Shifting echo chambers in US climate policy networks.

Lorien Jasny,Ann H Dubin,Dana R Fisher,Anya Galli Robertson,Joseph Mccartney Waggle,William Yagatich,Amanda M Dewey,Judi Hewitt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203463

Abstract

Although substantial attention has focused on efforts by the new Administration to block environmental policies, climate politics have been contentious in the US since well before the election of Donald Trump. In this paper, we extend previous work on empirical examinations of echo chambers in US climate politics using new data collected on the federal climate policy network in summer 2016. We test for the similarity and differences at two points in time in homophily and echo chambers using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to compare new findings from 2016 to previous work on data from 2010. We show that echo chambers continue to play a significant role in the network of information exchange among policy elites working on the issue of climate change. In contrast to previous findings where echo chambers centered on a binding international commitment to emission reductions, we find that the pre-existing echo chambers have almost completely disappeared and new structures have formed around one of the main components of the Obama Administration’s national climate policy: the Clean Power Plan. These results provide empirical evidence that science communication and policymaking at the elite level shift in relation to the policy instruments under consideration.

Highlights

With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, American environmental politics have become even more contentious [1]
The right hand side of the bar chart shows the number of echo chambers for policy actors in our analysis based on their sources of “expert scientific information” and their responses to an attitudinal question that asks them to identify their organization’s position from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” on the statement: The Clean Power Plan should be implemented in every state
It is important to note that echo chambers themselves are value-free and apolitical; their impacts on policy discussion and debate are an effect of the political context and the ideological positions of the actors within them

Summary

Introduction

With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, American environmental politics have become even more contentious [1]. The issue of climate change has been a central focus of debate, with the new Administration halting efforts to monitor and regulate greenhouse gases. Despite a well-documented scientific consensus on the causes and drivers of global climate change, the President and a number of his appointees are well known for questioning the science of the issue. The President’s first appointee to run the Environmental Protection Agency led the state of Oklahoma’s case against the Obama Administration for trying to implement the Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.

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Conclusion