Thread by @DrTELS

New paper out this week @ELSenviron led by @feliciahmliu. We discuss the many contrasting narratives of oil palm plantation sustainability issues in the media of Indonesia, Malaysia, & Singapore. [1/]
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1bbrp5Ce0rdV…

We revisit the media coverage of the 2016 @peatlandsociety congress, held in Kuching, Malaysia. Many scientists were surprised by how the congress was heralded as a 'green light' for the development of tropical peatlands. [2/]

It was headlines like these that were most concerning. Having sat through days of science presentations, many of which highlighting unsustainable deforestation, drainage, and plantation practices; the headlines did not seem to reflect the content of the conference. [3/]

Over the following month, no fewer than 139 scientists from the conference responded by writing a Letter to the Editor of @GlobalChangeBio warning that such denialism of unsustainable practices would have devastating consequences @LahiruWijedasa [4/]
Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

This letter generated its own media coverage, but notably from different media outlets from those who had initially pushed the denialist narratives [5/]
@mongabay: news.mongabay.com/2016/10/139-sc…

In our paper, we analyse all news media articles that covered both the conference and the response letter from the 139 scientists. We identify 4 narratives of denialism that were constructed by certain elements of the press. These were:
[6/]

(I) Endorsement of divergent knowledge, that state- or industry-funded 'research’ holds scientific credibility;
(II) undermining credibility of peer-reviewed science, & that scientists are politically driven to criticise the environmental footprint of the oil palm industry; [7/]

(III) framing dubious claims as science, that it is sustainable to plant oil palm on tropical peat (e.g. better for the environment than a peatswamp forest);
(IV) the economic case that plantation on tropical peat is the only way to develop Malaysian/Indonesian economies. [8/]

We found a remarkable similarity between denialism of the peatland development issue and narratives of climate change denialism in the US @redunlap1 @KHayhoe. This denialism may present a significant barrier to finding solutions to forest loss, GHG emissions, fires, and haze [9/]

Free access link to the article [for 49 more days]: authors.elsevier.com/a/1bbrp5Ce0rdV…
[10/10]

Oh, and this is how we mapped the four peatland development media narratives onto the Elsasser & Dunlap (2013) climate change denialism narratives. [11/10]