Science is under siege from weaponised disinformation – posing a threat to human civilisation

A s two scientists who lived through Australia’s black summer bushfires and the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, we have seen firsthand how science in modern societies is under siege from an even more insidious “antiscience virus” of weaponised disinformation that undermines our ability to confront these crises.

There are five primary, interconnected forces behind the assault on science and reason. We call them the “five Ps”: the plutocrats, the petrostates, the pros (eg paid promoters of anti-science), the propagandists and – with important exceptions – the media. Together they have generated a perfect storm of antiscientific disinformation that now threatens humanity.

A nefarious web of actors including plutocrats in the US and Australia, along with libertarian tech bros, and p