Growing polarization around climate change on social media

Climate change and political polarization are two of the twenty-first century’s critical socio-political issues. Here we investigate their intersection by studying the discussion around the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP) using Twitter data from 2014 to 2021. First, we reveal a large increase in ideological polarization during COP26, following low polarization between COP20 and COP25. Second, we show that this increase is driven by growing right-wing activity, a fourfold increase since COP21 relative to pro-climate groups. Finally, we identify a broad range of ‘climate contrarian’ views during COP26, emphasizing the theme of political hypocrisy as a topic of cross-ideological appeal; contrarian views and accusations of hypocrisy have become key themes in the Twitter climate discussion since 2019. With future climate action reliant on negotiations at COP27 and beyond, our results highlight the importance of monitoring polarization and its impacts in the public climate discourse

Growing polarization around climate change on social media

Climate change and political polarization are two of the twenty-first century’s critical socio-political issues. Here we investigate their intersection by studying the discussion around the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP) using Twitter data from 2014 to 2021. First, we reveal a large increase in ideological polarization during COP26, following low polarization between COP20 and COP25. Second, we show that this increase is driven by growing right-wing activity, a fourfold increase since COP21 relative to pro-climate groups. Finally, we identify a broad range of ‘climate contrarian’ views during COP26, emphasizing the theme of political hypocrisy as a topic of cross-ideological appeal; contrarian views and accusations of hypocrisy have become key themes in the Twitter climate discussion since 2019. With future climate action reliant on negotiations at COP27 and beyond, our results highlight the importance of monitoring polarization and its impacts in the public climate discourse

Molucrum bei Festus und die Zubereitung der mola salsa durch die Vestalinnen

Im Lemma molucrum gibt Festus fünf verschiedene Bedeutungserklärungen, die bislang in der Forschung einzeln betrachtet wurden, häufig unter der Annahme von Entlehnungen aus dem Griechischen. Es wird gezeigt, dass einige Bedeutungen in den Kontext der archaischen Getreideverarbeitung weisen, von der sich Spuren in der Herstellung der mola salsa durch die Vestalinnen finden. Bei molucrum handelt es sich um ein auf einer Vorstufe des literarischen Lateins gebildetes Wort, dessen Basisbedeutung‚*Gerät zum Mahlen, Mahlzeug‘ ist