The aim of Maldito Clima is to turn climate issues into something more than just a scientific topic, debunking false content and, with the help of expert sources and scientific evidence, explaining how the climate crisis is already a reality affecting health, the economy, energy, urban planning, agriculture and migration.
The climate crisis is a concern for the public. According to the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveyed more than 36,000 people in 28 countries (including Spain), 75% said they were concerned about this phenomenon, a percentage surpassed only by concern over job loss and representing an increase of three percentage points compared with the 2021 barometer.
The barometer also shows that respondents felt that neither businesses (69%), NGOs (65%), governments (68%) nor the media (66%) are doing a good job when it comes to solutions to climate change. In fact, they believe they are doing worse than they did during the pandemic.
The latest report by the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), published just a few days ago, stressed that in the 2010-2019 period, average annual global greenhouse gas emissions reached the highest levels in human history. According to the report, if we fail to achieve strong and immediate emissions cuts across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C will be out of reach.
The chatbot to fight climate disinformation
Within Maldita.es, an independent news outlet that has been fighting all types of disinformation with journalistic tools since 2017, Maldito Clima will tackle disinformation related to the environment that the community sends us through our chatbot (+34644229319).
This service won the European Press Prize 2021 in the Innovation category for its innovative approach to tackling the problem of disinformation in private messaging channels.
Maldito Clima will draw on this tool to identify and debunk the disinformation circulating most widely among the public, and it will also publish more explanatory, in-depth pieces to be included in the categories of climate crisis, extreme events, biodiversity, health, energy, economy and social impact, governments and businesses, consumption model, myths and disinformation, advice column and questions.
The community asks: advice column and glossary
Maldito Clima will follow the same methodology of independence and rigour as Maldita.es, which is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network. It will also feature a monthly advice column, one of the most popular services in other Maldita.es projects, in which the community takes centre stage by sending in its questions related to climate and the environment via Twitter (@maldita_ciencia), email or the WhatsApp chatbot.
Maldito Clima will also have a glossary of terms to explain, in a simple way, complex concepts that matter to the public and that people need to know in order to make the best decisions. Like all Maldita.es content, Maldito Clima articles will have a Creative Commons BY-SA licence.
For its launch, Maldito Clima has the financial support of the European Climate Foundation.
Maldita.es’s international fact-checking network
Like the rest of the projects, Maldito Clima will be part of the entire international network of projects and collaborations established by Maldita.es. These include EU-funded research projects such as EU-Hybnet and Iberifier, in which the organisation works with universities and fact-checkers to develop tools and study the phenomenon of disinformation.
Maldita.es currently leads the EFCN consortium, which will create the European Code of Professional Integrity for Independent Fact-Checking Organisations, and is part of the group preparing the new European Code of Practice on Disinformation.