An increasingly acrimonious US presidential race defined by name-calling, attack ads and blockbuster campaigning has so far left little room for discussion about climate change, despite the world facing unprecedented heat and disasters.
But now that Donald Trump is facing Kamala Harris rather than Joe Biden, Republicans have used recent rallies to repeat misinformation and memes about the X, including fictional bans on red meat and gas stoves.
The objective? To undermine Harris.
“Kamala called for cutting red meat consumption to fight climate change,” Trump said during a rally in Minnesota on July 27.
The former president said the Democratic candidate would “get rid of all the cows … and I think at some point, they’ll attack humans,” reiterating “depopulation” conspiracy theories that have dogged right-wing ideologues since Harris discussed the topic of “climate anxiety” among younger generations at a White House press conference last year.
Trump’s fellow candidate J.D. Vance furthered these claims in a speech in Atlanta on August 3, saying that Harris “wants to take away your gas stove, she wants to take away your ability to eat red meat.”
Climate myths like these began their lives on X, encouraged by conservative commentators in volatile states and MAGA accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
However, Harris made no such election promise.
He has cooked on a gas stove himself and mentioned in a 2019 environmental panel that he “loves to have a cheeseburger from time to time”, though he supports the idea of updating the dietary guidelines.
“A tried and true strategy in politics is to misrepresent your opponent’s position to make it seem extreme and unacceptable. That’s exactly what Trump and Vance are doing with Vice President Harris’ stance on climate action,” said Edward Maibach, director of George Mason University’s Climate Change Communication Center.
Harris’s climate record
The false narratives further reinforce Trump and Vance’s criticism of the vice president’s stance on issues such as fracking (a violently disruptive underground oil and gas extraction technique).
Harris advocated for a ban on the practice in 2019 before becoming Biden’s vice presidential running mate in 2020. More recently she has tried to avoid questions about it, particularly in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania where fracking is big business.
Still, climate activists have mostly backed Harris, whose environmental stances have historically been to the left of the president’s — most notably in her crackdown on oil companies as California’s attorney general.
The Biden administration also promoted a shift to renewable energy by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment to reduce carbon pollution in US history.
Trump has strongly opposed the legislation and has adopted the slogan “drill, baby, drill” to express his favorable attitude toward fossil fuels.
The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, told AFP that the Trump campaign’s spread of misinformation on “sweeping restrictions” was a “ridiculous scare tactic” to undermine recent “climate progress”.
Possibility of ‘reverse outcome’
Responding to AFP’s request for comment, Harris spokeswoman Lauren Hitt did not comment on specific claims made by Trump and his running mate, but said Democrats are “focused on a future where all Americans have access to clean air, clean water and affordable, reliable energy.”
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly dismissed the dangers of climate change.
“The biggest threat is not global warming, where sea levels are going to rise an eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” he told Elon Musk on X in mid-August. Musk officially endorsed Trump in July.
According to a recent survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, more than a third of registered voters disagree, and say global warming is very important to their vote in the 2024 election.
“I suspect this strategy will backfire on the relatively small number of uncommitted voters, most of whom are concerned about climate change,” Maibach said.
“Trump and Vance attacking Vice President Harris over her positions on climate change will hurt her more than help her.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
