Users on Twitter and other social media falsely accused Spain's weather agency of engineering a drought, Australia's of doctoring its thermometers and France's of exaggerating global warming through misplaced weather stations.
"They are providing evidence against what the climate deniers claim, so the latter try to discredit them."In a harsh drought and with local elections looming, Spain's State Meteorological Agency spoke out after its members were threatened in Twitter messages, phone calls and emails.They came from people who believe the widely debunked theory that aeroplane condensation trails are really"chemtrails" sprayed by the authorities to poison people or create weather disasters.
"What makes no sense is that they are insulting an institution that is constantly watching out for their interests, whose aim is... to contribute to people's safety." "This difference is very small compared to the strong warming trend in average temperature over Australia" - about 1.4°C over the past century - Nicholls told AFP.