This week victorian police said there's no evidence any of the fires that have ravaged the southern state this month and the last were started by arsonists, and this week RFS commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons shot down a common argument blaming environmental groups for getting in the way of hazard reduction work.
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These stand in contrast to the viral exaggeration of news widely shared that claims otherwise.
Dig a little deeper and you'll see that the story that first peddled the arson information was incorrect. It referenced information and figures that ended in September 2019. But I'd wager most of the people sharing those stories don't really care about that, nor would they change their tune if presented with the facts.
We live in an extraordinary period of human history, we have access to entire breadth of research and information across generations, something no other society has had before. So then why does it feel like people are more uninformed than ever?
The internet gave everyone a voice, what you did with that platform was up to you. That's the beauty of it.
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But instead of using the internet as a chance to learn and better understand the world around us, instead it's given rise to fringe views formerly too small to grow out of a small group or too dangerous to grow at all.
Anti-vaxxers, white nationalism, hate speech, climate denialism, dangerous health trends and false political propaganda to name a few.
This bushfire season has been a historically-devastating one and this summer season has seen several of the highest-ever temperature records broken, climate change has been talked about since long before I was born and the effects are in line with what has been predicted by scientists for decades.
It's maybe no surprise then that this crisis has seen people and companies take the opportunity to spread misinformation to fit their own political or social views that stand counter to widely researched data.
Understanding how people think is the first step in understanding each other, but I worry, given the fervour that people defend their own views above any kind of reason that we're capable.
You are free to have an opinion, sure, but that doesn't mean you're right - though you might think you are. Don't be a sucker, dig deeper and understand where information is coming from and trust the experts.
What do you think?
