Climate misinformation spreads faster than climate data can correct it, and this project builds a map to track both at once. Current efforts to fight climate falsehoods lack a geographic dimension—no one knows exactly where misinformation originates, how it moves, or which regions are most vulnerable. This project, called ClimateSense, fills that gap by building a Multidimensional Geographic Information System (GIS) that layers climate data (temperature, precipitation, wind, carbon emissions) alongside misinformation data from fact-checkers, social media, and traditional news outlets. The system will analyse correlations between geography, climate conditions, and false narratives, then use the next three COP climate conferences as test cases to train and evaluate its predictions. If it works, policymakers and fact-checkers could see not just *that* misinformation is spreading, but *where* it will hit next—and intervene before it derails climate policy debates. The tool could quietly reshape how governments and international bodies allocate resources for public communication, turning reactive debunking into proactive surveillance. This is applied research with a clear practical target: making the geography of lies visible enough to counter.
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This research project aims to tackle the pressing issue of misinformation, especially concerning climate change, by leveraging the powers of GIS. Despite numerous efforts to combat misinformation, its prevalence continues to rise, influencing public perceptions and derailing climate policy debates and decisions. This proposal identifies and addresses several key challenges: the absence of effective tools for geospatial mapping and analyses of climate misinformation alongside climate data, the limited understanding of how climate misinformation spreads geographically, and the lack of effective tools to visualise the interplay of geospatial, temporal, and topical patterns of climate misinformation. To address these challenges, we propose the development of a Multidimensional Geographic Information System (GIS). This GIS will integrate climate data (temperature, precipitation, wind, carbon emission), climate misinformation data from fact-checkers and traditional and social media platforms, analyse its correlations with geographical and climate information, and enhance our predictive capabilities to counter the spread of misinformation effectively and proactively. The next three Conference Of the Parties (COP) will be used as use cases to train and evaluate our research and outcomes. This project, ClimateSense, aims to maximise the capabilities of GIS, enabling it to significantly influence societal understanding and policymaking in the face of climate change and misinformation.
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