Table 1 Common claims made by groups who oppose climate action and examples from the COP26 minority
From: Growing polarization around climate change on social media
Claim type | Topics | Representative tweet extracts |
|---|---|---|
(1) Global warming isn’t happening | 9, 13, 14 | “ALL the current data say the opposite. Arctic Ice Extent at a 6 year high, volume up 17% on last year when all models predict most warming will occur at The Poles. You’re talking shite” “@COP26 You have been lying to the public and mocking them for decades with your climate scam” |
(2) Human-generated greenhouse gases are not causing global warming | 13, 14 | “What % of Atmosphere is made up of CO2?? A: 0.04% Of that 0.04%, humans create 3%, or 0.0012% = FCUK ALL!!” |
(3) Climate impacts are not bad | 9, 13 | “@COP26 What ‘climate change’? Thriving polar bears. Record coral cover. Stable ice-sheets. Bumper snow. Greening planet. Reduced wildfires. Increased Pac island land. Fewer hurricanes. Antarctica record cold winter. CO2 causation not proven. CO2 beneficial.” |
(4) Climate solutions won’t work | 10, 12, 13, 14 | “We didn’t vote for this impoverishing green socialist nonsense.” “China is not going to COP26. So what’s the point?” |
(5) Climate movement/science is unreliable | 9, 11, 13, 14, 15 | “It’s amazing - and desperate IMO - that alarmists are STILL hanging on to the presumption that the Maldives are about to go underwater any time soon, even after 30 odd years of failed claims that it is imminent!” “More blah blah blah from the Thunberg cult, none of whom have reduced their carbon footprint 1 jot” |
