Elon Musk, the rich owner of Twitter, incorrectly claimed that farming has no significant impact on the climate, causing academics to issue corrections and raising concerns about misinformation on the prominent social media platform.
Musk stated in a late June tweet that “what happens on Earth’s surface (eg farming) has no meaningful impact on climate change.” He went on to say that the risk of climate change was largely caused by the release of carbon from deep beneath into the atmosphere. “If we continue to do this, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere will change sufficiently to cause meaningful climate change.”
Scientists immediately pointed out that he is incorrect on two counts. First, between 2010 and 2019, greenhouse gas pollution from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses accounted for 13-21% of world emissions. Second, people have warmed the earth by 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit), making extreme weather events such as coastal flooding and heat waves stronger and more likely.
In response to Musk, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a global research organization based in Austria, tweeted, “Human activities, principally through greenhouse gas emissions, have unquestionably caused global warming.”
Musk, a prominent figure with 145 million Twitter followers who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has frequently supported conspiracy theories since purchasing the platform in October. His recent targets have included billionaire benefactor George Soros, a frequent subject of antisemitic abuse; Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party leader in the United States; and the investigative journalism outfit Bellingcat.
“I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of doing that is losing money, so be it,” said Musk in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC in May after being challenged on his engagement with conspiracy theories and its effect on Twitter’s advertising revenue.
On June 27, DW sent a comment request to Twitter’s press office, which received an automatically generated response of a harsh emoji. Since widely announced cutbacks within its communication team earlier this year, this appears to have become the social media company’s normal response to media inquiries.
