An industry group is spending tons of $$$ to make sure you know about hydropower
A roundup of the climate conversation across social media this week
Welcome to Climate Monitor, a weekly, data-driven report on the digital strategies polluters and pro-Climate groups are using to shift public opinion and move legislation. Here’s what we found:
Toplines:
The National Hydropower Association is dropping a ton of $$$ on Facebook and Instagram ads touting the importance of clean hydropower and marine energy
Climate Power is now calling for young people to sign up for President Biden’s Climate Corps on Facebook and Instagram, in addition to Snapchat
Leonardo DiCaprio is using his Instagram account to draw attention to amphibian extinction due to global warming
Shell has been called out for paying Fortnite influencers to get to young people
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
A top spender on digital ads in the climate and energy space last week was the American Petroleum Institute – and this has been the case for weeks.
However, for the first time in a hot minute, one of the top three spenders was *not* a member of Big Oil or other organizations involved in pollution and anti-climate activities. The National Hydropower Association spent just over $69,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads nationwide that further their mission of touting the importance of hydropower and marine energy.
Another new and notable ad campaign this week came from Climate Power. In addition to Snapchat ads, Climate Power is also running ads on Facebook and Instagram that call on young people to sign up for President Biden’s Climate Corps. These ads seem to be targeted at battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
A pro-oil group has also been running some outreach and recruitment this week: the Grow Louisiana Coalition is running new ads on Facebook and Instagram in Louisiana that ask people to be “energy voters” and stand up for oil and gas production.
On the other side of the oil and gas issue, Gas Leaks Action is running a new, explainer-style ad attacking the American Gas Association and the Gas lobby and calling them some of the biggest climate villains out there. The ad is on Instagram and Facebook, and it is specifically targeted at Texans. Check it out here >>>
And finally, in a similar vein, Action for the Climate Emergency is running new ads on Facebook and Instagram nationwide that tell people to contact their respective Attorney General and ask them to sue Big Oil for damaging the climate (and make excellent use of the song “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA).
Google & YouTube 🎞️
There were three new and noteworthy climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week: Maine Affordable Energy ($66,200) is continuing to run ads that tell Mainers to vote no on Question 3, Clean Jobs for Michigan ($7,400) is continuing to run illustrated video ads in support of clean energy initiatives, and Clean Virginia ($6,700) is running video ads in support of VA candidates (who are presumably pro-clean energy).
Snapchat 🤳
There were two new and noteworthy climate or energy advertiser on Snapchat last week: the NextGen Climate Action Committee is running ads calling for people to vote against Republicans in VA on Election Day 2023, and Patagonia is running ads for local and regional climate causes (check out our debrief on their Snapchat strategy here >>>).
What’s Trending on Social Media
How are climate and energy issues being discussed by Americans on social media? Every week, we conduct a robust keyword search using CrowdTangle for general terms like “climate change,” “global warming,” “fossil fuels,” and over 40 more specific topics (like “electric vehicles,” “gas stoves” and “pipelines”). Here were the 10 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 11,400 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 445,300 interactions.
This week was a big week for climate misinformation and disinformation videos on Facebook. Two of the top posts came from Stu Burguiere featuring a meteorologist “debunking” how climate change causes extreme weather and from John Stossel about how climate scientists allegedly celebrate alarmism.
And the misinformation wasn’t limited to video posts. Right-wing news organizations like Breitbart and the Babylon Bee also posted satirical news stories that de-contextualize and joke about pro-climate celebrities and initiatives.
On a different (and less troll-y) note, Yale 360 got a fair amount of engagement on a Facebook post about a niche but important topic: how climate change is affecting evolutionary patterns for birds in potentially harmful ways.
Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 6,300 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 4.4 million interactions.
The top three climate-related posts on Instagram this past week (in order) came from @leonardodicaprio about how climate change is causing amphibians to go extinct, @nemonte.nenquimo about her latest film about the Indigenous guard of Sinangoe, Ecuador who defend their land against extraction, and @bbcnews about how climate change is causing Mont Blanc to rapidly shrink.
Weekly Reading
Want to go deeper? Here’s a quick roundup of news from the past week at the intersection of climate, digital strategy, and advocacy.
P.S. Are you signed up for Climate Nexus’ daily newsletter, Hot News? It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know in the climate and environmental policy space. Subscribe here>>
Shell has been called out for using Fortnite creators in an attempt to win over young people (The Guardian, 10/6)
Why leaning into celebrity culture might be a bad idea for scientists and scientific journals (Washington Post, 10/8)
In a viral post, a climate scientist described the weather data for this past September as “gobsmackingly bananas” (X/@hausfath, 10/3)
That’s it for this week! If you enjoyed reading this week’s issue, feel free to forward it to a friend or colleague.
Climate Monitor is a product of the Digital Climate Coalition + FWIW Media. Tips/comments/questions? Email lucy@fwiwmedia.com