Every day, journalists across the globe publish new stories on climate change that spark meaningful conversations. We live in a new social web ecosystem. This means that thousands of users view, share, and engage with content every minute. With billions invested in climate change research, there is no shortage of new information. Synthesio analyzed the way that this information is shared on the internet and how it affects the path of discourse online. In our in-depth climate change report, Synthesio’s game-changing social media monitoring software detected significant insights into global warming discussions.
Who is talking about climate change?
A great way to understand audiences who are concerned about climate change is through social media monitoring. The chart below shows that young people between the ages of 18 and 35 lead the online conversation.
This trend is partially due to the wide-scale usage of these age groups of social media, but also because this generation feels a great deal of environmental responsibility.
Before today’s internet savvy generation, the repercussions of climate change were widely unknown and not discussed publically. Thanks to dedicated individuals sharing their opinions about the environment online, news media has increased coverage of global warming. These outlets serve to further disseminate the information to others.
What are they talking about?
We used Synthesio’s sophisticated social media monitoring software to query for top hashtags in the past year related to climate change. Our dashboard showed us that #ClimateCrisis, #Drought, #ClimateAction, #ClimateEmergency, and #RenewableEnergy were some of the most popular.
Tracking hashtag usage is an effective way of seeing trending conversations on social networks. These key phrases indicate people’s worry about all angles of global warming. The use of specific words like “crisis” and “emergency” convey the urgency of the quickly worsening reality. “Drought” and “action” suggest that people are actively turning to social media to organize events with tangible effects.
But people still don’t believe it’s real, right?
In spite of extensive scientific recording, there is a small but present population of people who don’t believe that climate change is real. According to a 2016 Ipsos survey of 17,179 adults across 23 countries, the highest percent of people who say that “human activity does not cause global warming,” came from the U.S. However, the 22% reported by Ipsos may not be entirely accurate today, as evidenced by the shifting timeline below.
Who is buying into this whole “hoax” thing?
As it turns out when we queried for the keywords “hoax,” “conspiracy,” and “myth, a particular demographic emerged. The majority are middle-aged, between 45 and 55 years old. Additionally, 76% of online users posting in conjunction with these queried words are male.
In the age of misinformation, it is more important than ever that people get news from reliable, accredited sources rather than just listening to online noise.
If you’re looking for more information fueled by the world’s most advanced social listening platform, download the full Climate Change Report.
