Rodolfo Pérez Orduña’s Post

X/Twitter has become virtually irrelevant as a source of traffic and engagement for us. In preparation for an upcoming board meeting, I reviewed social media engagement data for Mongabay News (news.mongabay.com), the English-language news section of Mongabay (excluding Mongabay-India). The numbers made clear just how much X/Twitter has declined over the past year, even off an already low base. LinkedIn, by contrast, has now become our most important social media channel in terms of both traffic volume and engagement quality. We had largely moved away from Twitter before we lost our main handle in March 2023. While we continued to receive some referral traffic, it quickly declined after Elon Musk’s August announcement that headlines or text would no longer be displayed within article links. With the ongoing exodus from the platform, it’s hard to imagine X recovering as a relevant channel for us. The decline of “Environmental Twitter”—a group of 380,000 users who often discussed climate change and biodiversity conservation—was documented in a study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution last August. Led by Charlotte Chang, the research revealed that a significant portion of “Environmental Twitter” became inactive after Musk’s acquisition: “By April 2023, only 52.5% of Environmental Twitter users were still active, compared to 79.4% of Politics users,” wrote Chang and colleagues. “The changes were significantly larger after Musk’s takeover, with a more pronounced decline among Environmental Twitter users than Politics Twitter.” They noted that “the rapid decline in active users raises alarm bells and signifies a substantial loss for the conservation community,” which includes ecologists, social scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders. For advocates and researchers, the authors said the departure of environmental users from Twitter is a major setback, weakening a primary channel for disseminating information, mobilizing diverse audiences, and tracking public discourse on biodiversity and climate change. 🌈 Despite X/Twitter’s decline, our audience growth 📈 has been robust: Average monthly visitors to Mongabay News in 2024 are up 99% compared to 2023, and up 126% relative to 2022. Note: this data does not apply to Mongabay's other bureaus, Mongabay India, Mongabay-Indonesia, Mongabay Latam, Mongabay Brasil, and Mongabay Afrique. 🔬 Chang, Charlotte H. et al. Environmental users abandoned Twitter after Musk takeover. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 38, Issue 10, 893 - 895. https://lnkd.in/gtJd6585

⭐️ EXCITING NEWS! The paper coauthored by Rui Du, Ajkel Mino, Jianghao Wang and Siqi Zheng, “Transboundary Vegetation Fire Smoke and Expressed Sentiment: Evidence from Twitter”, has recently been accepted for publication in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM). 🔗View paper: https://lnkd.in/gRW8qXTb   This research is a products of SUL's Indonesia wildfire project conducted 4 years ago (with the support from the MIT Indonesia seed fund). We look into the impact of transboundary wildfire smoke on the real-time sentiment (happiness) of Twitter users in Southeast Asia. Our paper shows that cross-boundary air pollution is the primary channel to reduce people’s happiness. The findings underscore the psychosocial costs and geopolitical tensions associated with cross-border air pollution spillovers from such wildfires.   This paper showcases the research collaboration with MIT Center for Real Estate Asia Real Estate Initiative and Climate and Real Estate Research Consortium!   In addition we thank, Juan Francisco Palacios, Zhengzhen Tan, Yichun Fan and Yuchen Chai for the support.

Thinking of doing social media advocacy and you have no idea where to START? Here's a case scenario. Case Scenario: Maya's Climate Advocacy Background: Maya is a 20-year-old college student passionate about environmental conservation and climate change issues. She wants to use social media to raise awareness and mobilize support for sustainable practices and policies. Steps Maya Can Take: Identify the Cause: Maya decides to focus her advocacy efforts on promoting sustainable living and advocating for climate-friendly policies. Choose Social Media Platforms: Maya selects Instagram and Twitter as her primary platforms, as they are popular among her age group and are effective for visual and text-based content. Create a Profile: Maya creates social media profiles dedicated to her advocacy work. She chooses a username and profile picture that reflect her cause and values. Develop Content Strategy: Visuals: Maya creates infographics, photos, and short videos showcasing the impact of climate change and the importance of sustainable living. Stories: Maya shares personal experiences, testimonials, and stories related to climate change to humanize her advocacy. Educational Posts: Maya shares informative posts with facts, tips, and resources on sustainable living and climate solutions. Engage with Audience: Maya interacts with her followers by responding to comments, asking questions, and encouraging discussions about climate change and sustainability. Use Hashtags: Maya uses relevant hashtags like #ClimateAction, #SustainableLiving, and #ClimateJustice to increase the visibility of her posts. Collaborate with Others: Maya collaborates with environmental organizations, influencers, and other advocates to amplify her message and reach a broader audience. Call to Action: Maya includes clear calls to action in her posts, encouraging her followers to adopt sustainable practices, sign petitions, or participate in climate-related events. Monitor and Adjust: Maya regularly checks her social media analytics to see which posts perform best and adjusts her content strategy accordingly.

RE-CONVOS.......... Overview Real estate conservation is the activity of preserving, protecting, and upgrading properties of historical, cultural, or ecological significance. This method assures that development does not jeopardize the integrity of important sites while also meeting community needs and promoting economic progress. - Sustainability: Emphasize environmentally friendly procedures and materials in property maintenance and development. - Heritage Preservation: Ensure the architectural and historical integrity of buildings and landscapes. 3. Community Engagement: Get local communities involved in conservation activities to build a sense of ownership and support. - Regulatory Compliance: Follow all local, state, and federal regulations governing conservation activities. *Benefits* Cultural Preservation: preserves historical sites and promotes cultural heritage. - Economic Value: Increases property value and draws tourists. - Environmental Protection: protects natural resources and biodiversity.buy and manage conservation land. *Strategies* - Adaptive Reuse: Converting ancient structures into new uses while preserving their historical qualities. - Land Trusts are non-profit organizations that acquire and maintain conservation land. - Incentives: Offering tax exemptions or incentives to landowners who participate in conservation activities. Conclusion Real estate conservation is critical in preserving the uniqueness and sustainability of communities. By incorporating conservation methods into real estate development, stakeholders can strike a balance between growth and preservation. #youtube.com/re.convos# #twitter.com/re.convos# #[email protected]# #facebook.com/re.convos#

🚀 We're launching OpenClimate.Fund, a community-driven initiative to support open source projects that address climate change and biodiversity loss. These are among the most pressing challenges of our time, yet open source efforts in these areas remain alarmingly underfunded. While significant resources are being spent on areas such as artificial intelligence and security, the environmental sector is largely left empty-handed when it comes to open source solutions. It's time to change that. 🌉 OpenClimate.Fund aims to bridge this gap by funding an ecosystem built on transparency, trust, and collaboration to advance climate-friendly technologies and measurable environmental impact. 🤔 What can you do? In our first funding round, we’re introducing a “positive snowball system" to empower the community and drive meaningful change. Here’s what you can do: 1️⃣ Identify a high impact project missing in the OpenSustaintech directory. 2️⃣ Submit it through our review process using the Contributing Guide on opensustaintech, which outlines the steps for nominating impactful open source initiatives. 3️⃣ Nominate another project from the opensustaintech funding directory to receive a 100€ funding. 💰 The first funding round distributes 10,000€ in this manner. 👉 Preparing for Round 2 We believe that investing in the right open source projects creates a cascading effect accelerating sustainable transformation. We can not rely on black-box knowledge, because the decisions we make today are so critical. That’s why this first funding round is just the beginning. Our goal is to evaluate and maximize the impact of individual projects. 🫴 Join Us in Disrupting the Status Quo Visit OpenClimate.Fund today to learn more, nominate projects and spread the word with Hashtag hashtag #openclimatefund #opensource #climate #sustainability #climatechange 🙏 Thanks to Andrew Nesbitt from ecosyste.ms, Benjamin Nickolls from Open Source Collective, Michael Scheiwiller from protontypes and Richard Littauer from SustainOSS to make this project happen! 🌐 Read the full blog post on OpenSustainTech: https://lnkd.in/ekDCG7XE 👉 Website: https://OpenClimate.fund

"If the internet was a country, it would be the fourth largest emitter of CO2 in the world," said Charles Howes, CEO of Klatch, a digital marketing company. Klatch analysed the emissions of over 500 of the biggest global sites. Some of the top 50, like Reddit and Yahoo, used fossil fuels to power their servers. Social media platforms like Instagram and You-tube are extremely energy-intensive. I was surprised to see that #LinkedIn is one of the few popular sites with the lowest emissions, along with Wikipedia and Discord. TikTok is said to be the most polluting social media platform, with each user emitting 2.63g of CO2 every single minute, which amounts to a staggering figure of 30.72 KG of CO2 per year. As of 2023, just one minute on Instagram results in 1.5 grams of CO2 emissions per person. When you scale this up to over 500 million users who spend an average of 28 minutes a day on the app, the impact is staggering. This translates to a daily carbon footprint of 21,000 tonnes of CO2 from Instagram alone. I personally use only two social media platforms to connect with people, both professionally and personally. The question remains: What can we do? Business success often relies on increasing traffic, not reducing it. Switching to renewable energy is clearly the way forward. But how close or far are we from achieving this? #socialmedia #sustainability #carbonfootprint

"Derric, your LinkedIn posts aren't very constructive." This is a critique I hear now and again from people I do admire. It's true; my persona on social media is more about calling out the 'glass half-empty.' But that's because there is an overwhelming number of voices in the sustainability profession that just focus on the 'half-full.' No one seems to have an incentive to talk about the empty half, the trade-offs. I imagine doing so might jeopardize future half-full glasses or one's funding or job. And, I get it. So, my voice isn't meant to be "constructive" or optimistic per se. Or necessarily funny. As Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, Michael Ramirez (https://lnkd.in/g4TQZMmb), said, "An editorial cartoon isn’t just a funny picture. A good editorial cartoon is a fine instrument of journalism: It defines an issue. It challenges hypocrisy. It reveals the best and the worst of humanity. It calls the reader to arms against the complacent, the lethargic, the evil-doers, the indolent body politic, the champions of the status quo, the sordid predators of society.” Honestly, I think most folks on this platform “know” what the problems are, and to a degree, they also know the "constructive" answer or solution, more or less, but they lack the agency to do something. I’m trying to give voice to what they (or you) won't or can’t say - which is often calling out the problem itself, publicly. And calling out the barriers to implementing significant and meaningful solutions. Calling out the myriad examples of greenwashing across sectors and actors. But if I must be "constructive," I would say we embrace the profit motive. And, then make social costs, the market externalities, part of the profit equation. How so? Well, I think we need to call out the BS marketing that says we can have sustainable outcomes at cost parity, or close to it, or that we can rely on govt subsidies to nurse us along … No, neither public nor private sector action is going to be significant without both feeling some immediate and proximate uncomfortability in their personal lives and pocketbooks. Likely, we are on a path towards a global climate adaptation government bailout. The short-term incentives for the 1% just aren't there yet - climate mitigation actions or GHG emission reductions are still largely viewed as future legal and reputation risks - not remotely on the minds of shareholders, even those with a longer timeframe of 5 or ten years. Climate mitigation or GHG reductions isn't material to shareholders beyond immediate reputation and legal risks. Just read the corporate responses to the CDP climate questionnaire addressing the "risks of climate change" - future operational risks is not at the top of the list. I say we need to start pulling the levers that matter most to those who can do the most.

Happy Earth Day Folks 🌎💚 Celebrating Earth Day: How Digital Marketing Can Drive Environmental Awareness This Earth Day, let's harness the power of digital marketing to promote environmental consciousness and sustainable practices. From SEO strategies to social media campaigns, learn how your digital efforts can make a positive impact on our planet. #EarthDay #DigitalMarketing #Sustainability

TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform’s environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year. Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, place TikTok’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region. TikTok has 1 billion users worldwide and Greenly’s findings placed its carbon footprint just above Instagram’s – even though Instagram has nearly double TikTok’s user base. The reason behind this lies in the unique addictiveness of TikTok’s platform. The average Instagram user spends 30.6 minutes on the app a day. Meanwhile, the average TikTok user spends 45.5 minutes scrolling. https://lnkd.in/eARrMZTM

https://lnkd.in/gN-9TGXf EU DisinfoLab ISD (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) “Increasingly, conspiratorial influencers who built large audiences during the Covid-19 pandemic have turned to false and misleading claims about the climate and other topics to keep their audiences engaged. They are in turn influencing political parties and shaping discussion on climate policy. When the farmers’ protests broke out, these influencers sought to co-opt them into the “climate culture wars,” framing the complex demands of farmers into a reductive anti-net zero narrative…diverting the conversation into bizarre claims of secret government plots against its citizens — such as wanting to make everyone eat bugs. “Climate is now firmly embedded in the culture wars,” says Jennie. As climate has become a more salient topic, influencers began to experiment with climate themes, she says. “They saw that it was successful and doubled down on that strategy,” adds King, whose research shows that as Covid-19 receded, a vacuum formed in spaces online. “Bad actors flooded into those spaces and weaponized them in pursuit of other agendas, one of which was opposition to the climate movement.” While many influencers built careers spreading misinformation around the pandemic, Alvise is a rare example of someone who has pivoted from online hoaxes into running, and winning, in an election. “Alvise can be classified as a ‘disinformation entrepreneur,’” says Ana Romero Vicente. Much of his activity has been aimed at “discrediting traditional politicians, attacking the government, and gaining personal influence,” says Romero. Even by the standards of the far-right, Alvise stands out for his reliance on lies about his opponents. He has been ordered to pay damages for spreading a hoax about the former mayor of Madrid and posting private photos of a journalist. He also faces several additional ongoing accusations of defamation against other public figures. Even so, his message seems to have resonated with voters exhausted by years of successive corruption scandals and hungry for an outside voice. …extreme online views are spilling over into the real world, with people invading council meetings, issuing death threats, and accusing politicians of being shills for an insidious form of green tyranny that wants to enslave them. “All of this creates the worst possible enabling environment for the kinds of really ambitious and quite seismic systemic forms of climate action that the science says we need to be pursuing.”