The seemingly disparate issues of AI intimate image abuse, attacks on climate action, the undermining of democracy and rising polarisation are becoming more acute. A major reason? The central economic model of the internet. Advertising. The climate part: www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes/fol...

Follow The Money: Who’s driving climate disinformation?

This week we explore why disinformation is accelerating just as the climate stakes are rising, why it may be one of the greatest barriers to collective climate action - and how we can fight it.

outrageandoptimism.org

“There is now increasing recognition that we will not be able to achieve internationally agreed climate goals unless we address behaviours in information spaces that are being harnessed to undermine climate action.” Charlotte Scaddan of the United Nations www.forbes.com/sites/felici...

The Climate Of Misinformation: Why Business Must Now Defend The Truth

How climate disinformation has evolved into a strategic risk, and why defending truth is now essential for business resilience, ESG credibility, and global cooperation.

forbes.com

The price of eggs just about to go through the roof…

Apoorva Mandavilli@apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 2y ago

RFK Jr. has suggested allowing the H5N1 virus to spread on poultry farms, so as to identify birds that may be immune. Such an experiment would be disastrous, scientists say. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/h...

Hungary bans Pride events and plans to use facial recognition to target attenders

Hungary bans Pride events and plans to use facial recognition to target attenders

Amnesty International describes legislation as ‘full-frontal attack’ on country’s LGBTQ+ community MPs in Hungary have voted to ban Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attenders and potentially fine them, in…

theguardian.com

If this proves to be arson then this is awful. Setting cars on fire is putting people in danger. People can protest or choose not to buy a Tesla but obviously this crosses a line.

BNO News@bnonews.com · 2y ago

WATCH: Cars set on fire at Tesla in Las Vegas, "resist" painted on the building. FBI investigating

Net zero economy growing by 10%. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Britain’s net zero economy is booming, CBI says

Green sector growing at triple the rate of the UK economy, providing high-wage jobs and increasing energy security

theguardian.com

Free speech latest… www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...

A ‘great shock’: Julianne Moore’s children’s book under review by Trump administration

The actor’s book Freckleface Strawberry is on a list of library books suspended for a ‘compliance review’ after a presidential executive order

theguardian.com

This is predictably disappointing. Is this a mandate to bake bias into AI? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

US and UK refuse to sign Paris summit declaration on ‘inclusive’ AI

Confirmation of snub comes after JD Vance criticises Europe’s ‘excessive regulation’ of technology

theguardian.com

A total failure of the advertising system. No transparency. Advertisers must have a right to understand what they are buying. Great work by the @checkmyads.org team @ariellesgarcia.bsky.social www.adweek.com/media/ad-buy...

Buyers Blame Adtech Opacity for Funding Child Abuse Online

Advertisers whose messages inadvertently appeared on a site known to host child abuse content point their finger at Google, Amazon, and brand safety firms like IAS and DoubleVerify.

adweek.com

Cannot wait to hear from Meta, TikTok and Google talking about ‘brand safety’ at the Advertising Association LEAD conference. Are they ‘leading’ or following? I bet there is no time for audience questions. I would have a few…

Which companies that rely on ‘natural resources’ will go bust in the next 10 years? Coffee companies? Water? Cereals? Chocolate? Wine?

"These are climate change fires…The scientific literature on this is unambiguous.” -Prof. Donald Falk, Univ of Arizona www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

'These are climate change fires': As Arizona lends help to LA, experts assess the blame

Most climate scientists are certain that global warming has played a critical role in the California wildfires, despite political posturing.

azcentral.com

Another Brexit Benefit for British Business TM. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

British food exports to EU ‘have fallen £3bn a year since Brexit’

Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy report finds trade flows have shown no signs of returning to previous levels

theguardian.com

Excellent from @pallavis.bsky.social on the failure to deal properly with climate disinfo designed to delay climate action. www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...

Why countering climate misinformation must be a priority - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment

Discussing the open letter on curbing disinformation published during the COP29 conference, Pallavi Sethi argues governments have a key role to play in creating conditions that mitigate the impacts of...

lse.ac.uk

This is going to be the case everywhere in the world susceptible to extreme weather caused by climate change. It is just so obvious that insurers will stop insuring, otherwise they will go bust.

AmyL@amyl1.bsky.social · 2y ago

Here in Florida we have a housing crisis of our own - developers are building affordable homes all around, but many are sitting empty because people can't afford the necessary home insurance.

🚨New from The Guardian: "Climate crisis can’t be ignored, yet UK voters are being pushed by inaction towards a party that denies its existence" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

People are angry about the floods – but turning to Reform endangers us all

The climate crisis can’t be ignored, yet UK voters are being pushed by inaction towards a party that denies its existence

theguardian.com

Coverage of the disturbing new research from our tech accountability colleagues in Denmark: out of 85 items of prohibited self-harm content, Instagram didn’t moderate a single one. It underscores why we’ve been calling for tougher regulation here www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog...

Instagram algorithm helps self-harm networks grow, study finds

Research suggests that Meta’s artificial intelligence tool to remove harmful content is not working

thetimes.com

"Many children will not be protected from harmful suicide and self-harm content when regulation comes in because tech companies are failing to enforce their own rules" - @mollyroseorg.bsky.social @andyburrows.bsky.social www.bbc.com/news/article...

Do 'much, much more' on age verification, social media apps told

The regulator finds a fifth of children are pretending to be adults, potentially exposing them to harm.

bbc.com

People are often surprised when I tell them this: both Twitter and Facebook/insta/threads are now specifically engineered to downgrade, hide, suppress real journalism. If this platform is different, that's a huge change

“How’d the world die? A pack of no-talent tech grifters created a digital artbarf machine to spew endless artbarf and each time the machine threw up it drank more water, destroyed more resources. Nobody wanted it but they did it anyway! Eat your roach paste.” www.thebookseller.com/news/new-pub...

New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone

A new publisher has claimed it aims to “disrupt” the books industry by publishing 8,000 books in 2025 alone using artificial intelligence.

thebookseller.com

Great starter pack for those in marketing, advertising and measurement from the excellent @alextait.bsky.social go.bsky.app/KGUe8Lj

I've created this starter pack for (potentially) interesting accounts to following in marketing, commerce and measurement. I've started small but will add to it over the coming weeks. Also as more people come over to BlueSky. go.bsky.app/KGUe8Lj

Interesting marketing and measurement people

Join the conversation

go.bsky.app

Brazil has a gargantuan job to pick up the pieces from the rubble of this COP.

To put the just-agreed New Collective Quantified Goal at COP29 in some context... $300,000,000,000 - NCQG "by 2035" $2,440,000,000,000 - global military spending in 2023 That's EIGHT TIMES larger

Finally. But not good enough…

Damian Carrington@dpcarrington.bsky.social · 2y ago

#COP29 - DEAL - the climate finance deal has been gavelled through No one happy I think (bar Azerbaijan hosts) More on liveblog 👇 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The lack of progress at COP and delays to climate action can, in a pretty large way, be attributed to a total pollution of our information environment. Brilliant piece by @bberwyn.bsky.social insideclimatenews.org/news/2211202...

Disinformation Threatens Climate Action, UN Warns - Inside Climate News

Top officials in Baku for COP29 say the spread of false climate narratives undercuts the annual climate talks.

insideclimatenews.org

If this is true then 😱😱😱

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Just to emphasize: Saudi Arabia *and only Saudi Arabia* was sent a draft of the COP29 negotiating documents *by the COP presidency* so that Saudi Arabia alone *could edit it directly*.

"Disinformation Threatens Climate Action, UN Warns" by @bberwyn.bsky.social for @insideclimatenews.org: insideclimatenews.org/news/2211202...

Disinformation Threatens Climate Action, UN Warns - Inside Climate News

Top officials in Baku for COP29 say the spread of false climate narratives undercuts the annual climate talks.

insideclimatenews.org

Few people know this: half of the world's energy use is for heat used in buildings and industry. And almost all of it is from burning fossil fuels. That's why we need to decarbonise heat if we want to stand a chance of meeting our climate targets.

How big will the climate settlements be?

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2y ago

McKinsey nears $600m settlement with US government over role in opioid crisis