In August, the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) published an op-ed pushing for Artificial Intelligence to manage online harms and disinformation, which sparked social media furore. In fact, the WEF is a purveyor of climate change misinformation itself and should engage in open scientific debate with CLINTEL on the fact that there is no climate emergency, Friends of Science stated in a press release.
Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens based in Canada. It is celebrating its 20th year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).
Climate Intelligence (“CLINTEL”) is an independent foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy.
Media and social media commentators swiftly pounced on an opinion piece by Inbal Goldberger posted by WEF on 10 August 2022, which proposed using Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) to censor harmful online misinformation, but Friends of Science Society said that’s not the most important issue. Friends of Science Society is calling on the WEF to engage in open, civil debate on their climate misinformation the old-fashioned way – in person with CLINTEL.
WEF regularly engages in climate misinformation, said Friends of Science, noting that WEF gave Greta Thunberg a public stage and much media coverage (posted on 25 January 2019 and again on 1 January 2020) over her “I want you to panic … Our house is on fire” commentaries.
Greta’s comments terrified millions of children and adults worldwide, but in testimony to the US Congress on 21 April 2021, Greta stated that there is “no science” behind her comment; it was just a metaphor. At no point has WEF or any of its bevy of Big Tech and media-mogul trustees stepped up to apologise for foisting fear on citizens of the world.
WEF claims to be “committed to improving the state of the world.” It is difficult to see how scaring millions of people accomplishes that goal, said Friends of Science.
On 20 January 2020, CLINTEL, the climate intelligence think tank based in The Netherlands, sent a letter to Borge Brende, President of the WEF, calling for engagement on the issue of the claimed “climate emergency,” writing:
