Misinformation and disinformation around climate change, propagated by fringe websites, found a voice in the mainstream after being amplified by prominent Twitter accounts including those verified with a ‘blue tick’, a study by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has found. ISD is a think tank, headquartered in London, which specialises in research and policy advice on hate, extremism, and disinformation.
For the purpose of this research, the reach of 32 fringe climate-denying and climate-sceptic websites was traced around COP27. These websites were from the United States and nine European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Each of them produced content in their respective national languages. The Twitter mentions of these websites were monitored between 1 January 2022 and 1 March 2023.
The research found that fringe climate-denying websites rose significantly since the beginning of 2022. The websites which were the subject of this study and the content they produced serve as excellent examples of the full spectrum of anti-climate narratives, including outright denial of climate change and narratives that have been thoroughly refuted, the research said.
Here are the key takeaways from the research.
- Since the start of 2022, mentions of these websites have significantly increased, peaking at over 10,000 mentions per day on August 15, 2022, and achieving over 5,000 mentions per day ever since.
- The spikes in the mention were steered by attempts to generate interest in the ‘World Climate Declaration’. First shared on 27 June 2022, it s a climate-denying document allegedly signed by over 1,200 scientists and academics. "Fact-checking of the document has repeatedly shown that most signatories are not climate scientists and instead include personalities with explicit ties to fossil fuel companies," the research read.
- The most popular hashtag associated with tweets mentioning these websites was #ClimateScam, while other popular hashtags included terms associated with climate denial, like #celebrateCO2.
- The majority of the content that was retweeted came from influencers which the ISD research identified as "repeat offenders" for disseminating false information about the environment.
Instances of spikes in Twitter mentions against climate change
December 26, 2022-
The spike was propelled by Alex Epstein's article attacking the ‘climate reparations’ at COP27 via his substack Energy Talking Points. The research refers to Epstein as a "fossil fuel lobbyist". Epstein is the director of the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP), a for-profit think tank he founded in 2011. Its mission is to “inspire Americans to embrace industrial progress as a cultural ideal.”
At COP27 also known as United Nations Climate Change Conference (2022), parties agreed that major climate-polluting nations will contribute to a global fund, known as the Loss and Damage Finance Facility (LLDF), to assist low-polluting countries that are already experiencing devastating climate impacts. This is called climate reparations.
The spike was also credited to a tweet by "controversial academic" Jordan B. Peterson mentioning the ‘World Climate Declaration’, which received around 15K shares. Peterson is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator
February 6, 2023-
Another tweet from Epstein that links to one of his Substack articles, criticising the renewable energy-generated electricity and the push for electric vehicles, caused the spike. Even though the tweet only received a little over 100 shares, Jordan B. Peterson retweeted it, which led to 90,000 views, according to the research.
The spike was also attributed to a tweet by Steve Milloy arguing that climate change is a hoax and that temperatures have decreased in January in Tokyo. Milloy is a senior policy fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute. He previously worked as director of external policy and strategy at Murray Energy Corp, which claims to be the largest privately-owned coal producer in the United States.
A tweet by French economist Philippe Herlin describing Extinction Rebellion as a ‘sect’ and highlighting how attacks on climate activism are part of the anti-climate handbook, generated the spike too. Based in Paris, Herlin is a researcher in finance and a doctor in economics. Extinction rebellion describes itself as an international "non-violent civil disobedience" movement and wants governments to declare a "climate and ecological emergency".
Who were the key amplifiers of the fringe websites?
The ISD research identified some notable personalities as ‘super-spreaders’ of the misinformation about climate change, thus amplifying the fringe websites. These included:
Patrick Moore
Patrick Moore is a Canadian nuclear energy advocate and founder of Greenspirit Enterprises, a PR company started by him in 1991 that works “with many leading organizations in forestry, biotechnology, aquaculture and plastics, developing solutions in the areas of natural resources, biodiversity, energy and climate change.” Moore has worked for the mining industry, the logging industry, PVC manufacturers, the nuclear industry, and in defense of biotechnology. He has more than 145K followers on Twitter.
Peter Clack
Peter Clack is an Australian author and journalist. He worked in communications roles for federal government agencies until 2013. He has actively denied climate emergencies and praises carbon dioxide in his Twitter bio. He once posted: “Powerful globalists like the World Economic Forum in league with the United Nations are about to seize control of the majority of the world by stealth. Climate is just a distraction.”
Steve Milloy
Milloy is a board of director of Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free market think tank that attacks the science behind global warming. He is the publisher of the website JunkScience.com and a former columnist for Fox News. Milloy claims that the purpose of JunkScience.com is to “help distinguish good science from bad.” On his website, Milloy proclaims himself a pioneer fighting against “faulty scientific data used to advance special, and often hidden, agendas.”