Climate scientists are fleeing Twitter . Why?

World

Published: 31 May 2023

Climate scientists are fleeing Twitter . Why?

Since Elon Musk took over the Twitter network, a number of scientists have abandoned the famous platform because of the insults they face on it

It reaches the point of threats, after the presence of denial trends of the climate crisis has increased .

edited by |Jus Mcmahon

World section - CJ journalist

World - May,31,2023

Peter Glick, a climate and water expert with a following of almost 99 thousand Twitter accounts, announced on May 21 that he was stopping

About tweeting across the platform, accusing her of amplifying racism and sexism.

The researcher says that he is used to "aggressive and personal attacks", which amount to "direct physical threats".

"In recent months, since the arrival of the new owner and the changes on Twitter, the volume and intensity of attacks have increased significantly, "he said.

Robert Rudy, from the Berkeley Earth Society, analyzed the activity of hundreds of accounts of widely followed specialists who talk about

Climate science, before and after Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter.

Rudy concluded that these tweets no longer resonate the same way: the average number of "likes" (to confirm approval)has decreased

On it by 38%, and retweeted by 40% less.

Twitter did not directly comment on the changes to its algorithms that lead to increased activity and visibility on

The network. When trying to communicate with her, the Twitter Press Service responded with an automatic e-mail that has been approved by her since

Musk's acquisition of the network, which includes an emoji in the form of a pile of feces.

However, in January, Elon Musk explained the philosophy behind the changes, saying that " people should see

There is more content on the right than on the left, and people on the Left should see more content than on the right, "he said.

"But you can use the blocking feature if you want to stay in the echo chamber".

In another analysis, the famous climatologist Catherine Hayhoe studied interactions with one tweet that she voluntarily posted twice, before

The Twitter acquisition deal and its aftermath.

She said that the responses of trolls or automated accounts that regularly spread disinformation, increased from 15 to 30 times compared to

The last two years.

She explained that until the acquisition of Twitter in October, " my account was growing steadily, with at least

Thousands of new followers every month. But this has not changed since then".

And the professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A & M University, Andrew Dessler, decided to transfer most of his communicative activity on the climate

To another platform called" Substack " Substack.

"Climate communication on Twitter is becoming less useful (now) because I see that my posts on Twitter are getting interaction," he says

Less".

"In response to almost any tweet about climate change, responses from documented accounts flood me with allegations," Dessler notes

Misleading".

Others have simply given up on Twitter. According to the calculations of Catherine Hayhoe, out of 3,000 climate scientists included in her analysis, she disappeared

A hundred of them calculated after the network was bought by Musk.

The account of glaciologist Ruth Mottram had more than 10 thousand followers on Twitter, but she chose to leave the platform in

February to join the forum of scientists of the" mastodon " Mastodon, a decentralized social network created in

In 2016.

Mottram is happy that she found a "calmer" environment there. "I didn't face any insults or even any

People who are skeptical about climate change".

The famous climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, Michael Mann, who is regularly subjected to online attacks, believes that increasing

Disinformation is "organized and coordinated" by opponents of climate policies.

In a book published in 2022 entitled "The New climate war", Mann spoke about efforts from oil producers to encourage climate denial

On social networks.

"Professional trolls manipulate the online environment through strategic publications that generate disputes and broadcast," he said

Differentiation".