🙏 We thank the @nessling.fi and @humboldt-foundation.de for supporting this work and our #research.

#science #scienzia #sciencia #ricerca #investigación #tutkimus #forschung #tiede #forskning

🤔 Understanding how social media shapes collective #sensemaking in times of crisis is crucial for improving #communication strategies and ensuring environmental concerns are central to long-term policy decisions.

🚨 Why this matters:

While the energy crisis could have boosted awareness of climate & biodiversity, our research shows that social media dynamics may weaken support for coordinated action. Environmental advocacy faces growing challenges in cutting through the noise.

🗳️ 🙋 Short-lived focus on climate and biodiversity reinforced fragmented #policymaking and “quick fixes.” Social media’s tendency to prioritize immediate over systemic concerns may undermine support for holistic #sustainability solutions.

⚡💸Energy affordability concerns fueled criticism of #decarbonization, amplifying polarized narratives.

📉 During the third wave, sentiment turned negative. Many popular posts became critical of the energy transition, blaming #environmental #policies for the high costs and economic hardship.

📊 Public attention peaked in three waves: energy crisis causes, geopolitical urgency, and energy price surges. Narratives shifted by re-framing climate and biodiversity dimensions of the transitions according to most immediate concerns.

We found discussion to be dominated by #geopolitical and #SocioEconomic concerns, sidelining #climate and #biodiversity. In fact, climate change and biodiversity were barely mentioned, and when they were discussed, it was mostly about side effects of the #EnergyTransition

We collected the #SocialMedia data from #Twitter from 2021 until 2023 and used #Rstats and #Python to perform analyses. We used #IssueAttentionCycle framework with #qualitative and #quantitative approaches to examine how public discussions changed throughout the study period.