Thread by @RARohde

THREAD) How many Members of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons follow scientists doing climate on Twitter?

Answer: 92 out of 338.

2/ Last year, @KHayhoe created a wonderful list of >2,500 scientists active on Twitter who work on climate-related problems (broadly defined):

twitter.com/KHayhoe/lists/…

3/ Several months ago, I did an analysis comparing this list of scientists to the Twitter accounts of the members of the US Congress:

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

4/ At the time @KHayhoe asked if I could also do a similar comparison with Members of the Canadian Parliament.

Now I have finally gotten around to doing that.

5/ The Twitter accounts belonging to members of the House of Commons in the recently concluded 42nd Federal Parliament of Canada were taken from a list compiled by CJPAC:

twitter.com/CJPAC/lists/ca…

6/ Examining who these Canadian Parliamentarians follow on Twitter, we find that 92 of 338 Members of Parliament follow at least one person on @KHayhoe's list of scientists who work on climate issues.

7/ Of the listed scientists, the ones most commonly followed by the Canadian Parliament are:

56(!): @andrew_leach
15: @GeraldKutney, @KHayhoe
9: @LetsFishSmarter
7: @LynneQuarmby, @MichaelEMann
5: @tqmurdock, @corrine_cash, @ghoberg, @simondonner, @jjkirton, @ChelseaRochman

8/ I don't know how @andrew_leach, a professor specializing in the economics of energy and environmental issues, managed to get 56 members of the Canadian Parliament to follow him, but that is quite impressive.

For 22 Parliamentarians, he is the only climate person they follow.

9/ The Canadian Parliamentarians following the most scientists working on climate are:

21: @cathmckenna
20: @ElizabethMay
11: @joycemurray
10: @nathancullen
9: @kenthehr
8: @alexboulerice, @beynate
7: @CanningsNDP, @TonyclementCPC, @paulmanly, @pierrenantel

10/ It is not exactly surprising that the highest number of climate follows belong to @cathmckenna, Canada'a Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and @ElizabethMay, the Head of Canada's Green Party.

11/ Noteworthy, @ElizabethMay is the only head of a political party represented in the 42nd Parliament that uses Twitter to follows any of the 2500 scientists on @KHayhoe's list.

For example, @JustinTrudeau and @AndrewScheer don't follow any climate scientists on Twitter.

12/ By party, 57 of the 177 Liberals (32%) follow at least one climate scientist. Compared to 14 of 95 Conservatives (14%), 13 of 39 NDP (33%), 1 of 10 Bloc Québécois (10%), and 2 of 2 Green (100%).

Green, NDP, and Liberal are most likely to follow multiple climate scientists.

13/ Of course, anyone could be concerned about climate without following climate scientists on Twitter.

Not everyone chooses to use Twitter as a 2-way medium, but it is interesting when politicians (or their staffs) do chose to use Twitter to gather information.

14/ Regardless, Members of Parliament 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.