Project Summary: Climate change is a fascinating case for research into:

Thursday, April 20, 2023 1The Institute for Science and Society

A corpus-based analysis of the debate around climate change in online user comments

Dr Luke Collins

From Greenhouse Effect to Climategate: A systematic study of climate change as a complex social issue.

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Project Summary:

Climate change is a fascinating case for research into:

the relation between science and society

the dynamics of communication

the emergence and development of protest movements

a systematic, comparative study of the dynamics of social change and human responses to

social change.

What is the role of language (and especially of metaphor)?

What are the social representations surrounding climate change and how are they formed?

What role do social and technological networks play in this process?

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Views on anthropogenic climate change:

denialists

skeptics

contrarians

alarmists

warmists

lukewarmists

catastrophists

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Online journalism and democracy

The “enhancement of communal spirits and values” or the “facilitation of rational discourse in the public sphere”

(Dahlberg, 2001: 158).

The shift from journalism as a ‘lecture’ to a ‘conversation’ (Gillmor, 2003).

However:

some scholars suggest that the freedom and openness associated with online discourse has actually led to a

fragmentation of public space (Sunstein, 2001).

It is suggested that the space for freedom of expression has led to polarized and extreme views.

Painter (2011: 5) observes that “climate change has become (to different degrees) more of a politicised issue, which

politically polarised print media pick up on and reflect”.

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Deliberation

“a political process through which a group of people carefully examines a problem and arrives at a

well-reasoned solution after a period of inclusive, respectful consideration of diverse points of view”

Manosevitch and Walker (2009: 8).

Interactivity

Multiple-to-one asynchronous interaction

Hypertextuality: hyperlinks and multimedia content (text, videos, images)

Online newspapers can be modified in response to user comments.

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Title Author Date Comments

That snow outside is what global warming looks likehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/uk-snow-global-warming?INTCMP=SRCH

George Monbiot 20/12/2010 1679

The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's workinghttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/07/climate-change-denial-industry?INTCMP=SRCH


Global warming rigged? Here's the email I'd need to seehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/23/global-warming-leaked-email-climate-scientists?INTCMP=SRCH


The trouble with trusting complex sciencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/mar/08/belief-in-climate-change-science?INTCMP=SRCH


That sleighbell winter? It's all part of climate change denialhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/02/sleighbell-winter-climate-change-denial?INTCMP=SRCH


‘Climate change’ articles from The Guardian:

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Corpus Linguistics:

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Corpus Linguistics:

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Corpus Linguistics:

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Semantic Tagging:

453 sub categories

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Semantic Tagging:‘excited’

X Psychological states and processes

X5 Attention

X5.2 Excited/Energetic

X5.2+ ‘excited’

X5.2- ‘apathetic’

‘jump_on_the_bandwagon’

S Social actions, states and processes

S1.1.3 Participation

S1.1.3+ ‘jump_on_the_bandwagon’

S1.1.3- ‘bunk_off’

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Grammatical Tag (CLAWS) Semantic Tag (USAS)

PPIS1 1st person sing. subjective personal pronoun (I) I Z8 Pronouns

VV0 base form of lexical verb (e.g. give, work) like E2+ Like

AT1 singular article (e.g. a, an, every) a Z5 Grammatical Bin

JJ General adjective particular A4.2+ Detailed

NN1 singular common noun (e.g. book, girl) shade O4.3 Colour and Colour Patterns

IO of (as preposition) of Z5 Grammatical Bin

NN1 singular common noun (e.g. book, girl) lipstick B4 Cleaning and Personal Care

04/20/23 Event Name and Venue 16

Broad semantic comparisons:

‘Climate change’ articles from The Guardian and The Daily Mail

3 discussion threads with the highest number of comments

Top 10 semantic categories for each discussion thread

Recurring topics within discussion threads prompted by articles on climate

change (The Guardian vs. The Daily Mail)

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Top Semantic categories: The Guardian The Daily Mail

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W4 Weather

Climate [430], weather [176], snow [67], snowfall [12], cloud [12], wind [11], heatwave [9], climatic [8]…

O4.6+ Temperature: Hot / on fire

Warming [361], warm [50], heat [45], hot [34], hotter [28], hottest [27], heating [14]…

Y1 Science and technology in general

Science [139], scientists [81], scientific [77], scientist [18], physics [9], GM [8], scientifically [6], nuclear [6]…

A5.2+ Evaluation: True

Evidence [102], fact [59], true [40], in_fact [34], facts [29], truth [20], proof [16], prove [14], credible [11], proven [11]…

Z3 Other proper names

AGW [166], the_sun [29], andyjr75 [22], Gaia [21], Nasa [20], IPCC [19], Bluecloud [19], gourdonboy [19], guardian [16]…

O4.6- Temperature: Cold

Cold [140], cooling [50], freezing [23], cooler [10], freezes [10], frozen [9], freeze [8], cool [6]…

A3+ Existing

Is [1066], are [385], be [322], ‘s [252], was [174], been [87], were [73], being [57], am [53], ‘m [38], ‘re [29], events [27]…

A2.2 Cause&Effect/Connection

Why [182], effect [43], cause [42], due_to [39], because_of [34], based_on [33], result [32], caused [28], effects [23]…

O4.6 Temperature

Temperature [99], temperatures [67], thermometers [5], thermal [4], melted [3], temperature_based [2]…

Z6 Negative

Not [503], n’t [444], no [166], nothing [25], nor [10], none [9], neither [8], negative [6], no-one [4], no_such [4], non [3], not_really [2]…

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W4 Weather












A3+ Existing




O4.6 Temperature


Z6 Negative


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W4 Weather












A3+ Existing




O4.6 Temperature


Z6 Negative


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W4 Weather












A3+ Existing




O4.6 Temperature


Z6 Negative


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W4 Weather












A3+ Existing




O4.6 Temperature


Z6 Negative


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Key themes in context: the process of ‘cluster tagging’

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W4 Weather






A3+ Existing


O4.6 Temperature

Z6 Negative

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W4 Weather






A3+ Existing


O4.6 Temperature

Z6 Negative

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Sampling:

Comments Words

Original discussion thread: 1679 163 180

10 key categories: 17 (1.01%) 5 264 (3.23%)

9 of 10 key categories: 64 (3.81%) 16 451 (10.08%)

8 of 10 key categories: 159 (9.47%) 36 103 (22.12%)

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‘Heteroglossic engagement’: describes utterances which engage with dialogic alternatives.

White’s (2003) taxonomy of intersubjective stance

‘Dialogically contractive’

Disclaim:

to Deny: “New or tougher legislation is not going to solve the problem”

to Counter: “But we already possess laws against threatening behaviour”

Proclaim:

to Endorse: “As Hastie so compellingly argued..”.

to Concur: “The Premier, of course, wants us to think..”

to Pronounce: “I would contend that this enviable level of tolerance..”

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‘Heteroglossic engagement’: describes utterances which engage with dialogic alternatives.

White’s (2003) taxonomy of intersubjective stance

‘Dialogically expansive’

Entertain:

“If we are really witnessing an increase in racial intolerance, perhaps it is time..”

Attribute:

to Acknowledge: “the Premier has stated that tougher anti-racial hatred laws..”

to Distance: “the Commissioner and her comrades claim that..”.

‘Justification’ (‘modal consequentiality’):

looking to validate or explain a stance position.

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Thewrongstuff 23 December 2010 11:20am 8

It’s not illogical.

As that post said, AGW is about an increase in average global temperatures that is being caused by human factors/activity (increasing the

amount of CO2 in the atmosphere) and nothing else. There is a natural warming and cooling cycle (which is why there have been ice ages and

not-ice ages) and the Earth is currently on the warming part of the cycle, but human factors/activity is making that warming more rapid than it

would usually be.

As deconvoluter said above, the controversy starts when you start trying to predict how this extra warming/additional energy in the atmosphere

will affect the climate and the weather. It’s controversial because prediction is an inexact science and something like the precautionary

principle is always go to be controversial because you’re asking to people to take action to avoid something that might not actually happen.

A lot of scientists think the effect of the extra warming will be bad overall; that is, AGW will lead to adverse climate change and weather. AGW

and "climate change" are not referring to the same thing (I've no idea how that conflation happened); one is caused by the other, and nobody

would be bothered about it (climate change) if it could be proven that the risk of it being bad overall was zero.

If the atmosphere could be compared to a pan of boiling water, then AGW would be like turning up the heat a bit and climate change would be

the more turbulent boiling and extra steam or whatever. Some parts of the Earth will end up being colder; some parts will end up being hotter,

and the weather is more likely to be chaotic as a consequence of more energy being in the system/atmosphere. And colder winters in some

parts of the world (followed by hotter summers) are an example of extreme weather.

Extreme (cold) weather won’t falsify AGW; as others have said, falsifying AGW would involve proving that average global temperatures are not

rising and that somehow proving that de-vegetating most of the planet and burning massive quantities of fossiled carbon and hydrocarbons

cannot alter the composition of the atmosphere so that the rate of heat transfer from the Earth to space is reduced (the heat isn’t trapped; it

just takes longer to get out = warming).

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would usually be.

As deconvoluter said above, the controversy starts when you start trying to predict how this extra warming/additional energy in the

atmosphere will affect the climate and the weather. It’s controversial because prediction is an inexact science and something like the

precautionary principle is always go to be controversial because you’re asking to people to take action to avoid something that might not

actually happen.








Extreme (cold) weather won’t falsify AGW; as others have said, falsifying AGW would involve proving that average global temperatures are

not rising and that somehow proving that de-vegetating most of the planet and burning massive quantities of fossiled carbon and hydrocarbons



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would usually be.




A lot of scientists think the effect of the extra warming will be bad overall; that is, AGW will lead to adverse climate change and weather.

AGW and "climate change" are not referring to the same thing (I've no idea how that conflation happened); one is caused by the other, and

nobody would be bothered about it (climate change) if it could be proven that the risk of it being bad overall was zero.









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would usually be.



principle is always go to be controversial because you’re asking to people to take action to avoid something that might not actually

happen.












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would usually be.




happen.












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would usually be.




happen.












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would usually be.




happen.




If the atmosphere could be compared to a pan of boiling water, then AGW would be like turning up the heat a bit and climate change

would be the more turbulent boiling and extra steam or whatever. Some parts of the Earth will end up being colder; some parts will end up

being hotter, and the weather is more likely to be chaotic as a consequence of more energy being in the system/atmosphere. And colder

winters in some parts of the world (followed by hotter summers) are an example of extreme weather.





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As that post said, AGW is about an increase in average global temperatures that is being caused by human factors/activity (increasing

the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere) and nothing else. There is a natural warming and cooling cycle (which is why there have been ice

ages and not-ice ages) and the Earth is currently on the warming part of the cycle, but human factors/activity is making that warming more

rapid than it would usually be.











Extreme (cold) weather won’t falsify AGW; as others have said, falsifying AGW would involve proving that average global temperatures are

not rising and that somehow proving that de-vegetating most of the planet and burning massive quantities of fossiled carbon and hydrocarbons



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User Comments Aggregate %

JBowers 99 5.90

ElliottCB 62 9.59

Bluecloud 61 13.22

HypatiaLee 57 16.62

georgecoldwell 39 18.94

truthisforever 34 20.96

andyjr75 32 22.87

porgythecat 29 24.60

gourdonboy 28 26.27

turningtide 27 27.87

Of 558 different contributors 363 (65%) only commented once.

User CommentsReference

s

andyjr75 32 24

Bluecloud 61 22

gourdonboy 28 19

JBowers 99 15

georgecoldwell 39 15

macsporan 22 15

HypatiaLee 57 15

derekbloom 7 14

Simongah 8 12

euangray 18 8

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Looking for potential for deliberation and interactivity

‘Dialogically contractive’ vs. ‘dialogically expansive’

‘Dialogical expansion’ allows alternative views to contribute

Encourage more ‘dialogic expansion’ as part of the deliberate process

Acknowledge uncertainties

Summary:

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Corpus linguistics can identify (interactional) patterns in the discussion thread

Semantic grouping identifies key themes in the discussion thread

‘Cluster tagging’ identifies key comments in the thread

Can be used to extract a key sample

Condenses the data in order to make multiple comparisons

Applied to:

interview transcripts with IPCC contributors to discern key quotes

Tweets

Summary:

Documents

Project Summary: Climate change is a fascinating case for research into: