WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 — A bitterly contested U.S. presidential campaign marked by name-calling, attack ads and subdued campaigning has so far left little room for discussion about climate change, even as the world faces unprecedented heat and disasters.

But with Donald Trump now running against Kamala Harris instead of Joe Biden, the Republican has used his recent rallies to spread misinformation and memes about topic X, including fictitious bans on red meat and gas stoves.

The goal? To undermine Harris.

“Kamala called for a drastic reduction in red meat consumption to combat climate change,” Trump said during a July 27 rally in Minnesota.

The Democratic candidate will “get rid of all the cows … and I guess they’ll take care of the people eventually,” the former president added, echoing the “depopulation” conspiracy theories that have plagued Harris in right-wing circles since she addressed the issue of “climate anxiety” among younger generations at a White House press conference last year.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance reiterated these allegations in a speech in Atlanta on August 3, saying Harris “wants to take away your gas stoves, she even wants to take away your ability to eat red meat.”

Such climate myths developed a life of their own on X, promoted 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 herself using a gas stove and stated on an environmental panel in 2019 that she “loves cheeseburgers from time to time,” although she supports the idea of ​​updating the dietary guidelines.

“A tried and tested tactic in politics is to twist your opponent’s positions to make them sound extreme and unacceptable. Trump and Vance are doing just that with Vice President Harris’s positions on climate change,” said Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.

Harris’ climate record

These misrepresentations complement Trump and Vance’s criticism of the vice president’s stance on issues such as fracking, a highly environmentally damaging method of underground oil and gas extraction.

Harris had already advocated a ban on the practice in 2019, before becoming Biden’s running mate in 2020. Recently, she has tried to avoid questions about it, especially in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where fracking is big business.

Still, climate activists largely respected Harris, even though her environmental stance has historically been to the left of the president – especially when she took on oil companies as California’s attorney general.

The Biden administration also promoted the transition to renewable energy with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment to reduce carbon emissions in U.S. history.

Trump vehemently opposes the law and sums up his fossil fuel-friendly approach with the slogan “Drill, baby, drill.”

The League of Conservation Voters told AFP that the misinformation spread by the Trump campaign about “widespread bans” was “ridiculous scaremongering” designed to undermine recent “climate change progress.”

Possible failure

Responding to AFP’s request for comment, Harris spokeswoman Lauren Hitt did not address specific claims made by 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, for his part, has repeatedly dismissed the dangers of climate change.

“The biggest threat is not global warming, where sea levels will rise an 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 voting decision in the 2024 election, according to a recent poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

“I suspect this tactic will backfire on a relatively small number of undecided voters, most of whom are concerned about climate change,” Maibach said.

“Trump and Vance attacking Vice President Harris over her climate positions will do them more harm than good.” — AFP