Thread by @RARohde

Thread) How many members of the US Congress follow Climate Scientists on Twitter?

Answer: 47

2/ Last year, @KHayhoe created a wonderful list of >2,300 scientists active on Twitter who work on climate-related problems (broadly defined):

twitter.com/KHayhoe/lists/…

3/ On a whim, I decided to compare @KHayhoe's list of climate scientists to the Twitter accounts of the members of the US Congress.

At present there are 100 Senators, 432 Representatives (+3 vacant seats), and 6 non-voting House Delegates for US territories & DC.

4/ Every single member of Congress has at least one Twitter account. Many have more than one (e.g. government account, "personal" account, campaign account, etc.).

For simplicity, I only looked at one account per member of Congress (hopefully the one with the most followers).

5/ This gives 538 Congressional Twitter accounts to compare with the @KHayhoe's list of scientists.

The question I asked is simple, how many climate scientists does each Congressional account follow?

6/ Probably unsurprisingly, most Congressional Twitter accounts follow zero climate scientists.

Of the 538 accounts considered, only 47 (8.7%) followed at least one climate scientist.

7/ The 47 Members of Congress who follow climate scientists on Twitter can be further subdivided:

Senate: 10 Democrats, 1 Republican
House: 34 Democrats, 2 Republican

Not exactly a surprising split.

8/ There are 26 Members of Congress that follow more than 1 climate scientist.

# Followed
19: @amyklobuchar* (MN)
14: @RepJudyChu* (CA-27), @USRepKCastor (FL-14), @RepDonBeyer (VA-8),
9: @RepBarbaraLee* (CA-13), @RepRaskin (MD-8), @davidcicilline (RI-1)

9/ [Continued] Members of Congress that follow more than 1 climate scientist

8: @SenWhitehouse (RI), @RepSpeier* (CA-14)
6: @RepGaramendi (CA-3), @NydiaVelazquez (NY-7)
5: @RepJayapal (WA-7)
4: @RepSwalwell (CA-15)

10/ [Continued] Members of Congress that follow more than 1 climate scientist

3: @SenMarkey (MA), @RepOHalleran (AZ-1), @RepBarragan (CA-44), @RepPerlmutter (CO-7), @RepMcEachin (VA-4)

11/ [Continued] Members of Congress that follow more than 1 climate scientist

2: @BrianSchatz (HI), @RepTerriSewell (AL-7), @DorisMatsui (CA-6), @RepTedLieu (CA-33), @RepTedDeutch (FL-21), @chelliepingree (ME-1), @AyannaPressley (MA-7), @repmarkpocan (WI-2)

12/ These members of Congress (all Democrats) appear to be interested in what climate scientists are saying on Twitter.

* - The four accounts marked with stars each have very large number of follows (>15,000), and so may just be following lots of people.

13/ Of course one can be concerned about climate without following climate scientists on Twitter.

However, it is good sign that some leaders are taking steps to learn more.

Collectively, Members of Congress follow 103 climate scientists. But who are they listening to?

14/ Climate scientists followed on Twitter by more than 1 Member of Congress

# Following
12: @MichaelEMann
8: @PeterGleick, @DanJWeiss
5: @NaomiOreskes, @DrShepherd2013
4: @ClimateOfGavin, @WeatherDem, @HeidiCullen, @EnvPolicyCenter

15/ [Continued] Climate scientists followed by more than 1 Member of Congress

3: @richardabetts, @GlobalEcoGuy, @BeingElenaLA, @ayanaeliza, @hausfath
2: @LeroyWesterling, @JPvanYpersele, @msanclem, @JessicaHellmann, @dan_kammen, @DrAndreaDutton, @SalilBenegal, @ClimateOpp

16/ [Continued] Climate scientists followed by more than 1 Member of Congress

2 [continued]: @blueicehiggins, @KHayhoe, @CAugustenborg, @JayFamiglietti, @ClimateHuman, @MarkEakin, @KathieDello, @rbalesuc, @SunshineMenezes

17/ Congratulations to everyone on that list, your tweets are reaching the hallowed halls of Congress.

Or at least the computer of the staff member who happens to run the Member of Congress's social media. 😉

18/ Before finishing, let's consider a few of the 491 Members of Congress who are not following any climate scientists on Twitter.

There are some rather surprising names here.

19/ The Member of Congress with the largest Twitter following is Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Neither his @BernieSanders nor his @SenSanders account follow any climate scientists on Twitter.

20/ Likewise Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren, @SenWarren), the second-most followed Member of Congress on Twitter, also does not follow any climate scientists on Twitter.

21/ Perhaps most surprising, co-author of the #GreenNewDeal, and Twitter superstar Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC, @RepAOC) also follows no climate scientists on Twitter.

22/ In fact, of all the Members of Congress with more than 1 million followers (@KamalaHarris, @SpeakerPelosi, @RandPaul, @SenSchumer, @SenFeinstein, @RepAdamSchiff, @SenTedCruz, @RepMaxineWaters, @RepJohnLewis, @IlhanMN), only @SenSchumer follows any climate scientists (one).

23/ Of the 22(!) Democratic Presidential candidates, the only ones following climate scientists on Twitter are: @SenBooker (1), @TulsiGabbard (1), @JayInslee (11), @amyklobuchar (19), @WayneMessam (1), @RepSwalwell (4) and @AndrewYang (1)

24/ Of course, Members of Congress have access to many excellent sources of information, and if they aren't listening to climate scientists on Twitter, then hopefully they are still learning about climate change in other ways as they go about their important work.

25/ If you want to learn more about climate, there are many scientists willing to share their insights here, e.g. @MichaelEMann, @KHayhoe, @PeterGleick, @ClimateOfGavin, @GlobalEcoGuy, @DrShepherd2013, @JacquelynGill

Or subscribe to KHayhoe's list:
twitter.com/KHayhoe/lists/…

[correction] I accidentally omitted @ed_hawkins in item 15/. He is also a climate scientist followed by 3 Members of Congress.