Results from more than a million social media posts suggest that people prefer to plant trees and protect the rainforest than use technological solutions to fight climate change, according to a new study published in the journal Global Environmental Change.
A team from the University of Cambridge, the Mercator Research Institute, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and Boston University analysed 1.5 million posts on X (formerly Twitter) to find that people more often associated the words “disgust” and “fear” related to geoengineering and other new technologies, while words like “joy” were often associated with nature-based projects to protect forests and peat bogs.
“Social media provides an opportunity to tap into the ocean of thoughts and feelings people are sharing in public conversations about emerging technologies,” said co-author and Assistant Professor Ramit Debnath from the University of Cambridge. “Governments and global organisations need to consider how the voting public will engage with proposed solutions of climate action.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that — in addition to a gradual reduction of global emissions from burning fossil fuels — humanity will need to actively ‘geoengineer’ climate solutions to prevent further warming. This may involve different ways to remove greenhouse gases which trap energy from the sun, or reflect away excessive sunlight.
To see how receptive people are to these new technologies, the team analyzed X posts about 20 emerging technologies, from planting trees to artificially modifying clouds. Public opinion is difficult to measure using traditional surveying methods, so researchers used social media posts instead.
“When you’re not familiar with [these] issues, you can be strongly influenced by the way the questions are asked,” says dr Finn Müller-Hansen, researcher in the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), and lead author. “That’s why we chose a different approach: we were interested in how people engage with these topics without being asked.”
For the almost 800,000 posts on X discussing these measures to fight climate change, negative comments (30%) were more common than positive ones (6%). However, looking at the posts in more detail revealed that there was a more positive reaction toward methods to remove greenhouse gases when compared to solar manipulation. People seem to see greenhouse removal methods as more natural, especially if it involves planting trees. Based on these results, the authors suggest avoiding the use of the word geoengineering, which in fact includes all methods to combat climate change including both natural and technological solutions.
“From our study, we’ve uncovered where the public anxiety about ‘geoengineering’ solutions is being directed,” said Dr Debnath. “It’s up to scientists and policymakers to either clear up these concerns and try to bring people around or listen to the public, who at this moment are more supportive of nature-based solutions.”
Müller-Hansen, F., Repke, T., Baum, C., Brutschin, E., Callaghan, M., Debnath, R., Lamb, W., Low, S., Lück, S., Roberts, C., Sovacool, B., Minx, C. (2023). Attention, sentiments and emotions towards emerging climate technologies on Twitter, Global Environmental Change. 83, p. 102765. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102765.