in place.” 

Jana Wale continued the conversation by talking about her experience when she was doing her masters degree at University of Okanogan, where she mostly worked with her own community and a neighbouring nation. She mentioned that a lot of people started to reach out to her because they heard she was working on climate change. However, she noticed a sense of guilt and shame from many community members. “Members in my community expressed the changes that they are experiencing and how we need to do more and do better,” Jana said. She continued to explain that while there are impactful actions we can take within our small communities, it shouldn’t be interpreted to such a degree that shifts the blame entirely onto individuals. She said, “I find that very offensive and very challenging when I’m hearing from, you know, these big companies, and we’re talking about misinformation, that climate change is an individual problem.” Jana stressed the importance of empowering communities to navigate some of the misinformation that they’re seeing all around them. 

Dr. Juan Moreno-Cruz focused on talking about how we can deal with waves of excessive information on climate change. He likes to focus on the people that he cares about and how through this relationship perspective we can remove the burden of knowing with certainty. “We don’t need to think about the glaciers melting but instead of the impacts in our community, this will lead to political action and we won’t have to wait for the system to change,” Dr. Juan said. He believes that focusing on solidarity in our communities rather than trying to think about the big problems will have better chances with creating systemic change. 

The lecture continued with conversations about how we can tackle the political narrative behind climate change. Dr. Sarah Burch discussed how there is nothing more political than climate change but it doesn’t need to be so polarized. She mentioned that when we have high rates of inequality in our society it can lead to less trust in our institutions and more trust in each other. She stated that, “we don’t connect across boundaries as often so we tend to connect with groups similar to us.” She believes that the whole conversation needs to shift to what this actually looks like in communities. 

Jana Wale continued this conversation by thinking about how it translates to a community level. “When we are thinking of looking at the larger problem of climate change and how it’s rooted in affordability, we need to think about how our society is linked to all of these things, instead of thinking like this is carbon tax and this is affordability,” Jana said. She believes that if there are more people participating in these decisions we are more likely to discover the truth. Jana expressed how climate change is the result of a lost connection to our environment. Thus, by using solutions from the Indigenous world, we can hopefully reconnect with our land.