A misinformation expert is warning Kiwis to be wary of misinformation around Cyclone Gabrielle.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa from The Disinformation Project said Covid conspiracy theorists have made a "strategic and sophisticated" switch to spreading anti-climate change messages.
He says The Disinformation Project is not surprised New Zealand has reached this point as it's been seen before with things like the anti-mandate protest.
"These are networks, these are strategic, very strong, highly sophisticated networks that are following a foreign script and have been emboldened by their success during the pandemic that they're now leveraging for the purposes of disinformation including around Cyclone Gabrielle."
He said the spread misinformation is about "pushing back" against mainstream media.
"It's about climate change denialism leading to the entrenchment of individuals in those networks as the saviours who have a handle of the truth who can then give meaning to people who are suffering as a consequence of not preparing for, or not believing in, or not doing the investments around what is needed to address what is an existential crisis for all of humanity."
Hattotuwa said it's important for people to realise that this is an issue that won't just go away and it needs to be acknowledged that these are real issues.
"I don't see any kind of guard rails or preparation from the Red Cross, NZ Civil Defence or MetService to deal with misinformation around climate change.
"We have been through the pandemic, we know that this is real, not just with the biological, but with the infection of the mind and this is now very real in terms of its impact on climate change and the environment so I think we need to acknowledge that and work around it."
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