What You Fixate on Twitter is Revealing

On Twitter, people tend to mention and link to things that correspond to their own pet issues. So Bill McKibben tweets a lot about the weather and news of droughts, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Since these tweets are coming from a leading climate change activist, the inference is clear. Similarly, Robert Bryce, an energy writer, often tweets about bad news related to wind power, such as localopposition to wind turbines arising from noise complaints and claims of adverse health effects. Like McKibben's obsessive attention to weather news (the tweets implicitly suggest a link to climate change), Bryce's singular focus on the downsides of wind energy is melodramatic and intentional. He highlights only news that reflects negatively on wind energy, linking to all manner of anecdotal claims of harms to public health that may actually have no scientific merit. In that sense, he mirrors anti-fracking greens who seize on every ...