Climate Monitor: July 1st
Looking at who’s driving the climate conversation around the PNW heat wave, and an update on Line 3
Welcome to Climate Monitor, your weekly digest of the digital tactics and strategies that polluters and climate-action groups are deploying online to shift public opinion and move legislation. We’ve examined political ad spending on platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Google by over a dozen groups and corporations from the past week, as well as their activities on social media.
Here’s what we found:
Best performing Facebook post from DCC members: The Years Project
Top ad spenders: Shell, NRDC, NRDC Action Fund, Volvo, API
Oil company Shell continues to spend large amounts of money (nearly $100k last week) on Facebook ads with the hashtag #MakeTheFuture highlighting their “climate target” of Net Zero emissions by 2050. However, big oil was outspent once again by the combined campaigns of NRDC and NRDC Action Fund, which spent around $160k on 1,500 Facebook + Instagram ads in support of the American Jobs Plan and various state legislation.
Below are the top 25 spenders on climate and energy-related Facebook ads last week.
Polluters found relative success online by owning the libs
Climate-skeptical and polluter-friendly Facebook pages got a relatively high amount of engagement on Facebook last week, with pages like the American Energy Alliance, CFACT, and Minnesotans for Line 3 among the top ten most-engaged posts from groups we’re tracking. All three pages were likely able to get higher than usual levels of engagement on their posts because they used a tried-and-true social media tactic for right-wing pages: owning the libs. On the other hand, The Wilderness Society found success on Facebook last week by celebrating recent conservation wins like protecting the Tongass National Forest and highlighting Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s InStyle profile.
Here are the top 10 posts from climate and polluter groups on Facebook last week and the # of interactions each post received:
Here are the top 10 posts from climate and polluter groups on Facebook last week and the # of interactions each post received:
Can Curiosity Kill the Lie?
Analysts at triplecheck looked at familiar misinformation trends against the Green New Deal and other clean energy initiatives from the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Daily Wire, and Sean Hannity. They also discussed a new approach to countering climate misinformation:
As we’ve mentioned before, one way to stop people from sharing misinformation is to remind them that accuracy matters, which is what we do at triplecheck. Another way is to encourage people’s natural curiosity. In a recent podcast, economist Tim Harford said that curiosity was “key” to avoid spreading misleading statistics and other kinds of misinformation. People who believe they are subject matter experts and know everything they need to know about a particular subject are sometimes the most likely to be fooled by misleading statistics. Harford noted that “it’s never been easier to fool yourself. It’s never been easier to put yourself into a bubble…[but it’s never been easier] to get really high quality help – to ask smart questions and go deep.”
Democrats, climate activists ringing alarm bells online as heat crushes Pacific Northwest
CrowdTangle estimates that there have been 12,964 public posts about the heat wave in the past week, with the most-engaged posts coming from news outlets and influencers. Several climate-oriented Facebook pages and Democratic officials, meanwhile, are actively linking the dangerous weather event to man-made climate change, especially Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Jay Inslee.
Here are the top 10 posts about the heat wave from pages other than news outlets and influencers, and how many interactions each post got:
Fight over Line 3 escalates as more celebs call to stop the project
Following news that the Biden Administration defended a decision by the Trump Administration to issue permits to Line 3 in Minnesota, grassroots and high-profile activists alike used social media to keep up public pressure. Activity Instagram in particular over the issue peaked at 174.8k public interactions on June 26th, exceeding the previous peak from the past month on June 6th, when there were 127.5k interactions.
On the other side of the issue, Minnesotans for Line 3, the most vocal online proponent of the project, is growing more intense in its Facebook ads.
That’s it for Climate Monitor this week. As always, log in to climatemonitor.substack.com to see these updates in real time as we publish them throughout the week!
And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop us a line by shooting an email to ClimateMonitor@DCC.org.