Can you bee-lieve it’s the last day of #MediaLitWk? We’re closing out the week with a twitter thread fact-check. Big shout out to @ohbikepilot for alerting us to this claim by using #isthislegit. Let’s get started! 
https://twitter.com/ohbikepilot/status/1184125744110280704
First thing’s first. Who is behind the information? It’s hard to say who’s behind the Physics and Astronomy Zone account. We went straight to the site - NO byline & NO helpful info on the site 🚩🚩🚩.
The article hyperlinked just one source...a Spanish site🤔. We translated the article and learned — it was @earthwatch_org who declared the bee as the most important species on the Earth.
We then typed “bee most important living being” into a Google #keywordsearch. We got a lot of results and decided to focus on an article from @guardian, which said that the Earthwatch Institute made this declaration 11 years ago during its annual debate.
At the debate, five scientists argued which species was the most important, and the AUDIENCE voted. theguardian.com/environment/bl…
We did another #keywordsearch of “Earthwatch debate.” From this website, it looks like there was a 2019 event. The topic of discussion wasn’t endangered species, but rather if veganism can save the planet. That event was back in March. oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-eve…
Overall, the post NEEDS CONTEXT. While the bee was voted the most important species during an Earthwatch debate, it was determined by AN AUDIENCE VOTE. Sites reporting on this are 11 years late to the party.
Share the fact-check with a friend and let us know if they think the bee is the most invaluable species too!
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