fake news
Thu May 30 22:53:31 EDT 2019
Conspiracy theories and fake news have lead to a massive loss of diseased olive trees in Italy.Charges against scientists dropped in Italian olive tree devastation
When the disease was discovered, scientists advised farmers to destroy infected trees, as well as healthy trees within a certain radius, in order to prevent its spread.
They also told farmers to monitor the presence of the spittlebug, an insect that spreads the disease from tree to tree.
Those guidelines sparked a backlash against the scientists in an area where olive trees are incredibly important, both economically and culturally.
"There were riots and revolts starting. Interestingly, most of them were not led by farmers, but by activists, basically. So even people [who didn't] own a single olive tree, they started spreading misinformation."
But the spread of Xylella fastidiosa has continued at a strong clip. It's now reached the north of Puglia, and has killed hundreds of thousands of olive trees.
There are parallels to the anti-vax movement.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1069158.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Conspiracy theories and fake news have lead to a massive loss of diseased olive trees in Italy.Charges against scientists dropped in Italian olive tree devastation
When the disease was discovered, scientists advised farmers to destroy infected trees, as well as healthy trees within a certain radius, in order to prevent its spread.
They also told farmers to monitor the presence of the spittlebug, an insect that spreads the disease from tree to tree.
Those guidelines sparked a backlash against the scientists in an area where olive trees are incredibly important, both economically and culturally.
"There were riots and revolts starting. Interestingly, most of them were not led by farmers, but by activists, basically. So even people [who didn't] own a single olive tree, they started spreading misinformation."
But the spread of Xylella fastidiosa has continued at a strong clip. It's now reached the north of Puglia, and has killed hundreds of thousands of olive trees.
There are parallels to the anti-vax movement.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1069158.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]