On December 29, 2022, an article published by the News Punch website reported that the World Economic Forum urged people to combat climate change by showering less than once a week. The report did not carry any official statement by the international agency or any agency official. An embedded animated video in the report did not relate to any organization either and detailed the advantages of taking a shower/bath once a week.
The PTI fact-check team found that the WEF had never made any such statement and the Twitter post, which used a screenshot of a report headlined "WEF Orders Public To Bathe 'Once a Week or Less' To Save the Planet", was misleading. The tweet has reached many thousand views and has been retweeted hundreds of times.
In the first step of its investigation, the fact check team went through the article tweeted by the user on December 29 last year and screened the article thoroughly.
Later in their investigation, the team went through WEF's official website and social media handles but it didn’t find any such announcement. Additionally, any such announcements by the WEF would have made international headlines across countries. Thus, the fact-checking team rendered the media report and tweets fake news.
The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2021 listed the water crisis among the major reasons for climate change. Outlook team also found a tweet by the organization on its official handle dated 28 September 2021 encouraging people to wash their denim only once a month, based on research and expert opinion.
The World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2020 report puts chemical, food, mineral, and water crises at the top of the global scale due to human overexploitation and mismanagement of critical natural resources across the world.
Nowhere in its report has the WEF hinted at the frequency of bathing for the public as a step to save water or the planet.
(with PTI inputs)
