While many Americans are grappling with the devastating fallout from recent hurricanes Helene and Milton, some have been pushing wild conspiracy theories, and their rhetoric is growing increasingly more violent.
A faction of right-wing supporters and politicians are targeting meteorologists, claiming they are creating and controlling hurricanes, and some are going so far as to call for executions.
On September 27, Hurricane Helene hit the Florida coast as a category 4 storm, ravaging Florida and several surrounding states, including Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. The storm caused millions of dollars in property damage, and the death toll currently stands at 230. In a cruel twist of fate (or just climate change doing its thing), less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton struck the same region, bringing further damage to an already devastated area.
As if things weren’t bad enough, conspiracy theorists are spreading misinformation about the storms on social media. Instead of finally admitting, ‘Hey, maybe we were wrong about climate change,’ many, including human MAGA hat Marjorie Taylor Greene, have made outlandish claims that meteorologists and the liberal government are creating these hurricanes and sending them to red states.
Unfortunately, meteorologists are right in the crosshairs of these bizarre theories. Katie Nickolaou, a Michigan-based meteorologist, has spoken up about the unhinged messages she’s been receiving on social media. “I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation,” Nickolaou told The Guardian. But the comments she’s gotten aren’t just factually ridiculous, they’re also frighteningly personal.
“I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed.”
Nickolaou has been very outspoken on her X (formerly Twitter) account about the misinformation surrounding Helene and Milton. She’s shared videos refuting false claims that nuclear bombs can stop hurricanes (they can’t) and category 6 hurricanes exist (they don’t).
Her recent tweets also contain screenshots of concerningly violent messages she’s received. Regarding one comment she got from somebody who wanted to “stop the breathing of those that made (the hurricanes) and their affiliates.” Nickolaou tweeted, “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.”
It’s already concerning enough to see this type of misinformation spread. Thinking anyone can control the weather is preposterous. I hate to break it to you, conspiracy theorists, but mankind just ain’t there yet. However, wild claims leading to individual meteorologists being personally targeted and threatened is alarming on an entirely different level. Weather experts like Nickolaou work hard to gather and share information that literally saves lives, and these false claims and personal attacks are taking a toll.
“People have called me a plethora of curse words, people telling me to shut up and sit down, people who think it’s OK to take out Doppler radar because they think it is controlling the weather,” Nickolaou commented. “It is eating up a lot of work and free time to deal with all of this. It’s very tiring.”
Turning weather reporting into a political issue just to further a climate change-denying agenda is a horrifying turn of events. When we can’t even agree on basic truths and scientific data, things get ugly, fast. Misinformation about storms can be deadly and impact whether or not residents in harm’s way decide to evacuate and what precautions they might take. And that’s on top of meteorologists being accused of having powers that Mr. Burns would be envious of.
Published: Oct 12, 2024 11:49 am