by Charles Rotter at wattsupwiththat.com
Everything is hate and bots with these weak kneed crybullies.
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 on which many of them rely is getting harder.
Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects of climate change are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents of climate reform.
Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.
These comments in reaction to Gleick’s dramatic, pearl-clutching, announcement of his departure sums up reality rather well.
Now that Twitter content moderators and healthy conversation enforcers are not amplifying climate activists nor suppressing dissenting voices it’s disheartening for those that believed everyone agrees with them.
Robert Rohde, a physicist and lead scientist at the non-profit environmental data analysis group Berkeley Earth, analysed activity on hundreds of accounts of widely followed specialists posting about climate science before and after the takeover.
He found climate scientists’ tweets were losing impact. The average number of likes they received was down 38 percent and average retweets fell 40 percent.