Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter

British scientists are concerned that the real effects of the climate crisis, such as this wildfire in Alberta, Canada, earlier this month, are not reaching the public. Photograph: Alberta Wildfire/Reuters

Some of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year.

Since then, key figures who ensured “trusted” content was prioritised have been sacked, according to one scientist, and Twitter’s sustainability arm has vanished. At the same time several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about the climate emergency, including Donald Trump and rightwing culture warrior Jordan Peterson, have had their accounts reinstated.