‘Climate scepticism’ and ‘disinformation’ are not the same thing

According to a quote in a recent article by the environment editor of the Times, I’m ‘the most prominent UK public figure’ whose posts on Twitter related to ‘climate scepticism’ are ‘heavily shared’. This was based on an analysis commissioned by the paper from two researchers at the University of London, Max Falkenberg and Andrea Baronchelli. Apparently, ten Twitter handles account for 25 per cent of the most widely shared sceptical tweets – and mine is one of them!

When the journalist contacted me asking for a comment, I initially took this as an opportunity for a humble-brag: ‘I daresay there’s only a tiny handful of people on Twitter questioning the climate emergency agenda, so if just one person shares your tweet you’re automatically in the top ten for most widely shared.’ But then I realised the journalist did not think of this as a badge of honour. ‘Two researchers have named you in a piece of analysis about climate change disinformation,’ he explained.

Hang on a sec. Disinformation? Falkenberg and Baronchelli were asked to do this analysis because they published a study in Nature Climate Change about the growing polarisation between climate activists and climate sceptics. Looking at Twitter data between 2014 and 2021, they found an increase in the prevalence of ‘climate contrarians’ on the platform – people like me – but the word ‘disinformation’ doesn’t appear in their report other than in a footnote. Nor does it appear in their more recent piece of analysis done for the paper, as far as I can tell. The Times’s environment editor just took it for granted that anyone challenging the evidence that we’re in the midst of a man-made ‘climate emergency’ is guilty of spreading ‘disinformation’.

To be fair to him, he did include a quote from me pointing out that it’s not the fact of climate change that I’m sceptical about, but the claim that it’s anthropogenic.