Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumStraight-Up Climate Lies Don't Work Any More; Deniosphere Now Dragging In Culture War Issues Instead
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The report looked at social media posts over the past 18 months and particularly around the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last year. It found that the urgent need for wide-ranging mitigation and adaptation strategies were continually downplayed or condemned as unfeasible, overly expensive, disruptive or hypocritical. And it identified a number of specific discourses of delay, including:
Elitism and hypocrisy: these posts focused on the alleged wealth and double standards of those calling for action, and in some cases referenced wider conspiracies about globalism or the New World Order. The study identified 199,676 mentions of this narrative on Twitter (tweets and retweets) and 4,377 posts on Facebook around the time Cop26 took place
Absolution: it found 6,262 Facebook posts and 72,356 tweets around Cop26 which absolved one country of any obligation to act on climate by blaming another. In developed western countries this often focused on the perceived shortcomings of China and, to a lesser extent, India, claiming they were not doing enough so there was no point in anyone acting.
Unreliable renewables: over a longer period from 1 January to 19 November 2021 the study found 115,830 tweets or retweets were shared, alongside 15,443 posts on Facebook, that called into question the viability and effectiveness of renewable energy sources.
The report found that the most prominent anti-climate content along these lines came from a handful of influential pundits, many with verified accounts on social media. Analysis of 16 accounts super-spreading climate misinformation on Twitter revealed 13 sub-groups that largely converged around anti-science and conspiracy communities in the US, UK and Canada. It said many influencers in this group originally came from a scientific or academic background and some were previously involved in the green movement.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/09/climate-policy-dragged-into-culture-wars-as-a-delay-tactic-finds-study
femmedem
(8,187 posts)PXR-5
(522 posts)On a serious note, I hear Musk has not made a reference to climate change in over 3 years.
(I don't do Twitter, but that's what I have been told)
Magoo48
(4,659 posts)Sorry, its easier to make a joke than to explain again the inevitably dystopian end humanity is still embracing by its cavalier approach to climate catastrophe.