Yes, we mean you, MTG. How online Intrigue is harming the battle against climate change.

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Unless your assistant prints it out for you — very unlikely — you’re surely reading this on the Web instead of having to flip awkwardly the pages of a paper or magazine. Yes, your smart phone and/or computer make communication, entertainment and information much easier to come by than it was before the mid-2000s.

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But these computer cousins have brought with them a sometimes-troubling sibling: social media. And it’s harming what should be intense efforts to curb climate change and thus reduce the intensity of the hurricanes hitting our coastlines.

Of course, social media is great for catching up with your long-ago school pals and seeing cute photos of your nieces and nephews and cousins and grandchildren, but it’s also brought with it forums for spreading rumors and lies about everything from politics to celebrity goings-on to, yes, hurricanes.

Take, for example, far-right Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Posting on X late last week — she has 1.2 million followers — she agreed with other out-there scaremongers that government officials — presumably allied with Democrats — had engineered Hurricane Helene, which walloped Florida and the South. “Yes they can control the weather,” she tweeted. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Then conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also weighed in, saying “Bottom line the federal government could have killed the storm in the Gulf of Mexico.” Both Greene and Jones pointed to cloud seeding as evidence that the government sent Hurricane Helene to shore to wreak havoc. (No cloud seeding in relation to the hurricanes has been reported.)

Meanwhile, Greene also posted a map of areas affected by Helene — in states including Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas — with an overlay showing the area is home to a majority of Republican voters.

And on Saturday, she shared a clip from a 2013 CBS News broadcast about experimental efforts to induce rain and lightning using lasers. “CBS, nine years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather,” Greene wrote, her arithmetic regarding timelines apparently lacking accuracy.

OK, so you may be chuckling at her wacky ways, but her pronouncements can be very damaging, and not just by adding to the warped sensibilities of some citizens. For instance, state and federal officials have said that the misinformation and conspiracy theories are demoralizing rescue workers and hindering efforts to provide aid and accurate information to victims.

“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do.”

Not only that, but it’s also a giant distraction from what is really leading to these weather events.

Yes, global warming.