Canada wildfires drive online climate conversation
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 “natural” gas lobby is up with a new wave of Facebook ads highlighting Biden admin officials in support of gas production
The state of California is reaching Spanish-speaking communities with digital ads urging residents to conserve water
Friends of the Earth aimed to use the recent Canada wildfire smoke to educate Facebook users + recruit petition signatures
Organic post engagement on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram was dominated by posts about the wildfire smoke from Canada last week
Digital Advertising Roundup
Facebook + Instagram 👍
For starters, here were the top 25 climate and energy-related advertisers on Facebook and Instagram last week:
A noteworthy new Facebook ad campaign came from the gas lobby, aka Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future. The fossil fuel industry group launched a series of ads claiming that natural gas had a key role to play in protecting the planet and included quotes from prominent Biden officials like John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. It’s part of a longer-term strategy by the group to convince Democrats and left-leaning Americans that gas is a clean energy alternative. View the group’s ads and targeting information here >>
The fight for clean water was a big topic this week on both coasts. Over on the West Coast, the California Department of Water Resouces spent over $10,000 on Facebook ads in Spanish from their Cuidemos Nuestra Aqua page, which urged Californians to conserve the water from recent storms in anticipation of future droughts this year.
Over on the East Coast, a group called Our Water NJ also ran ads related to clean water: they called on New Jersey Facebook users to sign a petition to increase funding for clean water infrastructure across the state.
And while water was a key area of interest this week, fire was also undoubtedly a hot topic as smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the East Coast. In response, Friends of the Earth U.S., a DC-based climate justice organization, launched a volley of Facebook ads urging users “don’t ignore the smoke!” and referring to extreme events like the Canada wildfires as “the climate crisis in action.”
…and finally, one of the top spenders on climate-related Facebook ads week after week comes from a group called 8 Billion Trees LLC. They spent over $30,000 on a campaign to advertise several giveaways for climate-related merch.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
Climate or energy advertisers archived by Google last week included: Maine Affordable Energy ($1,200) and Evergreen Collaborative ($800).
Snapchat 🤳
There were no new climate-related ads on Snapchat this week.
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 15 top-performing public posts (by # of interactions) related to climate and energy on Facebook last week:
Last week, over 28,000 public Facebook posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 1.3 million interactions. That’s twice as much engagement as the previous week.
It seems like nearly everyone on Facebook was talking about one key climate-related issue last week: wildfire smoke from Canada that engulfed the east coast.
Liberal comedian Trae Crowder shared a highly-engaged video tying the smoke to climate change, while ABC’s The View decried conservative media’s politicization of the event. On the Right, the Conservative Heritage Foundation shared a video assuring Facebook users that the wildfires had nothing to do with climate change, and Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed “the climate cult” for causing the wildfires. Okay, Marj…
The picture was similar on Instagram. Here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 15,000 public Instagram feed posts mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 18.1 million interactions. Most of the top-performing posts pertained to the wildfires.
A post about the smoke from the popular meme account @pubity received the most interactions (upwards of 750,000), followed by @houseofhighlights, @rap, and @nytimes.
While few of these posts directly linked the fires to climate change, this one from @chnge did.
Lastly, one of the most liked and viewed TikToks about climate and energy last week came from @venomvenus which shared an “I told you so” explainer video tying the wildfires to scientists’ warning about climate catastrophes. It’s received over 1.4 million views and 300k likes in just a few days.
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.
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Please, California, let’s not start turning climate change into memes like New Yorkers (SF Chronicle, 6/8)
Fox News runs ads for Mike Huckabee's climate-denial book targeted at children (MMFA, 6/9)
Wildfire smoke reminded people about climate change. How soon will they forget? (VOX, 6/9)
More companies setting 'net-zero' climate targets, but few have credible plans, report says (ABC, 6/11)
Apple TV’s Futuristic Climate Show Is Already Coming True (Bloomberg, 6/14)
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 kyle@fwiwmedia.com