We’ve seen in recent years that extreme weather events tend to bring about an influx of mis- and disinformation, and that these events often fuel conspiracy theories and climate-change denialism. The same has borne out after the most recent Victorian floods, which continue to ravage communities across the state at the time of publication.
Our monitoring of social media posts about the Victorian floods in October has found the recirculation of old conspiracy theories, as well as some new ones. The unproven theory that the floods were caused by human weather manipulation has circulated again, pushed primarily by the same Australian fringe groups on Telegram that made the same claims during the New South Wales floods earlier this year. The posts have baselessly claimed that 'Victoria and the rest of Australia is heavily sprayed, almost on a daily basis', citing Victoria’s Rain-making Control Act of 1967, and that the flooding was orchestrated for a government land grab or to serve local governments’ move towards ‘smart’ cities.
A new conspiracy theory that has emerged relates to Victoria’s Covid-19 quarantine facilities, built earlier in the pandemic but which were closed this month. The state government has announced the hub will be repurposed to house those who have had their homes affected by the floods – leading to commentary that this was 'convenient' and 'Another conspiracy now a reality'. The unfounded theory claims that the floods were engineered to force people to move into the hub
As with all extreme weather events, climate-change deniers were quick to rebut any claims that the floods were caused by anthropogenic climate change. Former MP Craig Kelly contrasted a tweet by Victoria’s Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, which states in part, 'The climate crisis is here', against old photos of flooding in Melbourne from February 1972. Kelly claimed that the presence of flooding decades ago means that recent disaster events were nothing new and simply part of the climate’s regular cycle; the same sentiment was echoed in the highest-liked Facebook comments of Sky News Australia. Old photos from the Great Flood of 1891 have also been shared across Telegram to make the same point.
Experts disagree. Climate scientist Chiara Holgate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes points out that while 'Australia has long been a continent of droughts and flooding rains… projections indicate that climate change will supercharge this variability.'
'Observations show there’s been an increase in the intensity of heavy rainfall events in Australia, including the short-duration events, which can be associated with flash flooding.'
Stevie Zhang, CMT researcher