Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Suhong Li
Second Faculty Advisor
Gianluca Brero
Keywords
global warming; data science; natural language processing; topic modeling; emotion analysis
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC - BY
Abstract
Global warming has gained increasing attention over the past decade, with public discourse intensifying on social media platforms, particularly on Twitter. This increased discussion stems from political controversies surrounding climate change and the rise in extreme weather events. This study explores the evolution of global warming discourse on Twitter, with a focus on the United States, United Kingdom, and India. This research used a dataset of historical tweets ranging from 2010 to 2023 containing the keyword "global warming." Using natural language processing (NLP) techniques such as emotion analysis, word cloud visualization, and topic modeling (LDA), approximately twenty-eight million tweets were analyzed to explore national and regional differences in perception. The findings reveal that discourse in the United States is marked by political polarization, skepticism, and scientific awareness, while the United Kingdom displays a similar yet more policy and science-driven narrative. In contrast, India’s discourse is significantly action-oriented, emphasizing environmental initiatives like tree planting and cleanup campaigns. Emotion analysis showed higher levels of anger in the U.S. and greater optimism in India. Topic modeling further highlighted these differences, with the U.S. and U.K. centered on policy, skepticism, and scientific data, while India was focused on activism and public engagement. These results highlight the numerous ways global warming is framed and discussed across the United States, United Kingdom, and India, shaped by various cultural, political, and environmental factors.
Comments
This research was conducted to help understand the evolution of global warming discourse and how global warming is discussed and perceived across the United States, United Kingdom, and India. The research aimed to find a more comprehensive understanding of how public discourse differs across political and social environments using social media data.