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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>January 24, 2021</b></font></i><br>
</p>
[disinformation battles ]<br>
<b>Twitter Bots Are a Major Source of Climate Disinformation</b>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">
Such accounts can distort online conversations and potentially
diminish support for climate policies<br>
By Corbin Hiar, E&E News on January 22, 2021<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Twitter accounts run by machines are a
major source of climate change disinformation that might drain
support from policies to address rising temperatures.<br>
<br>
In the weeks surrounding former President Trump’s announcement
about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, accounts suspected of
being bots accounted for roughly a quarter of all tweets about
climate change, according to new research.<br>
<br>
“If we are to effectively address the existential crisis of
climate change, bot presence in the online discourse is a reality
that scientists, social movements and those concerned about
democracy have to better grapple with,” wrote Thomas Marlow, a
postdoctoral researcher at the New York University, Abu Dhabi,
campus, and his co-authors.<br>
<br>
Their paper published last week in the journal Climate Policy is
part of an expanding body of research about the role of bots in
online climate discourse.<br>
<br>
The new focus on automated accounts is driven partly by the way
they can distort the climate conversation online.<br>
<br>
“Twitter bots have been this growing force of evil over a half a
decade now,” said John Cook, a professor at George Mason
University’s Center for Climate Change Communication who was not
involved with the study.<br>
<br>
Unscrupulous actors “have realized how powerful and influential
misinformation can be,” he said. “Twitter bots have been a part of
that.”<br>
<br>
Marlow’s team measured the influence of bots on Twitter’s climate
conversation by analyzing 6.8 million tweets sent by 1.6 million
users between May and June 2017. Trump made his decision to ditch
the climate accord on June 1 of that year. President Biden
reversed the decision this week.<br>
<br>
From that dataset, the team ran a random sample of 184,767 users
through the Botometer, a tool created by Indiana University’s
Observatory on Social Media, which analyzes accounts and
determines the likelihood that they are run by machines.<br>
<br>
Researchers also categorized the 885,164 tweets those users had
sent about climate change during the two-month study period. The
most popular categories were tweets about climate research and
news.<br>
<br>
Marlow and the other researchers determined that nearly 9.5% of
the users in their sample were likely bots. But those bots
accounted for 25% of the total tweets about climate change on most
days.<br>
<br>
The bots were also more prevalent in discussions on climate
research and news. Other areas of focus for the bots were tweets
that included the term “Exxon” and research that cast doubt on
climate science. One such tweet highlighted a Nobel laureate in
physics who falsely claimed “global warming is pseudoscience.”<br>
<br>
“These findings indicate that bots are not just prevalent, but
disproportionately so in topics that were supportive of Trump’s
announcement or skeptical of climate science and action,” the
paper said.<br>
<br>
The proportion of bot tweets was smaller on the days immediately
surrounding Trump’s decision on the Paris Agreement, the
researchers found. That’s because, they believe, people who don’t
often tweet about climate change did so at that time and the bots
were unable to quickly respond to the flood of climate chatter.<br>
<br>
The researchers weren’t able to determine who deployed the bots.
But they suspect the seemingly fake accounts could have been
created by “fossil-fuel companies, petro-states or their
surrogates,” all of which have a vested interest in preventing or
delaying action on climate change.<br>
<br>
Other researchers who study climate conversations on Twitter have
found an even greater prevalence of bot-like accounts. A paper
published last year in the Proceedings of the International
Conference SBP-BRiMS 2020 estimated that 35% of the accounts that
tweeted about climate during the 2018 United Nations Climate
Change Conference in Poland were bots.<br>
<br>
But that paper, from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University,
found there were an equal number of bots that both supported and
cast doubt on climate science.<br>
<br>
Regardless of which side they’re on, bots are an impediment to
curbing the flow of climate misinformation, said Cook, the George
Mason professor.<br>
<br>
“It is important to shut bots down,” he said in an interview.
“It’s really just a matter of social media platforms taking
responsibility and aggressively taking down what are flagged as
definite bots. To me, that’s the bare minimum that Twitter should
be doing.”<br>
<br>
The reason Twitter and other platforms haven’t taken that step,
Cook said, is because there are financial incentives to ignore the
problem.<br>
<br>
“Generally speaking, misinformation is good business,” he said.<br>
<br>
“Misinformation is more likely to be clicked and liked because it
tends to be more sticky,” Cook explained. “And the business model
of social media platforms are likes and clicks and shares: The
more an item gets interaction, the more money a platform makes.”<br>
<br>
False claims about the coronavirus and the presidential election
were some notable exceptions to that rule. Only public pressure
will change the calculations social media companies make around
bots and climate misinformation, he added.<br>
Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC.
Copyright 2021. E&E News provides essential news for energy
and environment professionals. <br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/twitter-bots-are-a-major-source-of-climate-disinformation/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/twitter-bots-are-a-major-source-of-climate-disinformation/</a></div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
- -<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">[From the Journal Climate Policy]</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><b>Bots and online climate discourses:
Twitter discourse on President Trump’s announcement of U.S.
withdrawal from the Paris Agreement</b><br>
Thomas Marlow ORCID Icon,Sean Miller &J. Timmons RobertsORCID
Icon<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Published online: 15 Jan 2021<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">
<blockquote>ABSTRACT<br>
In the early days of social media, social scientists speculated
that it could support democracy because large media
conglomerates could not dominate it. Regarding climate change,
research documents the influence of the fossil fuel industry in
climate denial discourses in the traditional media. Therefore, a
similar hope emerged that a more democratized platform would see
less polarization in belief about climate change's scientific
basis. However, online public opinion about climate change
continues to be extremely polarized, and the social forces
behind it are not well understood. Here, we examine the role of
one proposed mechanism for the systemic polarization and spread
of disinformation in online discourses - the automated social
media bot. This article pioneers the use of bot detection
software on climate change discussion on Twitter, using
automated monitoring of 6.8 million tweets. We examine the
period around the time of U.S. President Donald Trump's
announcement of U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on June
1, 2017. We find that the announcement generated an immediate
online social movement response with very low suspected bot
presence. Prior to and afterwards, however, suspected bots were
responsible for approximately 25% of original tweets.
Additionally, we find that suspected bots were more frequent in
some topic areas than others, including denialist discourses
focused on research questioning the reality or importance of
climate change.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>Key policy insights</b><br>
On an average day during our study period, automated bots produced
an estimated one-quarter of all original tweets referencing
climate change and global warming.<br>
<br>
Bots were more active in some discussion areas than others -
including climate denialist messages.<br>
<br>
President Trump's announcement of the U.S.'s planned withdrawal
from the Paris Agreement generated an immediate online social
movement response with very low suspected bot presence.<br>
<br>
For social media to deliver on its promise of a decentralized and
democratic forum, automated accounts need to be identified,
marginalized, and removed.<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14693062.2020.1870098?journalCode=tcpo20">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14693062.2020.1870098?journalCode=tcpo20</a><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">[Old news from AP from 2019]<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><b>George Mason tightens donor rules
after uproar over Koch</b><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Mason has been the biggest
beneficiary in recent years as the Koch Foundation has increased
philanthropy to universities nationwide.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://apnews.com/article/807149f5a8044bf49e24deadffac72fd">https://apnews.com/article/807149f5a8044bf49e24deadffac72fd</a><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">- -</div>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">[from DeSmogBlog]<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-and-george-mason-university">https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-and-george-mason-university</a><br>
</div>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[desperado - article translated from Spanish edition using AI
technologies]<br>
<b>Bill Gates Wants to 'Cover the Sun' to Help Counter Global
Warming</b><br>
According to a Forbes post, the billionaire is funding a project
that would help dim sunlight.<br>
January 22, 2021 <br>
"You can't cover the sun with a finger", but maybe with science and
technology yes. According to Forbes , Bill Gates is funding a
project that would dim sunlight in order to "cool" the Earth.<br>
<br>
The research called " Stratospheric Controlled Disturbance
Experiment " (SCoPEx for its acronym in English) is carried out by
scientists from Harvard University and has the purpose of achieving
that the sunlight is reflected outside the atmosphere of our
planet...<br>
more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/363963">https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/363963</a><br>
- -<br>
[Source material]<br>
<b>SCoPEx: Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment </b><br>
SCoPEx is a scientific experiment to advance understanding of
stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar
geoengineering. It aims to improve the fidelity of simulations
(computer models) of solar geoengineering by providing modelers with
experimental results vital to addressing specific science questions.
Such simulations are the primary tool for estimating the risks and
benefits of solar geoengineering, but current limitations may make
the simulations look too good. SCoPEx will make quantitative
measurements of aspects of the aerosol microphysics and atmospheric
chemistry that are currently highly uncertain in the simulations. It
is not a test of solar geoengineering per se. Instead, it will
observe how particles interact with one another, with the background
stratospheric air, and with solar and infrared radiation. Improved
understanding of these processes will help answer applied questions
such as, is it possible to find aerosols that can reduce or
eliminate ozone loss, without increasing other physical risks? <br>
<br>
At the heart of SCoPEx is a scientific balloon, fitted with
repurposed off-the-shelf airboat propellers. The repurposed
propellers serve two functions. First, the propeller wake forms a
well mixed volume (roughly 1 km long and 100 meters in diameter)
that serves as an experimental ‘beaker’ in which we can add gasses
or particles. Second, the propellers allow us to reposition the
gondola to different locations within the volume to measure the
properties of the perturbed air. The payload can achieve speeds of a
few meters per second (walking speed) relative to the surrounding
air, generally for about ten minutes at a time.<br>
<br>
The advantage of the SCoPEx propelled balloon is that it allows us
to create a small controlled volume of stratospheric air and observe
its evolution for (we hope) over 24 hours. Hence the acronym,
Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment. If we used an
aircraft instead of a balloon, we would not be able to use such a
small perturbed volume nor would we be able to observe it for such
long durations. <br>
<br>
SCoPEx builds on four decades of research on the environmental
chemistry of the ozone layer in the Anderson/Keith/Keutsch groups.
SCoPEx will use or adapt many of the high-performance sensors and
flight-system engineering experience developed for this ozone
research. Analyzing these experiments will improve our knowledge
beyond what is currently available within computer models or is
measurable with confidence under laboratory conditions...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.keutschgroup.com/scopex">https://www.keutschgroup.com/scopex</a>
<p>- -</p>
[video on SCoPEx]<br>
<b>SCoPEx, Harvard University - New Frontiers in Climate Change
Research</b><br>
Dec 2, 2020<br>
WebsEdge Science<br>
SCoPEx is a scientific experiment to advance understanding of
stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar
geoengineering. It aims to improve the fidelity of simulations
(computer models) of solar geoengineering by providing modellers
with experimental results vital to addressing specific science
questions. Such simulations are the primary tool for estimating the
risks and benefits of solar geoengineering, but current limitations
may make the simulations look too good. SCoPEx will make
quantitative measurements of aspects of the aerosol microphysics and
atmospheric chemistry that are currently highly uncertain in the
simulations. It is not a test of solar geoengineering per se.
Instead, it will observe how particles interact with one another,
with the background stratospheric air, and with solar and infrared
radiation. Improved understanding of these processes will help
answer applied questions such as, is it possible to find aerosols
that can reduce or eliminate ozone loss, without increasing other
physical risks?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_qkmavwE54&feature=emb_logo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_qkmavwE54&feature=emb_logo</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[climates have never been affected by political speech]<br>
<b>Australia PM says no timeline to achieve zero carbon emissions</b><br>
Carbon emissions blamed for Australia’s hotter and drier condition,
increasing the risk of more droughts and bushfires.<br>
Australia’s government is in no rush to sign up to a target of net
zero carbon emissions by 2050, although it recognises the importance
of working towards that goal, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in
an interview published on Saturday.<br>
<br>
Morrison’s conservative government, in a surprise change of policy
last month, said it would achieve its 2030 carbon emissions pledge
under the Paris climate agreement without counting carbon credits
from over-achieving on its previous climate targets...<br>
- -<br>
More extreme heat expected<br>
He added that the timeline to commit to a zero-net-emissions target
will depend on “where the science is at and where our assessment is
based on the technologies”.<br>
<br>
According to the latest climate report from the country’s weather
bureau published in November, Australia is expected become hotter
and drier, increasing the risk of drought and extreme weather events
such as the bushfires that devastated swaths of its southeastern
region in 2019.<br>
<br>
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)’s latest State of the Climate report
blames carbon emissions for the increase in extreme heat, noting
that a hotter Australia will affect the lives and livelihoods of
everyone who lives there.<br>
<br>
Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44 degrees Celsius
since national records began in 1910, the report said. The country
experienced its warmest year on record in 2019, and the seven years
from 2013 to 2019 all ranked among the nine warmest years ever, the
BoM said.<br>
Australia as a whole is also reporting more “extremely warm” days
with 43 reported in 2019, more than triple the number in any of the
years prior to 2000.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/23/australias-pm-reluctant-to-commit-to-2050-carbon-emission-goals">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/23/australias-pm-reluctant-to-commit-to-2050-carbon-emission-goals</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
January 24, 2007 </b></font><br>
<p>"CBS Evening News" provides a sneak preview of the 4th IPCC
report.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/climate-change-cause-effect/">http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/climate-change-cause-effect/</a> [CBS
has removed this file -- so we really don't know if this is true]<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
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