Also relevant: "Always shoot the messenger first." :)

If news unsettles a person, and there's a cognitive dissonance upon processing their world model ("everything OK with climate") and sensory input ("another big freaking hurricane") then if the person isn't a model of rational thought and already has a fad for conspiracies...

...one might find it easier to add another conspiracy theory to one's collection, as opposed to harder steps like refreshing one's model of how the world functions. :o