Climate Change & Coronavirus: Misinformation & Skepticism in the Digital Age
Despite the growing consequences of human-produced Climate Change, many Americans continue not to believe the scientific community, indirectly preventing meaningful and sustainable political change. The political climate and distrust of news media has manifested in the prevalence of “climate change skeptics,” who manipulate existing scientific and social data to convince the public that climate change has no relation to human activities and is in fact beneficial to the health of the planet. As the continuation of a long-form, investigative article I wrote about how climate skeptics can affect local legislation, this summer I looked at the intersection of climate change and coronavirus misinformation. Though I originally began my project with the goal of viewing climate skepticism through the lens of the pandemic, I found the two to be inextricably intertwined. Climate experts started using coronavirus as a foothold to speak about climate change, as not only did carbon emissions generally decrease, but scientists believe ecosystem destruction will lead to more pandemic outbreaks. Additionally, while cataloging the growth of the climate skeptic movement during the pandemic it quickly became clear that climate skeptics were contributing to the spread of coronavirus misinformation as it related to their greater narrative against government control. As a result of reading not only the literature on climate skepticism, but climate skeptics work itself, I was able to identify patterns in their messages and draw connections to coronavirus fake news. The similarities between climate change and coronavirus has interesting implications for the future of censorship as social media platforms begin filtering conspiracy theories about the pandemic. Working on this project broadened my understanding of misinformation and engaged me with a topic relevant not only to the pandemic, but to my professional interest in environmental communication.
Comments
Really interesting and…
Really interesting and important work, Anjali!
Social Media
Wow, this was such an interesting presentation! I was especially intrigued by your point about how higher social media use correlates with lower social distancing measures. Do you think this theory also applies to belief in climate change? Also, does this mean that people in the United States use social media more than other countries (since we are having a worse outbreak than other countries)?
Social Media
Wow, this was such an interesting presentation! I was especially intrigued by your point about how higher social media use correlates with lower social distancing measures. Do you think this theory also applies to belief in climate change? Also, does this mean that people in the United States use social media more than other countries (since we are having a worse outbreak than other countries)?
Social Media
Wow, this was such an interesting presentation! I was especially intrigued by your point about how higher social media use correlates with lower social distancing measures. Do you think this theory also applies to belief in climate change? Also, does this mean that people in the United States use social media more than other countries (since we are having a worse outbreak than other countries)?
Social media censorship
Very interesting project!
Are there any statistics on the impact social media censorship has on mitigating this issue? Are there any other actions that the general public can take to keep this life-and-death issue from getting worse?
Comment
This is such a fascinating topic! I had never thought about the connections between climate change and the COVID-19 situation, and I found it especially interesting that climate change scientists have been using COVID-19 to support their arguments. It seems that political affiliation also seems to be strongly correlated with opinions on climate change and COVID-19; in your research, did you come across any sources that discussed why this may be the case? It would also be interesting to see the correlation between "right-wing media" power in other countries with the effectiveness of response.
Good Poster
The information on your poster was very substantive. It was particularly interesting how you tracked how the conspiracy theory spreads. Also, the parallels you drew between climate change and coronavirus were nicely highlighted in the venn diagram.
Great Insight
I really enjoyed reading your poster! It was helpful to get the broad, more overarching data in the charts as well as the more specific stories/events that really illustrate the conspiracy theories and how they spread. Do you plan to continue following the constant flood of fake news/conspiracy theories throughout coronavirus and the election?
Very Apt
Very apt subject of research during this time. From a legislative and also nonlegislative standpoint, is there anything you think we in the US can do to reduce this misinformation?
Graphics
That venn diagram is striking and an excellent representation of the similarities you pointed out. Thank you for drawing attention to these connections!
map in your poster
I really find the map in your poster interesting. Was that something you made or something you pulled from another source? I am hoping to learn more about how the county-level information was constructed.
Interesting Topic
My research also focused on misinformation found on the internet, and we found some attempts from certain platforms to eliminate misinformation. Have you seen anything like this?
Great topic and poster!
Great topic and poster! You mentioned that many more people are able to see misinformation when it's shared on mainstream news sources or by politicians. But are there any estimates of how many people conspiracy theory groups like QAnon reach through their own efforts?
This subject is of ultimate importance!
Anjali, thank you for the terrific information and your research, it is very importante that people like you go deep to understand the "methodology" and reach of conspiracy theories and misinformation. I would like to know a little about the methods you used. Did you spend most of your time compiling articles and memos, or have you used any kind of platform/database to find some raw info and stats?
Thank you and congratulations!
Interesting and important
Great job Anjali! This research is so important and relevant to the present moment, and your presentation was very informative. Seeing your map of where people do/do not believe in human-caused climate change, I wonder what the relationship is with each state's k-12 science curriculum.
Great Connections
Wow, this presentation was really interesting and mind-expanding in the way you connect "climate skepticism" to the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I had never considered them in that light before, and your presentation does a great job of contextualizing COVID-19 within the political climate of misinformation and the climate crisis Well done!