Although the Earth's surface average temperature is rising since 1850 due mostly to anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions, the existence and the attribution of global warming are sometimes disputed outside the peer-reviewed literature. This article investigates whether climate skeptics' claims are admitted in Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. We carried a case study involving 93 global warming-related articles in Portuguese Wikipedia, analyzing their revision history from the perspective of Actor-Network Theory in two moments (2014 and 2017). We found that while "Aquecimento global" and other highly accessed articles support thoroughly anthropogenic climate change, it was not the case until 2012, long after the question had been settled by scientists; claims disputing the human influence on the climate remain in some articles. The enforcement of Wikipedia policies was crucial to ensure that anthropogenic climate change would prevail and that the collaborative encyclopedia would become a spokesperson for climate science.
Goncalves da Costa, Bernardo Esteves,Cukierman, Henrique Luiz. How anthropogenic climate change prevailed: A case study of controversies around global warming on Portuguese Wikipedia[J]. NEW MEDIA & SOCIETY,2019-01-01,21(10):2261-2282