During the May 2026 heatwave, a familiar set of narratives circulated across European platforms. Heatwaves have always existed. Scientists manipulate data. The media exaggerates. The claims were recycled. The infrastructure distributing them was not improvised.
In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Sara Rego, founder of Mossy, Managing Director of BeTrue, and a researcher in sustainability communication at Universidade do Minho, about a June 2026 report from the European Digital Media Observatory: The Same Old Story: A Heat Wave of Climate Disinformation.
The report identifies two overlapping economic systems driving the disinformation ecosystem. The carbon economy funds misleading content to protect its commercial interests. The attention economy's algorithms reward inflammatory content because engagement generates revenue. The two systems do not coordinate. Their incentives converge.
Sara brings a specific lens to this. Her doctoral research produced the CARE model, a peer-reviewed framework for auditing sustainability communication. Mossy, launched in June 2026, applies that model as an AI tool for identifying greenwashing risk in ESG reports and company communications before regulators find it first.
Her argument is precise: the tools being built to counter disinformation operate at the communicator level. They do not change what the algorithm amplifies. "Power and money," she says of why the disinformation ecosystem persists. "Because they think they can buy their exit out of this crisis with money."
The episode covers the organised history of climate disinformation, Russia's state-level strategy targeting the EU, the harassment of climate scientists during extreme weather events, and why reconnecting people to nature may matter more than adding more information to a saturated environment.
The incentive structure making disinformation commercially rational remains intact. That is the condition in which better sustainability communication is being attempted.
#ClimateDisinformation #Greenwashing #ESG #SustainabilityCommunication #AttentionEconomy #TheResponsibleEdge
