ClimateNLP: Analyzing Public Sentiment Towards Climate Change Using Natural Language Processing

TL;DR

This paper uses NLP techniques, specifically ClimateBERT, to analyze social media sentiment on climate change, providing insights into public perceptions and influential actors to inform policy and research strategies.

Contribution

It introduces the use of ClimateBERT for domain-specific sentiment analysis of climate change discourse on social media.

Findings

Revealed public sentiment patterns towards climate change.

Identified key entities and influencers in climate discourse.

Provided insights for policymakers and researchers.

Abstract

Climate change's impact on human health poses unprecedented and diverse challenges. Unless proactive measures based on solid evidence are implemented, these threats will likely escalate and continue to endanger human well-being. The escalating advancements in information and communication technologies have facilitated the widespread availability and utilization of social media platforms. Individuals utilize platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to express their opinions, thoughts, and critiques on diverse subjects, encompassing the pressing issue of climate change. The proliferation of climate change-related content on social media necessitates comprehensive analysis to glean meaningful insights. This paper employs natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze climate change discourse and quantify the sentiment of climate change-related tweets. We use ClimateBERT, a pretrained model fine-tuned specifically for the climate change domain. The objective is to discern the sentiment individuals express and uncover patterns in public opinion concerning climate change. Analyzing tweet sentiments allows a deeper comprehension of public perceptions, concerns, and emotions about this critical global challenge. The findings from this experiment unearth valuable insights into public sentiment and the entities associated with climate change discourse. Policymakers, researchers, and organizations can leverage such analyses to understand public perceptions, identify influential actors, and devise informed strategies to address climate change challenges.