Photo: Shutterstock This is revealed in the annual overview of media attention for climate science published on the CarbonBrief website. The publication concerned was (co)authored by professor of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Marten Scheffer. The article, entitled Future of the human climate niche, was published in the American PNAS journal in the spring.
Drifting
The publication maps how climate change affects the flow of migration across the globe. Humans thrive within certain constant temperature thresholds. Global warming causes that area to shift. According to Scheffer, 3.5 billion people will live under Sahara-conditions within half a century. Many will become drifters in search of better conditions.
Within the scientific world, the article didn’t cause much upheaval. So far, the publication was cited 27 times by peers, peanuts, considering Scheffer’s track record. His most cited article scores over 5000 citations. This does not mean much, though, the niche-publication is still fresh.
Altmetric
However, the article got a lot of attention in the popular media, as is shown by the publication’s Altmetric-score. This score represents the attention it received in traditional media and social media. Here, the article was cited over 3700 times, mostly on Twitter. Almost all major newspapers wrote about Scheffer’s (et al.) ‘thought experiment’.
The number one most cited article is -naturally- a COVID-related scientific publication that discusses the CO2-reduction resulting from the corona pandemic. This publication received twice the attention Scheffer’s article did. Resource also wrote about Scheffer’s paper, that article is still available here.
