- Demand for Japanese content booms post 'Shogun'
- As India's Bollywood shifts, stars and snappers click
- Mystery drones won't interfere with Santa's work: US tracker
- Djokovic eyes more Slam glory as Swiatek returns under doping cloud
- Australia's in-form Head confirmed fit for Boxing Day Test
- Brazilian midfielder Oscar returns to Sao Paulo
- 'Wemby' and 'Ant-Man' to make NBA Christmas debuts
- US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
- On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year
- 'Like a dream': AFP photographer's return to Syria
- Chiefs seek top seed in holiday test for playoff-bound NFL teams
- Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat
- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
Trump's strategy on climate? Amplify myths about Harris
An unrelentingly bitter US presidential race, defined by name-calling, attack ads and stunted campaigning, has so far left little space for discussion about climate change, despite the world experiencing unprecedented heat and disasters.
But with Donald Trump now facing Kamala Harris rather than Joe Biden, the Republican has used recent rallies to echo misinformation and memes on X, including fictional bans on red meat and gas stoves.
The aim? To undermine Harris.
"Kamala called for slashing consumption of red meat to fight climate change," Trump said during a July 27 rally in the state of Minnesota.
The Democratic nominee would "get rid of all cows … and I guess that at some point, they'll go after the humans," the former president added, echoing "depopulation" conspiracy theories that have plagued Harris in right-wing spaces since she waded into the topic of "climate anxiety" among younger generations at a White House press conference last year.
J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, amplified the claims in an August 3 speech in Atlanta, saying Harris "wants to take away your gas stoves, she even wants to take away your ability to eat red meat."
Such climate myths took on a life of their own on X, encouraged by conservative commentators in swing states and MAGA accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.
However, Harris made no such campaign promise.
She has cooked with a gas stove herself and noted in a 2019 environmental panel that she "love(s) cheeseburgers from time to time," although she has supported the idea of updating dietary guidelines.
"A tried-and-true tactic in politics is to misrepresent your opponent's positions to make them sound extreme and unacceptable. Trump and Vance are doing exactly that with Vice President Harris's positions on climate action," said Edward Maibach, director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication.
- Harris's climate record -
The false narratives add onto Trump and Vance's criticism of the vice president's stance on issues such as fracking, a violently disruptive underground oil and gas extraction technique.
Harris initially advocated banning the practice in 2019 before becoming Biden's running mate in 2020. She has more recently sought to avoid questions about it, particularly in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania where fracking is big business.
Still, climate activists have mostly saluted Harris, whose environmental stance has historically been to the left of the president -- notably in going after oil companies as California attorney general.
The Biden administration also pushed a renewable energy shift in passing the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in reducing carbon pollution in US history.
Trump has vehemently opposed the legislation, adopting the slogan "drill, baby, drill" to sum up his fossil fuel-friendly approach.
The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, told AFP the Trump campaign's amplification of misinformation on "widespread bans" constitutes "ridiculous scare tactics" perpetrated to undermine recent "climate progress."
- Potential to 'backfire' -
Responding to AFP's request for comment, Harris spokeswoman Lauren Hitt did not address specific claims from Trump and his running mate, but said the Democrat "is focused on a future where all Americans have clean air, clean water, and affordable, reliable energy."
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly dismissed the threats of climate change.
"The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years," he told Elon Musk on X in mid-August. Musk officially endorsed Trump in July.
More than a third of registered voters disagree, saying global warming is very important to their vote in the 2024 election, according to a recent survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
"I suspect the tactic will backfire with a relatively smaller number of uncommitted voters, most of whom are concerned about climate change," Maibach said.
"Trump and Vance attacking VP Harris on her climate positions will hurt them more than help them."
Ch.Havering--AMWN