Abstract. Extreme political populism has been fiercely spreading climate disinformation for years, contributing to a social divide about climate change. In order to profile how both sides of the climate divide communicate climate change, we collected dissemination materials and analysed the mindset of key actors reaching global audiences. Here we show that applying network science to textual content and analysing the emerging reconstructed mindset can support the identification of emotional

more »

... erns linked to a quick and pervasive spread of falsehoods — i.e. an infodemic — such as hypercritical scepticism masking falsehoods under a trustful promotion of change. Climate represents a fearsome threat linked to inconsistent science in climate change infodemics. Change represents a reassuring pattern characterized by trust in climate infodemics, low anticipation without risk awareness, except for some fear about policy changes. For climate activism change is linked to high levels of negative emotions like anger, disgust and fear, related to a perception of existential threats. Furthermore, children are an angering concern in climate infodemics, while climate change activism perceives children with trust and joy, but sadness for their anticipated future.