Climate change is making people angrier online – Are you enjoying it?

h/t Dr. Willie Soon; According to one study, hate speech increases on social media when temperatures rise above 30°C (86F).

Climate change is making people angrier online

New research says hate speech increases on social media when temperatures rise above 30°C (86F).

Via Laura Millan Lombrana
September 13, 2022 at 20:47 GMT + 10

Climate change is making us angrier online. Much more angry.

Hate comments spike on social media as temperatures rise above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), Researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found.

Annika Stechemesser, lead author of the study published in the journal Lancet Planet Health in the first day of this month. “If the temperature is too hot or too cold, we see an increase in hate speech online, regardless of socioeconomic differences, religion or political beliefs.”

Global warming on average of about 1.1°C since pre-industrial times has caused all kinds of extreme weather phenomena around the world. This summer, drought and a series of heat waves hit Europe, China and the US. For humanAccording to research, extreme heat is associated with psychiatric hospitalizations, increased rates of suicide and domestic violence.

And online aggression has also been linked to offline violence. Compromised posts have led to more violence against minorities, including mass shootings, murders and ethnic cleansing, according to the report. Council on Foreign Relationsa consulting organization based in New York.

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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-13/climate-change-is-making-people-angrier-online

The findings of the study;

Temperature affects online hate speech: evidence from 4 billion geolocated tweets from the US

Annika Stechemesser, MSc , Professor Anders Levermann, PhD , Leonie Wenz, PhD

Open Access Published: September 2022https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00173-5

The popularity of hate speech is lowest in moderate temperatures (12 to 21°C), and the number of hate speech tweets increases markedly in hotter and colder temperatures, up to 12 5% (95% CI 8 · 0–16 · 5) for extremely cold temperatures (–6 to –3 °C) and up to 22 · 0% (95% CI 20 · 5–23 · 5) for extremely hot temperatures (42 to 45 °C). Outside of the moderate temperature range, hate tweets also increased as a proportion of total tweet activity. The quadratic shape of the temperature hate tweet curve is strong across different climates, income quartiles, religious and political beliefs, as well as aggregating both the city and state levels. However, The temperature ranges with the lowest frequency of hate tweets focusing on local temperature averages, and how the rise in hate tweets for hot and cold temperatures varied across climates.

Read more: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00173-5/fulltext

Interestingly, the results of the study did not seem to speak for themselves what The Conversation had to say. The study results seem to suggest that hate tweets are lowest when the temperature is closest to the average for the area, which suggests that people feel the least distress when the temperature feels normal for them. their locality. The variation in the magnitude of this effect across different climates is also intriguing.

Even if the study’s methodology and conclusions are correct, and that’s a big if, this doesn’t seem to imply that global warming will make people angrier. Global warming is happening gradually according to the cycle of human time. Most people who move to warm places like Florida don’t get angry often, they adapt – just as people would adapt to any gradual change in the local climate. And if they feel too warm, they can simply turn on the air conditioner, providing the power remains at a reasonable level.