Climate change is an existential threat to nature and humanity. Science is rife with evidence of climate change from erratic weather patterns to global warming and rising sea levels. According to NASA, the evidence of Earth’s warming, a key indicator of climate change, is “unequivocal”. In other words, unquestionable. An article by National Geographic on the effects of global warming cites multiple sources that provide solid evidence of climate change, including rising sea levels. However, as is with any subject of immense interest and with global consequence – COVID-19, for example – there are plenty of deniers peddling disinformation, conspiracy theories, and outrightly false information.
This investigation looks into cases of individuals discrediting climate change, particularly focused on rising sea levels. The online accounts pushing this narrative share misleading and mis-contextualized information intended to poke holes in some vital climate change evidence. Notably, the accounts share images from various locations, including Plymouth Rock, water levels around the Statue of Liberty, Sydney Harbour, and Palm Beach that they claim to prove that the rise in sea levels is false, or even a hoax.
These accounts largely claim that climate change is a hoax, asserting that the sea levels have remained the same over centuries, contrary to scientific assertion. In some instances the posts had been re-shared over a thousand times.
Misrepresentation of The Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock is a boulder located in Plymouth, Massachusetts (U.S.A). The rock is believed to have marked the landing site of pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth in 1620 aboard the Mayflower, a ship that sailed from England to the New World.
Multiple posts online with an image of the rock claim to show it at sea level, 400 years after the arrival of the Mayflower, with the posts claiming that the sea level has not risen in that time, and so climate change is a hoax.
The posts misrepresenting facts around Plymouth Rock started showing up online around July 2022. One notable Twitter account that played a role in amplifying the Plymouth Rock misinformation was that of Peter Clack, which has since been suspended. An article by mediamatters.org, refers to Clack as a “key Twitter climate denial amplifier”. A fact-check by USA Today debunking Clack’s claim that there is no correlation between carbon dioxide and climate refers to him as a “frequent purveyor of climate change misinformation”.
According to multiple fact-checks, for example here and here, the claims that the sea levels around the Plymouth rock have remained the same since 1620 are erroneous since the rock has been relocated multiple times. An article by AP News quotes the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth stating that the rock has been moved at least three times. “Such instances include the rock possibly being raised from its original location in 1749 due to the construction of a wharf, the removal of its top portion in 1774, and later its excavation and relocation onto the shoreline in 1920”. Besides, the claims do not take into account tidal ranges. During high tides, the rock is usually submerged.
According to the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), global average sea levels have risen by over 28cm (8 inches) since 1880 with 8cm (2.5 inches) of that rise occurring since 1993. Much of this is attributed to climate change as a result of human activities. The USGCRP notes that localized rise in sea levels – relative sea level rise – “happens at different rates at different places”. This implies that photos taken at a single place cannot be used to gauge the average global rise in sea levels.
While it is possible many of the accounts re-sharing or posting the misleading information around sea levels rise using Plymouth Rock as evidence may be doing so unwittingly, others may be driving an agenda. One such account is of a user by the name Joshua T. Hosler. The account has been sharing posts that sarcastically scorn at climate change and in some instances referring to climate change as a “con game” and calling proponents of climate change “stupid”.
Joshua Hosler appears to have Right Wing sentiments with a leaning towards Republicans and a hard stance dislike for Democrats. We found this to be a common pattern with nearly all the accounts promoting climate change denialism.
Our investigation found over 1,900 posts on X from 2023 alone using the keywords “Plymouth Rock”, “Statue of Liberty” and “Palm beach” together with “climate change”. About eight accounts drove much of the engagement with the accounts Giordano Bruno (@GioBruno1600) garnering over 170 reposts, Bill Hinds (@billhinds302) over 120 reposts, Vested (@vested_media) over 110 reposts, RG (@DieHard45RG) over 50 reposts, and Martyupnorth – Unacceptable Fact Checker @Martyupnorth_2 also over 50 reposts.
Of the posts we assessed, over 1,000 made reference to Plymouth Rock, with the accounts @GioBruno1600, @billhinds302, @vested_media, @DieHard45RG, @Martyupnorth_2, @DickDelingpole, @LarrySchweikart, and @VeteranTakeBack driving the most engagement. Together these accounts generated more than a third of the total posts expressing skepticism about rising sea levels. At least 800 posts were related to the Statue of Liberty, with a few others making reference to the Sydney Harbor and Palm Beach.
Other engagements resulted from comments with the “Plymouth Rock theory” made in reply to posts by the account Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) cautioning the effects of climate change. Amid the deluge of erroneous posts, a user by the name Gerald Kutney (@GeraldKutney) also generated traffic while attempting to explain why it is erroneous to use still images as a pointer of rising sea levels (or not).
Climate change and Politics
Our investigation established that a good number of the sea-rise skeptics had simultaneously certain political inclinations – an apparent bias towards right wing politics. This is dubiously coincidental. While climate change is undoubtedly a scientific concept, posts by some of the accounts infused political ideologies into the subject. In the U.S., one’s views on climate change ostensibly depends on their political inclination. Interestingly about 30% of all the posts expressing skepticism over rising sea levels and climate change originated from the U.S.
Democrats and Republicans hold varying iews on the threat posed by climate change, with 78% of Democrats holding that climate change is a major threat to the US, while only 23% of Republicans hold the same view.
As if to prove the correlation between opinions on climate change and political inclination, a user by the name Giordano Bruno, who joined X (formerly Twitter) in 2021 and has since amassed over 95k followers, has been constantly publishing sardonic comments about climate change with political undertones, often aiming jabs at Democrats. Such comments can be seen here targeting former U.S. Secretary of State and US Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry; here targeting former U.S. President Barack Obama, and here targeting Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
Similarly, the user by the name Bill Hinds posts sarcastic comments on climate change with political undertones. In some of the posts, this user claims that climate change is “a wealth redistribution scheme” and alleges in another that it is a ploy by politicians to “steal money”, claiming that science cannot prove climate change.
Another account among the top drivers of the sea level rise skepticism, @vested_media, also does not hide their political inclination towards the Republican Party and aversion for Democrats. The account is a fervent proponent of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) ideology, which features heavily in their posts. The same goes for the account @DieHard45RG, with politically charged posts mostly berating U.S. President Joe Biden.
The danger of politicizing an existential and pertinent issue such as climate change lies in the fact that such politicized discourse can misinform the public by using their political beliefs as a way to convince them of the validity of the beliefs they hold. People who identify as “strong Republicans” or “strong conservatives,” and people who report low trust in the government are the most likely to claim they almost never trust the media, meaning that any evidence contrary to their beliefs is likely to be dismissed as ‘fake news’.
While some climate change deniers are genuinely skeptical by virtue of their own belief system, others are simply expressing their political inclination or disinclination. The ensuing exchange may very likely sway the opinions of people caught up in the persuasion struggle, and this is evident in the hundreds of apolitical posts we reviewed from people whose belief in the realities of climate change wavers as a result of the seemingly believable arguments of climate change skeptics. Irrespective of one’s political standing, as a rule of thumb, it is important to draw one’s facts only from trusted reputable sources rather than social media conversations that may be driving an agenda out of vested interests.
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