| The slew of falsehoods, spread eagerly online, has made some people reluctant to come forward for aid, slowing the disaster response once Helene was followed by Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida. The political attacks and misinformation have continued even as people are still struggling without power or water. “Get a life, man,” an exasperated Biden has muttered about Trump when asked about the conspiracy theories. In many ways, the aftermath of the hurricanes is a grim yet familiar tale. It combines the proliferation of alternative realities via the internet, the breakdown of trust in institutions and a hyper-polarized US electorate. In a few weeks, of course, voters will be faced for the third election in a row with the choice of voting for Trump, a figure who defies all basic norms of political discourse. Such a fetid cocktail has led to some very dark places, including death threats against aid workers (such as Fema workers, pictured above in North Carolina) and even the meteorologists who were warning about the onrushing storm. There is also a broader, sobering lesson for those agitating for a greater response to the climate crisis. For years, it was received wisdom in activist and government circles that when climate-driven disasters such as storms, wildfires and deadly heatwaves started to bite, an anguished public would become galvanised in a way they hadn’t been before to face the challenge of global heating. “Yet that just hasn’t happened – it’s frustrating,” Paul Bledsoe, who worked on climate policy as part of Bill Clinton’s White House, told me. While polls show a growing number of people accept the climate crisis is real and is affecting more and more lives, its manifestations are now being routinely used to prop up other preconceived political biases. The problem of the climate crisis itself is being drowned out. Global heating, it seems, is not just an accelerant of extreme weather, it is also amplifying prejudices, conspiracy theories and other embedded political notions, rather than challenging them. Helene and Milton may not be the storms that will jolt people to reality as they prepare to vote. Read more on Hurricane Milton: | 