The Spanish population’s interest in climate change based on Internet searches

Abstract

AbstractThe climate crisis is one of the most important global problems facing humanity. Analyzing the search for information on climate change (CC) on the internet can be a predictor of public interest in this problem and, therefore, of the degree of concern exhibited by citizens. This study analyzes the interest in CC among the Spanish population and identifies some variables that may influence this interest. The methodology involves the collection and analysis of data obtained from SEMrush and Google Analytics. We analyzed the search trends of four key descriptors related to CC (“climate change,” “global warming,” “climate emergency” and “greenhouse effect”) during two periods of time, and the relationship between these searches and three relational variables (volume of news in the media, occurrence of extreme weather events and CC-related events). The results indicate that the Spanish population’s interest in CC via the Internet has increased in recent years and is directly influenced by variables such as media coverage of CC, events related to CC, and social pressure exerted by social movements for CC. Some proposals are discussed and presented in relation to the concern for this problem.