As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolds, right-wing media is pinning the blame on Greta Thunberg and climate activists

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As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, right-wing media has unified in decrying President Joe Biden’s climate policies and demanding that the US drill for more oil and gas to offset the Russian energy industry. As part of this campaign against climate action, conservative media figures have launched unhinged attacks on climate activists – including Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, of course – blaming them for the domestic and global policies that supposedly emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Right-wing media personalities are even going so far, in some cases, as to suggest climate activists have been funded by the Russian government. These arguments are shock-full of climate misinformation and denial, intentionally misplacing blame for the invasion and furthering the right-wing media’s efforts to vilify climate activists.

This isn’t the first time that the right-wing media ecosystem has exploited breaking news to launch absurd attacks on climate activists. For example, in the early days of the pandemic, Fox and other outlets ran with the false notion that climate activists were somehow “celebrating” over the coronavirus lockdowns. When youth climate activism made global headlines in 2019, right-wing media outlets used the opportunity to compare them to Stephen King’s “Children of the Corn.” It’s not just recent news, either; as far back as 2010, right-wing media was blaming the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on environmental activists.

Here are some of the most shameless examples from the past two weeks of right-wing media figures attempting to scapegoat climate activists for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine:

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