Wildfires and Extreme Weather Are Driving Climate Denialism

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When images and video of the tragic blazes in Maui began to filter out across the internet, rumors also started to spread. Across Facebook, TikTok and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, commentators shared wild speculations that the fires, which have now taken the lives of more than 100 people, were the product of arson, a plot to clear the land for billionaires or, most bizarrely, space lasers.

It wasn’t the first natural disaster to trigger such unfounded origin stories. As extreme weather from floods to wildfires ...