From Hurricanes to Hoaxes: The Right's Climate Denial Playbook

On Thursday, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote a social media post declaring, “Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Greene’s outlandish claim about climate engineering came as communities in six states grappled with the devastation of Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least 230 people. Despite widespread ridicule, Greene doubled down on Saturday, suggesting that lasers can be used to manipulate weather patterns. Greene is no stranger to conspiracies, including claims about lasers causing climate catastrophes. This time, her wild assertions come amid a surge of misinformation about the aftermath of Helene.

Social media and right-wing message boards have been inundated with claims that scientists used a program called HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) to direct Helene’s path. HAARP is a scientific study of the earth’s atmosphere run by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but the program has long been the subject of conspiracy theories, including claims that it employs secret weather control weapons to cause earthquakes. Some conspiracy theorists now argue that HAARP was used to devastate red states and Republican districts in advance of the upcoming presidential election. Others insist the storm was manufactured to allow corporations to exploit lithium deposits in North Carolina. When paired with ongoing misinformation about federal officials refusing to deploy emergency services in southern states, these conspiracies feed into fascistic myths about “white genocide” and eco-fascist narratives. 

Given that speculation about HAARP tends to spike in the aftermath of disasters, it’s likely these rumors will escalate further this week, especially with Hurricane Milton—a category 5 storm—expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday.

I recently discussed these developments with Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today, Why We Fight, and co-author of Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism. Burley explained, “Conspiracy theories about the control of the weather do what all conspiracy theories do: they validate real fears and trauma while redirecting righteous anger away from systemic causes and onto either a mirage or a marginalized community.” Burley emphasized that these theories shield bad actors and systems that are actually contributing to the harms people are experiencing. “By focusing on ‘climate control,’ you no longer have to address the real climate collapse or the economic and political systems that are responsible. Instead, you can drum up the kind of terror necessary for the public to support incredibly despotic ‘solutions’ to the consequences of climate change.”

“While the idea that the government, or the Rothschilds, are controlling the weather is pretty outlandish, it’s not entirely separate from the broader climate denial and conspiracy theories the right has relied on for years,” Burley said. “They have created this infrastructure of falsehood to undermine the scientific consensus."

In an era when climate chaos is becoming harder to deny, conspiracies allow Republicans to redirect blame. “It’s the same model they use for every structural inequity. If they admitted that deregulated capitalism leads to soaring poverty rates, lack of healthcare access, and so on, they would be called to do something about it,” Burley said. By suggesting that each incident of human suffering or climate catastrophe is caused by “a nefarious cabal” rather than systemic issues, Republicans protect the status quo. “This actually dissuades people from recognizing the very visible and obvious ‘conspiracy’ of everyday climate exploitation, lack of resources for working-class families, and infrastructural breakdown,” Burley added.

Many right-wing conspiracies, such as those about “weather control,” are rooted in antisemitic tropes. These narratives depict Jewish people as powerful global elites seeking to dominate commerce, governance, and culture. Climate control conspiracies often reference the Rothschilds—a prominent Jewish family and European banking dynasty—accusing them of manipulating the weather for financial gain. Similarly, the Great Replacement Theory argues that Jewish people are orchestrating efforts to diversify Western countries in order to disempower and “replace” white Christian populations. This supposed plot is framed as an effort to destroy Western civilization and commit “white genocide.”

The recent surge in claims about climate control invokes the Great Replacement Theory by suggesting that white Republican voters are being targeted for destruction. Accusations that red-state voters are being intentionally killed or left to die arise amidst widespread misinformation about the voting prospects of undocumented immigrants. In a recent social media post, Elon Musk falsely claimed that Democrats are fast-tracking citizenship for undocumented immigrants to increase their voter base. “If even 1 in 20 illegals become citizens per year, something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible, that would be about 2 million new legal voters in 4 years,” Musk wrote. “The voting margin in the swing states is often less than 20 thousand votes. That means if the ‘Democratic’ Party succeeds, there will be no more swing states!!”

Trump and his allies have already filed eight lawsuits in four swing states challenging voter registration procedures over the supposed risk of undocumented people voting. As journalist Melissa Gira Grant has noted, Trump appears to be using immigrants as props in the next stage of his “Stop The Steal” theatrics. Now, this evolving conspiracy about a stolen election—which Trump has not even bothered to lose yet—has taken on another layer: white genocide via climate control and intentional neglect.

It’s important to note that these fascist narratives about the South also erase the region’s diversity. The majority of Black people and immigrants in the United States reside in the South. In North Carolina, the most disturbing, substantiated stories of abandonment in Helene’s wake are emerging from the state’s prison system, which is predominantly Black, even though the state itself is predominantly white. Even outside the carceral system, Black victims of natural disasters have historically received fewer Federal Emergency Management Agency funds than their white counterparts. Undocumented immigrants often go without any assistance due to fears of deportation. While often short-changed by the government, Black and brown community members frequently play prominent roles in mutual aid efforts, building on the survival networks that allow their communities to navigate the everyday violence of capitalism during times of catastrophe. In fascist narratives about targeted destruction and post-storm abandonment, the South’s diversity is either erased or positioned as a threat, with neighbors depicted as “replacements” lying in wait.

Scapegoats play a key role in fascist narratives. Eco-fascism, for example, shifts responsibility for the climate crisis away from the fossil fuel industry and the elites who protect its interests, and onto one of the right’s favorite targets: immigrants. “The right’s solutions only seem viable if the crisis can be blamed not on systems, but on immigrants, who are regularly scapegoated as more environmentally destructive,” Burley explained. “This is a centerpiece of the right’s vision of environmentalism or conservationism—the notion that white, Eurocentric society is uniquely more environmentally conscious.” These generalizations, of course, are divorced from reality, given that the world’s poorest populations produce only a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions created by wealthy Western nations.

The severity of the climate crisis—and the trillions of dollars in stranded assets that would result from meaningful climate action—create urgency for right-wing diversions. “They have to do literally anything to move our attention away from the structures themselves,” Burley said.

Claims that the federal government has abandoned southern states during this crisis reinforce narratives that Republicans are under attack and experiencing mass murder. Donald Trump has helped fuel false rumors that the Biden administration has diverted FEMA disaster relief funds to address the needs of newly arriving undocumented migrants. Other rumors that have recently circulated about FEMA include claims that the agency is confiscating the land of storm victims or seizing incoming donations for survivors. Misinformation is so rampant that FEMA has created a fact-checking web page to dispel rumors about relief efforts. These rumors and conspiracy theories about disaster relief play an important role in evolving right-wing narratives. 

Another claim circulating is that flood victims are only eligible to receive $750 in assistance from FEMA. That figure refers to the amount a survivor might receive to cover immediate needs. The maximum amount an individual or household can ultimately receive is $42,500. The inadequacy of these sums, for people who have lost everything, is worthy of discussion, as is the pending budget shortfall that FEMA faces at the end of this year. However, such a discussion would have to include Republican efforts to undermine the agency. “This is a classic right-wing approach: underfund public services and then point to their failures as the reason to privatize them," Burley said. "In this case, right-wing politicians are taking it one step further, claiming it’s happening because these populations are in the South or in red counties."

The privatization of FEMA is exactly what Republicans envision. On page 135 of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation outlines a plan to privatize FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program. The document proposes so-called reforms to FEMA emergency spending that would “shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government.” As the current crisis has shown, states and municipalities lack the capacity to address the catastrophic events unfolding now, let alone those that lie ahead. Project 2025 also suggests raising the per capita threshold used to determine whether a disaster qualifies for federal assistance.

Fascist narratives, of course, aren't grounded in facts. Instead, proponents of these myths are driven by emotional perspectives. Rather than advocating for policies that could materially improve their lives, they become invested in narratives that affirm their inherent worth and social and moral status. “These narratives shift attention away from systemic issues and onto specific grievances, preventing people from connecting crises like climate change and infrastructure collapse to broader problems we can actually solve,” Burley explained.

While it’s easy to dismiss hoaxes about weather control as fringe nonsense, we live in an era when fascist myth-making has reshaped the political landscape. Conspiracy theories about masking and vaccines have ramped up the pandemic’s death toll and created unsafe conditions for many. The false claim that the 2020 election was stolen has become an article of faith within the Republican Party. The violence of January 6 has been rebranded by the right as a story about peaceful protesters who have been unfairly persecuted. Rumors on Facebook about immigrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, made it all the way to the presidential debate stage and have led to bomb threats at schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings in Springfield—while also escalating threats of violence against immigrants. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has turned a once-crucial media platform into a breeding ground for conspiracies and hoaxes, crowding out real-time information about disasters, social movements, and more.

The right is currently trying to convince people whose lives have been shattered by catastrophe that malevolent forces—including powerful people who want to replace them with immigrants—are responsible for tearing apart their homes, drowning their neighbors, and leaving them for dead. Climate scientists and meteorologists have already endured years of harassment and death threats for speaking about climate change because the right claimed that global warming was a hoax. Now, right-wing voices are portraying scientists as purveyors of climate catastrophe—an escalation that is both alarming and dangerous.

Last week, meteorologist James Spann faced harassment after posting a FEMA announcement on his Facebook page. Spann described having “a very tough day” while being inundated with messages like this one:

We know you're using HAARP to redirect huricanes over Asheville. Don't lie. All you meteorologist types are the same. You say chemtrails aren't real but then you talk about geoengineering and spray DDT on us. We know you used HAARP to direct the huricane over NC and it's probably to try and mess up the election.

A number of right-wing social media users have suggested violent retaliation against anyone “involved” with HAARP. One X user wrote, “Track HAARP whoever is responsible and involved should be hung for crimes against humanity.”

On the same day that I reviewed posts attacking meteorologists and climate scientists for their alleged roles in HAARP, I also watched a video of meteorologist John Morales in tears as he reported on the growing strength of Hurricane Milton. For years, scientists have warned the public about the rise of climate chaos and chronicled the damage done while also working to save lives. Now, scientists are being blamed for the disasters they have tried to raise the alarm about, with some people openly declaring that they should be lynched.

While the idea that hoaxes about weather manipulation could inspire violence might seem far-fetched, it's worth noting that conspiracy theorists have already plotted to raid the HAARP facility. In 2016, two Georgia men were arrested while loading large quantities of ammunition, bulletproof vests, and other supplies into a vehicle. They reportedly believed that HAARP researchers were engaged in climate manipulation and mind control. The men allegedly planned to travel to Alaska, enter the facility, take hostages, and set off explosives. Now, with random meteorologists being accused of being HAARP operatives, the danger appears more widespread.

In our current context, it's important to recognize the role of fascist myth-making in fueling right-wing attacks. Fascist narratives become emblematic of people’s pain and the indignities they feel they’ve endured, offering the false promise of satisfaction and redemption through violence. Beyond the scope of fascism, myths and conspiratorial thinking have fueled wars and acts of genocide throughout human history. Fascists like Musk want public sentiment to be ruled by myths, which is why the far right aggressively spreads conspiracies and misinformation while attacking and discrediting journalists.

So, how can we respond to this fascist myth-making? While it’s important to share accurate information and avoid amplifying misinformation, Burley argues that fascist myths must be countered through community-building. “The antidote to this is already happening,” Burley said. “Mutual aid networks ground people back in their communities, fill the gaps left by fragmented public services, and create a steady stream of reliable information among communities facing technological challenges.”

In many areas affected by Hurricane Helene, the reality of who is showing up to do the work of collective survival directly contradicts fascist lies. Relationships forged in struggle can counter the narratives that seek to divide our communities. Organizers in the South are working across differences to help their communities survive an unthinkable disaster. More of us must move in that spirit. Simply asserting our superiority over those who are misled by hoaxes or drawn to harmful ideologies will not save us.

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