Scientists use TikTok to explain, fight climate change
With his moustache caked in icicles and frozen droplets, glaciologist Peter Neff shows his 220,000 TikTok followers a sample of old ice excavated from Antarctica's Allan Hills.
The drop-shaped fragment encapsulates tiny air bubbles, remnants of 100,000-year-old atmosphere.
The greenhouse gases trapped inside carry precious information on Earth's past climate, explains @icy_pete as he brings the translucid nugget closer to the camera.
A growing number of scientists are leveraging the short-form video app TikTok to boost literacy on climate change, campaign for action or combat rampant disinformation online.
Some have gone viral on one of Gen Z's favourite platforms.
"TikTok allows me to give people a lens through which they can embody the experience of being a climate scientist in Antarctica," Neff told AFP.
"I share my insider perspective on how we produce important records of past climate without having to spend too much time on editing and playing all the games to make perfect content."
Neff is one of 17 tiktokers and instagrammers listed in the 2023 Climate Creators to Watch, a collaboration between startup media Pique Action and the Harvard School of Public Health.
- 'We have a responsibility' -
Some experts are also using the platform as a megaphone for climate action.
NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus started posting videos on the platform after he was arrested in a civil disobedience action organised by the Scientist Rebellion group in Los Angeles in April 2022.
"When you engage in civil disobedience, you're taking a risk in order to try to have a positive benefit on society," Kalmus told AFP.
"So you want that civil disobedience action to be seen by as many people as possible."
Kalmus's most viral
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