Climate denial contaminating social media

A free and publicly-available interactive database and visualisation tool highlighting the volume of online misinformation surrounding climate change called Hot Air has been launched by Tortoise Media

The tool, developed in partnership with the University of Exeter and supported by Octopus Energy, helps users identify and track climate misinformation across platforms.

The Hot Air tool is now available here.

Bex Sander, data and graphics reporter, Tortoise Media, said: “Hot Air has been a project we’ve been conceptualising, developing and rigorously testing for months and now you can see how the ecosystem of climate scepticism is thriving online. 

Informed

“We hope that this publicly-available tool will be helpful to inform where people get their information from and interrogate the claims they see across the internet. 

“Climate change is the greatest collective existential threat to the future of the planet, and the need for accurate information has never been greater.”

Quentin Willson, founder FairCharge and a EVUK advisory board member, said: “Climate denial, misinformation and wilful twisting of the facts are the biggest threats to the planet, air quality, our health and ultimately our economic future. 

“Those who sprout factually incorrect, ideologically-driven information can be guilty of polluting the minds of others. We see it every day from vested parties interested only in preserving the status quo. 

“This isn’t how an intelligent, scientifically aware society should work. Instead, we should always be looking to promote factually accurate and informed debates.”

Control

The tool has already helped Tortoise to reveal the origins of misleading online stories such as the claim that wind turbines are harmful to whales, volcanic eruptions are responsible for temperature increases and farmers are being forced to kill livestock to meet net zero targets. 

Tortoise and the University of Exeter identified almost 300 individuals attacking climate science and policy in ways that range from scepticism to outright misinformation. They have now created a database of content across TikTok, X, and YouTube, as well as news articles and websites.

The database has also helped to establish that climate denier posts grew by 24 per cent on YouTube from 2021 to 2024, made up claims that climate change is an instrument of control now represent around 37 per cent of climate denier posts on YouTube and more than 40 per cent of climate-denier posts on X.

Further, climate denier posts grew by more than 40 per cent on X from 2021 to 2024 while unfounded claims that climate change is an instrument of control now represent more than 40 per cent of climate denier posts on X.

The Hot Air tool is now available on the Tortoise Media website here.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Tortoise Media.