Victoria Falls fake news is a warning for all

Peter Jones is angry. And you can’t blame him. Some journalists, seeking sensation and disseminating what can fairly be termed fake news with reports that the iconic Victoria Falls is about to dry up, have adversely affected the lives of many people.

Jones is a businessperson in the tourist sector at the Falls, which straddle the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia and which have been declared a World Heritage Site.

He is disturbed by a TV programme aired on Sky News in the UK and a story published by a number of news outlets, which has led to tourists cancelling bookings and raised questions over the economic future of the towns, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Livingstone in Zambia, which depend on it.

The reports showed dry parts of the 1.7km-long Falls over which the Zambezi Rover flows. The reality is, however, that these parts of the Falls are often dry in the months of November and December, when river flow is at its lowest.

The Zambezi is fed from Angola, Botswana and Zambia and the peak mass of water only reaches the Falls in about May.

So the current situation is nothing unusual.

However, social and mainstream outlets – which are increasingly using social media for their leads and often uncritically propagate errors – have latched on to the “dry Falls” narrative as proof of worsening global warming.

This sort of hysteria – and the Falls example is only one of a number – does nothing to advance the argument that climate change is real, serious and that humanity needs to change its ways. If anything, it makes it easier for people to avoid reality.

It is also a warning of the dangers of social media and the way its spreads toxic negativity in a viral way.

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