“Liquid trees” to fight air pollution go viral on Instagram
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 Plastics Lobby is running Facebook ads attacking actor Jason Momoa for urging his followers to switch from plastics to recyclable aluminum products
The large-scale ad spending in Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court election included a campaign from one climate group that targeted indigenous communities with GOTV messaging
The Texas State Legislature is attacking renewable energy development via new permitting rules, and a group called Power Up Texas is hitting back and running a new ad campaign to stop the proposed legislation
VP Harris’ trip to sub-Saharan Africa may have been drowned out in an endless Trump political news cycle, but on Facebook, the Veep’s posts highlighting climate change solutions on the continent received high levels of engagement
Several posts about new, experimental anti-air pollution technology in Europe were widely viewed + shared on Instagram 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:
We identified a few new relevant Facebook ad campaigns from industry advertisers last week. Those included these ads from Coca-Cola, which highlight the company’s efforts on water security, and these ads from the Dairy Farmers of America, which highlight how farmers are using more renewables like solar to power their work. Both campaigns target Americans of all ages nationwide.
For context, we should note that Coca-Cola has long been criticized for its water programs and practices around the world.
Meanwhile, the plastics industry via the Essential Plastics Coalition has begun running this bizarre new ad attacking actor Jason Momoa for his claim that recycled aluminum is better for the environment than plastic. They’re mostly targeting Californians with the ads.
On the local level, Wisconsin Conservation Voices ran these ads from its “Wisconsin Native Vote” Facebook page ahead of this past Tuesday’s Election Day in the Badger State. The group spent around $10,000 over the past few weeks targeting indigenous communities across Wisconsin with GOTV messaging.
Farther down south, a group called Power Up Texas is running ads opposing SB624, which is a Republican attempt to restrict renewable energy development in the state. The campaign is using messaging that defends “private property rights” and rails against “big government overreach” in hopes of stopping the bill, which would impose new rules on wind and solar development.
Google & YouTube 🎞️
The climate or energy-related political advertisers on Google that were archived last week included: California Energy and Infrastructure Labor Management Cooperation Trust ($5,700) Coalition for American Jobs ($3,200), Virginia LCV ($2,700)
Snapchat 🤳
On Snapchat, Patagonia began running ads this week in support of the Maine Conservation Alliance, calling on people to protect Maine’s forests.
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 12,500 public posts on Facebook mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 687,000 interactions.
Among the most-engaged posts were several from Vice President Harris, whose recent visit to sub-Saharan Africa highlighted ways that African businesses, civil society groups, and governments are combatting climate change.
The top anti-climate post came from FOX News Host Will Cain. The post criticized climate activist Greta Thunberg, and it was shared over 2,000 times. Facebook later applied a label calling the post “misleading.”
Meanwhile, here were the top-performing feed posts (excluding Reels and Stories) related to climate and energy on Instagram last week:
Last week, over 5,600 public posts on Instagram mentioned climate or energy issues, and they earned a cumulative 3.5 million interactions. Common themes for high-engagement Instagram posts that we see week after week include (1) new technologies to fight climate change; (2) images of the impacts of the climate crisis on wildlife and wild places; and (3) posts about government policy actions. This week was no different.
Several of the top-performing climate and energy posts (from @wealth, @thecompletefacts, and @mindset.therapy) highlighted “liquid trees” – urban “bioreactors” that can combat air pollution via water and algae. Reviews have been mixed.
Other posts with moderate levels of engagement included these two from @impact and @wearebreitbart, which both highlighted Congressional Republicans’ legislation to boost fossil fuel production in the U.S. Check out this side-by-side framing from a right-wing account vs. a pro-climate account:
Testing Spotlight
According to Data for Progress, voters do not want new fossil fuel development prioritized on public lands. Last week, the progressive polling outfit released a new poll in partnership with Fossil Free Media that gauged Americans’ view of Biden’s climate policies, including their views on the controversial Willow Project. The poll also includes good data on how younger voters view the Biden administration in light of its approval of Willow. Dig into the results here >>
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>>
How the climate movement learned to win in Washington (POLITICO, 4/2)
Heatmap founder and EIC wants to do for climate what Wired did for tech in the nineties (CJR, 3/24)
Global hating: How online abuse of climate scientists harms climate action (Global Witness, 4/4)
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