A new study by BBC News has found that just one week after COP26, the biggest climate event of the year, some non-English language Wikipedia versions contain questionable information on climate change.
Citing some of the content it found, the BBC said Wikipedia lists solar activity as the top cause of China’s rising temperatures worldwide. While it is possible for the Sun to affect Earth’s climate, NASA provides a detailed answer explaining why the Sun is not directly responsible for the current warming.
One of the reasons foreign language Wikipedia entries contain errors is because fewer people edit. Another reason is the lack of a dedicated team of volunteer editors who closely monitor climate change pages, as in the English version of the site.
According to Alex Stinson, senior program strategist at the Wikimedia Foundation, the solution is for more editors with a background in science to speed up and better manage climate change pages in their own language. Stinson stated that more volunteers in different languages can help reduce the number of misinformation by supporting the platforms.
As the number of editors increases in Wikipedia versions in different languages, the probability of private groups having watch pages may increase. Unfortunately, some languages have very few editors and so the problem is very visible on smaller versions of the platform.
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