Thread by @RARohde

Thread) About 2 weeks ago, I wrote a thread on which twitter accounts owned by US Members of Congress were following climate scientists on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1126813220772225024

Time for a follow-up.

2/ As a reminder, the premise of the little experiment was to compare 538 twitter accounts belonging to Members of Congress with an excellent list of >2300 climate scientists on Twitter created by @KHayhoe:

twitter.com/KHayhoe/lists/…

3/ In the original thread, I found that 47 Members of Congress had twitter accounts that were following at least one climate scientist.

However, after writing that thread, several climate scientists announced getting new followers, e.g.

https://twitter.com/ayanaeliza/status/1127265168684146689

4/ So, I thought it would be interesting to take second look.

Rerunning the analysis, I now find that 70 Members of Congress are following climate scientist on Twitter, 23 more than 2 weeks ago.

That's a 48% jump. 😁

5/ Obviously, we may be talking about the actions of their social media managers rather than the politicians themselves. But even if it is just their staff, it is nice to see them paying attention to climate scientists and having an interest in building a connection.

6/ The updated breakdown of Members of Congress who follow climate scientists on Twitter is:

Senate:
11 Democrats, 1 Republican
House:
56 Democrats, 2 Republicans

That's a change of +1 Democratic Senator and +22 Democratic Representatives since two weeks ago.

7/ In the previous thread I highlighted all of the Members of Congress that followed more than one climate scientist.

https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1126813228888207360

For simplicity, I am not going to repeat names that didn't change position on that list, but I will mention the updates.

8/ Members of Congress newly following 2 or more climate scientists:

43: @USRepKCastor* (FL-14)
36: @RepCasten (IL-6)
21: @RepRaulGrijalva (AZ-3)
15: @RepDonBeyer* (VA-8)
12: @RepRaskin* (MD-8)
10: @janschakowsky (IL-9)
8: @RepBarragan* (CA-44)

9/ [Continued] Members of Congress newly following 2 or more climate scientists:

7: @CoryBooker (NJ), @RepGaramendi* (CA-3)
6: @RepHankJohnson* (GA-4), @chelliepingree* (ME-1), @RepMcEachin* (VA-4)
5: @RepJoeNeguse (CO-2)
4: @repmarkpocan (WI-2)

10/ [Continued] Members of Congress newly following 2 or more climate scientists:

3: @RoKhanna (CA-17), @RepBrownley (CA-26), @RepJasonCrow (CO-6), @RepLipinski (IL-3), @RepChuyGarcia (IL-4), @RepAndreCarson (IN-7), @RepAdams (NC-12), @RepDebHaaland (NM-1), @NitaLowey (NY-17)

11/ [Continued] Members of Congress newly following 2 or more climate scientists:

3 [continued]: @RepSeanMaloney (NY-18), @WhipClyburn (SC-6)
2: @RepPeteAguilar (CA-31), @HarleyRouda (CA-48)

12/ Accounts marked with stars (*) were following climate scientists during the first analysis but increased the number that they were following during the last two weeks. Names not marked were not on the previous list.

13/ @USRepKCastor, who now leads the list, also happens to be the Chair of the new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis (@ClimateCrisis).

14/ The number of unique scientists being followed by Members of Congress has increased from 103 to 121.

What's more, every scientist I listed in the original thread picked up at least one new Congressional follower. Some gained many, many followers.

15/ Climate scientists followed by at least 3 Members of Congress:

28: @ayanaeliza
26: @KHayhoe
20: @j_zelikova
17: @MichaelEMann
12: @DanJWeiss, @PeterGleick
10: @DrShepherd2013, @HeidiCullen
8: @NaomiOreskes, @BeingElenaLA, @ClimateOfGavin

16/ [Continued] Climate scientists followed by Members of Congress:

7: @WeatherDem, @EnvPolicyCenter
6: @richardabetts, @ed_hawkins
5: @GlobalEcoGuy, @LeroyWesterling, @msanclem, @JessicaHellmann, @dan_kammen, @hausfath

17/ [Continued] Climate scientists followed by Members of Congress:

4: @JPvanYpersele, @DrAndreaDutton, @SalilBenegal, @ClimateOpp, @blueicehiggins, @CAugustenborg, @JayFamiglietti, @MarkEakin, @KathieDello, @rbalesuc, @SunshineMenezes
3: @bobkopp, @ClimateHuman, @RARohde

18/ I'll admit, I'm rather surprised at the effect the original thread had.

Apparently, Congress is listening to Twitter (or at least some of their social media managers are 😉).

19/ As I said originally, Members of Congress (and their staff) have many ways to get information and to connect with experts. Twitter is just one option, and probably only a few will choose it.

However, I hope that all Members of Congress are learning about climate change.

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

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