Is Tuvalu a hot topic on the web?
The cause of Tuvalu is not very present on the main social network, Facebook. Thus, there is a fan page called Tuvalu that has 1,200 likes and a few posts of support.
On Twitter, we can see that our controversy is present, with different ways of framing the issue. The majority of tweets come to Tuvalu’s defense, explaining that it is sinking or that its future is at risk. These people think the sinking of the island is caused by the sea level rise and not by natural erosion.
Some are from important institutions or medias, some are from “normal people”. We can say that Greenpeace or The Guardian have a great influence on the social network, and are a good intermediary for Tuvalu.
Some consider that Tuvalu is not sinking. Once again, this information is shared by serious media outlets like BBC world. They do not take part in the controversy, but they illustrate the fact that there is a controversy around the situation in Tuvalu. What is interesting here is that there are different ways to explain that Tuvalu is not sinking: some say that the sea level is not rising, when some other that the islands are growing, as part of a natural geological phenomenon.
Finally, Tuvalu is also known on Twitter because Katherine, the Duchess of Cambridge and William, the Prince of Wales, are going to travel there, as part of a travel in the Commonwealth countries, or because it illustrates fun facts (due to its small size). Some didn’t even know it existed.
We saw Tuvalu is rather present on Twitter, with the major point of views of our controversy. If it is not always scientific, at least it can help raise awareness about the country or help people discover it.
On Google insight for search, that allows you to see the volume of queries on a subject, we found two important things.
To begin, there is a strong correlation with the query “sea level rise”, as you can see below. This illustrates the idea that the Tuvalu islands and the sea level rise are linked by a great number of people.
Chart 1
The other important thing is the strong impact of the Copenhagen summit for the queries about Tuvalu. Thus, as you can see below, the greatest volume of queries regarding Tuvalu was in December 2009 when the Copenhagen summit was taking place and when Ian Fry cried in front of the other participating countries.
Chart 2
