How do political ideologies tie into environmentalism and climate change?

Two-party systems of politics on social media are strikingly similar to debates about climate change; environmentalists are pitted against skeptics, resulting in complete disregard for the nuances of these stances. The findings of a study analyzed in a Plos One research article on polarized structures and information-sharing support previous studies “That have shown climate-related echo chambers exist in direct user-user interactions”. Moreover, mainstream news infiltrating social media platforms generally fails to disrupt these patterns of polarization, such as the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement; even when this event interrupted online discourse, individuals generally adhered to the mindsets they held prior to the event.

"This major event substantially increased the volume of social media messages related to climate change and drew in an increased number of new users," yet "the polarised network structure remains strong and clearly visible."

Cann, Tristan J. B., et al. “Ideological Biases in Social Sharing of Online Information About Climate Change.” PloS One, vol. 16, no. 4, 2021, p. e0250656–.

“For those whose political beliefs tend to be right of centre, the implementation of policies which seek to address global greenhouse gas emissions are perceived as a threat to privatization of resources and free trade as well as national sovereignty." 

Green, Madison, et al. “Active versus passive: evaluating the effectiveness of inoculation techniques in relation to misinformation about climate change.” Australian Journal of Psychology, vol. 74, no. 1, 2022. 

Who is responsible for the harmful effects of misinformation about climate change online?

The most common direct sources of misinformation on social media generally come from:

• bots & spammers

• conservative media outlets and organizations

• astroturfers (online groups who depict their organized efforts to convey certain messages as a spontaneous wave of public opinion)