Climate Monitor: June 10th
A huge ad campaign from LCV for the American Jobs Plan, Line 3 updates, and more
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: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Top ad spenders: LCV, Volvo, API, NRDC
The League of Conservation Voters launched a huge campaign last week pushing for the American Jobs Plan, which you can read more about below. BP also launched a campaign of their own, running Facebook ads supporting cap-and-invest programs in North Carolina and Connecticut. And, in Maine, a state Chamber-affiliated project has been running Facebook ads against legislation that would allow the state government to replace the state’s two major power companies with a consumer-owned non-profit utility.
Other than that, here are the top 25 spenders on climate-related Facebook ads last week.
Climate groups celebrate Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protection on social media
In terms of organic engagement on Facebook, right-wing content from Turning Point USA and ForAmerica were some of the highest performing posts last week. The top performing post, from Turning Point USA, uses an increasingly common ad hominem messaging strategy among conservative climate deniers, focusing on liberal hypocrisy instead of climate science, something we also saw Line 3 proponents use in recent ads.
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 Instagram last week and the # of interactions each post received:
This past week (5/31 to 6/7), almost 3 million people were exposed to climate misinformation
Analysts at triplecheck reported several vectors for climate misinformation, ranging from remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris, conspiracy theories around Black Lives Matter and the American Jobs Plan, and more:
“There were also multiple tweets promoting the conspiracy theory that the Black Lives Matter movement and efforts to combat climate change are part of a larger effort to undermine individual freedoms and push a progressive social agenda. This week’s tracking also identified a piece in The Western Journal (debunked here and here) that was shared more than 14,000 times on Facebook; the piece stated that Biden’s infrastructure plan was a “wretched mess of bloat, giveaways, and Green New Deal style posturing” that would remove highways already in existence.”
League of Conservation Voters launched large-scale ad campaign in support of American Jobs Plan
In the past 7 days, the League of Conservation Voters has launched a large-scale digital advertising campaign in support of the American Jobs Plan. The organization is targeting constituents of swing-district House members and of several senators in 17 states with the below ads, urging them to contact their elected officials:
An update on the online fight to Stop Line 3
Digital ad spending from proponents of Line 3 in Minnesota seems to have at least plateaued, and climate groups launched new ad campaigns on Facebook and Snapchat.
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.