ABSTRACT
While prior research was able to show a connection between a conservative political ideology and climate change scepticism for the United States, this has not been the case for Germany. Against this background, a hyperlink network analysis (45,117 nodes/sites, 77,674 edges/sites) based on German climate sceptic blogs was conducted to understand the communities that they form and the role the U.S. right-wing might play for German sceptics. The analysis shows that while there are clear connections between German sceptics and the U.S. right-wing, there are also connections to the left-wing. The chapter suggests that German climate sceptics can be distinguished in two groups: mono-thematic sceptics and general topic sceptics. While the former is mostly connected to other U.S. climate sites, the latter is also connected with far-right sites in separate network communities. This study further shows the connection between climate scepticism and conspiracy theories, which might function as a bridge between the sceptics and the far-right.
