Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges

Scientists subjected to insults and mass spam are leaving Twitter for alternative social networks as hostile climate change denial on the platform rears its ugly head following Elon Musk’s takeover.

Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation on Twitter since the Tesla billionaire took over in October 2022, and now experts say communicating about climate science on the social network — which many of them rely on — is becoming more difficult.

Policies aimed at reducing the deadly impacts of climate change are accelerating, leading to an increase in what experts identify as organized resistance by climate reform opponents.

Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 that he would no longer post on the platform because it would amplify racism and sexism.

He said he is used to “abusive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats”.

“[But] in recent months, since the takeover and changes at Twitter, the amount, swear words and intensity of abuse have skyrocketed,” said Gleick.

Robert Rohde, a physicist and chief scientist at the nonprofit environmental data analytics group Berkeley Earth, analyzed the activity on hundreds of accounts of widely followed specialists posting about climate science before and after Musk’s acquisition.

He found that climate scientists’ tweets are losing momentum. The average number of likes they received dropped by 38 percent and the average number of retweets dropped by 40 percent.

Twitter has not immediately commented on the changes it made to the algorithms that generate traffic and visibility.

Twitter’s press department reached out to the email address for comment and sent back the now-common response, an automated email with a “poo” emoji.

But in a tweet seen as an acknowledgment of a conscious change, Musk wrote in January: “People on the right should see more ‘left’ things and people on the left should see more ‘right’ things. But you can just block it if you want to stay in an echo chamber.

Climate denial bots

In another analysis, prominent climatologist Katharine Hayhoe tracked responses to a climate change tweet she published twice, as an experiment, on different dates before and after Musk’s acquisition.

She counted the hostile comments and examined them for signs that they came from bots — automated accounts that researchers say are spreading mass disinformation.

Inauthentic accounts can be identified by analytics tools such as Bot Sentinel.

Replies from apparent trolls or bots have increased 15 to 30 times in a two-month period compared to the previous two years, Hayhoe tweeted in January 2023.

“Before October, my account was growing steadily with at least several thousand new followers per month. It hasn’t changed since then,” she says.

Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, said he was moving most of his climate communications to Substack, a newsletter platform.

“Climate communication on Twitter is less convenient [now] given that I can see my tweets getting less engagement,” he said.

“In response to almost every tweet about climate change, I find my notifications inundated with replies from verified accounts making misleading or misguided claims.”

Others have left Twitter altogether.

Hayhoe said of a Twitter list of 3,000 climate scientists she maintains, 100 of which disappeared after the acquisition.

‘Much quieter’

Glaciologist Ruth Mottram had more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, but she left in February to join an alternative scientists forum powered by Mastodon — a crowdfunded, decentralized social networking group founded in 2016.

“It has really been a revelation in many ways. It’s a much quieter and more thoughtful platform,” she said.

About Mastodon: “I have not had any abuse at all or even people questioning climate change. I think we got too used to it on Twitter… I had a lot of accounts blocked on the birdsite [Twitter]she added.

Michael Mann, a leading climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania and a regular target of abuse by climate change deniers, said he believed the rise in disinformation was “organized and orchestrated” by opponents of climate reform.

“I have seen a huge increase in trolls and bots. A lot of tweets of mine are targeting attacks,” he said.

Mann’s 2021 book The New Climate War documented the action of oil producers to sow climate denial on social media.

“The professional trolls manipulate the online environment with strategic messages that create conflict and division, leading to a frenzy,” he said.