11/14/2023
By Lucia Cheney

The Kennedy College of Sciences, Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by Lucia Cheney on “Associations between interactive sessions with the En-ROADS climate policy simulator and other factors on politicians’ public communications.”

Candidate: Lucia Cheney
Degree: Master’s
Defense Date: Nov. 20, 2023
Time: noon to 2 p.m.
Location: Room 115, Perry Hall, North Campus and via Zoom

Thesis Title: Associations between interactive sessions with the En-ROADS climate policy simulator and other factors on politicians’ public communications

Committee:

  • Advisor Juliette Rooney-Varga, Professor, Environmental Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Mathew Barlow, Professor, Environmental Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Arie Perliger, Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Jason Rydberg, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:
The urgency and scale of action required to slow global warming is growing. To encourage effective policies that mitigate global warming, the MIT Climate Pathways Project provides interventions to leaders in government, using the En-ROADS climate policy simulator. This work evaluates the effect of interactive sessions with En-ROADS on politicians’ public communications. Included in this study is a treatment group of 140 politicians who have had sessions with En-ROADS, and a quasi-experimental control group of 140 politicians who have not interacted with En-ROADS. Tweets are collected for politicians in both groups using the Twitter API. Analysis of Twitter data includes the use of a lexicon-based approach to classify tweets related to the causes, effects, and solutions of climate change. Classification models are used to classify climate change-related tweets into a more specific subset of tweets related to the urgency, risk, and scale of climate change. Use of regression analysis found that participation in En-ROADS is associated with significant increases in politicians tweeting about both the causes, effects, and solutions of climate, and the urgency, risk and scale of climate change. Republican politicians and politicians who receive more oil and gas industry donations are both significantly associated with less frequent tweeting about climate change.