Now TikTok and Musk's X Are Enabling Dangerous Speech Aimed at Courageous Hurricane Hunter Crews
And I once saw social media as building a world-enhancing "Noosphere."
I’m on the run home from a Lisbon meeting on climate risk communication with an insurance company so this’ll be quick. And I’m really angry.
We all have to do what we can to counter the dangerous misinformation storm threatening disaster workers - and now even the pilots and teams risking their lives every hurricane season to fly hurricane-hunter aircraft into the eyes of storms to get realtime information on the dynamics that can help save lives.
First, the information disaster around the Hurricane Helene catastrophe.
You’ve seen the warnings from FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell about the “truly dangerous narrative” some elected officials have amplified around FEMA staff’s efforts amid the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene:
"If it creates so much fear that my staff doesn't want to go out in the field, then we're not going to be in a position where we can help people," she added. "I worry that they won't apply for assistance, which means I can't get them the necessary items they need to support them."
You remember the threats to poll workers and other election officials built around former President Trump’s inflammatory “stop the steal” push? Now disaster workers are the target.
Here’s “Campaign of Fear,” a Reuters series on how false election rhetoric by Trump and his minions has threatened, and continues to threaten, nonpartisan election workers and officials.
You’ve already seen the toxic and dangerous output of public figures like U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene making specious claims about weather control at the scale of hurricanes. I was glad to see atmospheric scientist Roy Spencer among those trying to push back - in his case on Facebook. He points to a great NOAA article showing that, yes, there was a time when the U.S. tried to do this but it never went anywhere.
But early this morning here in Portugal, I was horrified to stumble on a batch of tweets by X accounts with large followings amplifying false TikTok content implying that the Hurricane Hunter teams currently flying Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft repeatedly into the eyes of Hurricane Helene and now Hurricane Milton were somehow secretly manipulating the tracks of the storms.
Imputing that Hurricane Hunter aircraft are manipulating hurricanes is beyond absurd and an assault on the brave pilots, technicians and scientists who do these dangerous operations to get close-focus detail on hurricane dynamics.
Both Elon Musk and TikTok will have much to answer for if any of this results in actual violence - or people ignoring the warnings generated by such invaluable efforts.
A decade ago, I saw the up side of global connectedness leading toward a “Knowosphere” - my tweak of Teilhard and Vernadsky’s “noosphere” or planet of the mind.
That’s still possible but only if you and I work actively and tirelessly to counter the dark side.
Long, long ago, out in Oklahoma, I got to take one rough ride in one of these rugged aircraft studying the formation of severe thunderstorms. Their pilots and research teams are heroes. Those besmirching their integrity are scum.
