Social media and conspiracies: researchers in POLITICO

"It was an unexpected call from POLITICO," said Ramit Debnath, researcher at the University of Cambridge this week. "We ended up talking about how conspiracy spillover and social feedback loops shape outcomes for emerging and lesser-known climate technologies like weather modification."

It came in light of a campaign to "shape the conversation" on sunlight reflection methods, led by some who, according to author Corbin Hair, "dispute mainstream climate science and espouse unfounded assertions that airplanes are being used to spray communities with toxins." The group has launched social media campaigns and podcasts to spread their message.

Debnath, in a 2023 study, analysed over 800,000 tweets with the hashtag "geoengineering" and found significant spillover with conspiracy theories. These narratives, which conflate a number of ideas including "chemtrails", can make conversations on ongoing research more complicated. There is also advantage, he said, to influencers posting particularly "jaw-dropping" ideas.

“Irrespective of whether it’s about geoengineering or anything else, it’s more about spreading the network and spreading the attention economy,” Debnath told POLITICO. “You get a critical mass to listen to you, to support you.”

With research expanding across the field of solar geoengineering, there is an increasing need to foster balanced conversations on the genuine work at hand. As Debnath wrote on LinkedIn today, "lack of knowledge and appropriate science communication is often filled by misinformation about the unknowns."

Read more about Debnath's work at the Centre for Climate Repair. Access the full article from POLITICO.