Controlling perception – how images and colours are used to induce fear

The eerie photo above, which I took in 1982, makes me feel hot just looking at it. Many images with a similar tone have been used showing forest fires or ultra-hot weather with glowing, reddish to orange-coloured skies to burn the image into our minds of the alleged out-of-control heating of our planet from human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂). I will tell you more about this photograph near the end of this article.

After all, the “era of global boiling has arrived”, according to António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, as shown in this next image from their website.[1]

Figure 1 – Source: United Nations – UN News, 27 July 2023, “Hottest July ever signals ‘era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief”[2]

Let’s call it what it is: propaganda. Now, we will look at how propagandized images designed to instill fear in all who see them are being used by people with certain interests.

We see this approach often used as part of the narrative of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), where the argument is that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, one of the multiple variables affecting our atmosphere and climate, is the dominant or sole variable causing warming. To confirm this, simply type the words “climate change images” into your favourite search engine or on a social media site.

Are you ready to be scared? The images presented below include photographs, collages of various images, and AI-generated images.

The following image is from a LinkedIn post[3]from a commercial entity involved in carbon emissions trading:

Figure 2 – Source: LinkedIn post[4]by Martin Bellamy, UK Partner at C2Zero

This crispy-coloured image apparently was sourced from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an NGO, by the post’s author. It is self-explanatory. And it is all about choosing the right colour scale to incite anxiety, with dark red and burnt-black colours to convey the sense of intense heat.

And then there are the ever-popular “tipping points”, a notion that seems inadequately explained, yet is backed up by opinions and models. Not facts. The next image seems to be AI-generated, mentioning that “Earth’s disastrous 10th tipping point has been identified.” It was part of a post on LinkedIn:[5]

Figure 3 – Source: LinkedIn post by Adeline Knight, Luxury Lifestyle Planner[6]

The AI-generated image is wild and dramatic. The post’s author talks about tipping points, in particular a 10th tipping point about aquatic deoxygenation, making reference to “a recent study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution”. The author neglects to cite the title or the specific source of the study and does not provide any facts or data to support assertions. My reaction to the post was, “A propagandized image designed to instill fear in all who see it. Where’s the beef? (i.e., where are the facts?)”

This next image is from another LinkedIn post about “How Global Warming Affects Everyday People”.

Figure 4 – Source: LinkedIn post by a student at SMK Seri Keledang[7]

A collage of images of our beautiful blue planet, a wildfire, maybe some brown smoke from somewhere, and a slogan on a poster. In the post, the author mentions, “Global warming refers to the long-term rise in Earth’s atmosphere and ocean temperatures caused by the greenhouse effect. This is primarily driven by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, which release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” without any supporting facts.

In the comments, the author says that their main source of information is a biology textbook, and that, “BTW this article focuses on how global warming affects everyday people, not on debating its basic definition, which is already well established in climate science.” One wonders if the author meant the definition was well established or if the cause of global warming was well established. If it is the latter, then the words “well established” remain unproven.

Let’s view a collage of images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on their “Climate change impacts” webpage.[8]This collage has the effect of instilling some level of concern, if not outright fear.

Figure 5 – Source: NOAA photo collage[9]

Looking at the collage, from top left and moving counterclockwise, we have,

1. A calving glacier photo from Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina. Uncropped licensable image if you wish to view.[10]
2. A forest fire scene.
3. A flooded Iowa road crossing. Uncropped licensable image.[11]If you view the original uncropped photo, you can see that this depression is part of a flooded river valley system, and the rise in the top of the cropped image is a bridge over a river, with generalized flooding around it. There is an accompanying photo looking upstream, to the left.
4. Unidentified green grass in what looks like damp sand, possibly with water or sky in the background. This could be a cropped photo of some blades of dune grass near a body of water. A photo of desiccated, brown grass in mud-cracked soil would have been more convincing, and even then, we would have to ask ourselves if it was a desert landscape and not an abnormal situation.
5. A photo of the sky showing a bright orange sun and some clouds, which makes a person think of hot temperatures. These may be the actual colours, though a similar effect could be created through the use of a coloured lens filter or post-processing of the image (as a longtime hobby photographer, I am aware of what creative effects can be applied to photos, both during and after the images were taken).
6. A hurricane.

Apart from the hurricane, which is a well-known weather event, it would have been good to have seen the uncropped images for B and D because cropped images can be quite selective (cropped images A and C were already discussed since I found them elsewhere on the internet). More on cropping of images later.

And then there is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with a web page titled “Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound”.[12]The site includes a collage embodying alarmingly toasty, dry and stormy, with the images of a forest fire, mud cracks, and a hurricane.

Figure 6 – Source: NASA photo collage[13]

The photogenic image of mud cracks in the middle image was taken no later than December 2007 in an arid region known as the Sonoran Desert in Mexico[14]

Now for a walk on the AI side, with a selection of frightening AI-generated images that conjure the words, “Great Balls of Fire”, a popular song recorded in 1957 by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records.

Figure 7 – Source: commercial website at which the statement is made, “AI enhances climate models by processing extensive data, improving accuracy, and aiding predictions.”[15]

Figure 8 – Source: article “ ‘Final warning’ over devastating climate impacts: UN report calls for urgent action”, by Srishti Sisodia. “The UN report said the last eight years’ record-breaking temperatures will figure among the coolest within three or four decades as global temperatures climb, even if planet-warming emissions drop quickly.”[16]Note their use of the word “will” rather than more appropriate phrasing: “based on modeling, may”.

Figure 9 – Source: article, “A Slow-Motion Gaza, or, How to Carbonize Planet Earth” by Tom Engelhardt[17]

Figure 10 – Source: article titled, “Global warming is accelerating beyond control as CO2 levels rise”.  “The year 2024 officially became the hottest on record, with global average temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. This milestone highlights the increasing intensity of climate change and the urgent need for action.”[18] This was a 2024 article. Temperatures dropped in 2025.

Figure 11 – Source: article, “Scientists Propose Bold New Solution to Climate Change”,[19] referring to a paper[20] in which the authors propose a new climate mitigation scenario that is allegedly ecologically grounded and socially just.

To follow are examples of AI and software applications being used to “doctor” images.

The first is from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) about the rise in AI-generated wildfire images that the BC Wildfire Service says, “are contributing to online misinformation and exacerbating stressful situations.”[21]

Figure 12 – Source: CBC article, “AI-generated wildfire images spreading misinformation in B.C., fire officials warn.”[22]

The second example, also from the CBC, concerns the fabrication of weather stories using images generated by AI, photo-editing software, and creation of photos, then submitting these to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and other groups as they partly rely on the public when tracking severe weather.[23]

Figure 13 – Source: CBC article, “Real or fake? AI, editing tools make severe storm photos more difficult to verify”.[24]

Both of these CBC examples are of great concern as they risk creating situations where people could be physically harmed due to reliance on misinformation.

Summary

We humans are visual creatures. It is no accident that shocking images in an article, in particular near the beginning of it, or highlighted in a social media post, can be used to influence the reader and achieve buy-in to the message being conveyed. Propaganda 101.

Selective cropping and altering of photographs are not foreign to this effort. And AI-generated images can create any frightening, disastrous, and doomsday images that the heart may desire.

The photo that I used at the beginning of this article was cropped from a photo I took in August 1982 of the Wadanunga Lagoon, near the Roper River, Northern Territory, Australia. Here is the entire photo:

Yes, I deliberately misled you at the beginning of this article to show how easy it is to select portions of an image to suit whatever narrative.

It is not a photo of the glow of forest fires or sweltering hot weather. It is a photo of a beautiful sunset at the lagoon, with silhouetted gum (eucalyptus) trees and a canoe in the foreground. There were no bush fires, and the ambient temperature was in the low 20-Celsius range, so pleasantly warm. The spectacularly coloured sky was likely caused by volcanic ash suspended in the upper atmosphere from eruptions of the El Chichón volcano[25]in Mexico earlier in 1982. It is amazing how far volcanic ash can travel and how long it can persist in the atmosphere.

It is a good reminder that, in the big picture, we should keep facts and logic in mind as we interpret words and images.

 References: 

[1] ‘Hottest July ever signals ‘era of global boiling has arrived’ says UN chief, United Nations News, July 27, 2023

[2] ‘Hottest July ever signals ‘era of global boiling has arrived’ says UN chief, United Nations News, July 27, 2023

[3] The reader will need to be a LinkedIn user (free) for access to: C₂Zero, Martin Bellamy, LinkedIn

[4] The reader will need to be a LinkedIn user (free) for access to: C₂Zero, Martin Bellamy, LinkedIn

[5] The reader will need to be a LinkedIn user (free) for access to:  Adeline Knight, Luxury Lifestyle Planner, LinkedIn

[6] The reader will need to be a LinkedIn user (free) for access to:  Adeline Knight, Luxury Lifestyle Planner, LinkedIn

[7] The reader will need to be a LinkedIn user (free) for access to: Qiao Yao Chan, Student at SMK Seri Keledang, LinkedIn

[8] Climate change impacts, National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

[9] Climate change impacts, National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

[10] Ice Calving at the Perito Moreno Glacier stock photo, iStock by Getty images

[11] Flooded Roads stock photo, iStock by Getty images

[12] The Effects of Climate Change, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

[13] The Effects of Climate Change, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

[14] File: Draught.jpg, © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

[15] The Role of AI in Predicting Climate Change Patterns, EMB Global

[16] The Role of AI in Predicting Climate Change Patterns, EMB Global

[17] A Slow-Motion Gaza, or, How to Carbonize Planet Earth, Fair Observer, November 28, 2023

[18] Global warming is accelerating beyond control as CO2 levels rise, Earth.com

[19] Scientists Propose Bold New Solution to Climate Change, SciTechDaily, January 21, 2024

[20] An environmental and socially just climate mitigation pathway for a planet in peril, IOP Science, January 9, 2024

[21] AI-generated wildfire images spreading misinformation in B.C., fire officials warn, CBC News, August 6, 2025

[22] AI-generated wildfire images spreading misinformation in B.C., fire officials warn, CBC News, August 6, 2025

[23] Real or fake? AI, editing tools make severe storm photos more difficult to verify, CBC News, September 2025

[24] Real or fake? AI, editing tools make severe storm photos more difficult to verify, CBC News, September 2025

Editing provided by Patricia Scarr

(Peter Dorrins – BIG Media Ltd., 2026)