Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years

[herding cats]

Source: The Guardian

A newly unearthed missive from Lenny Bernstein, a climate expert with the oil firm for 30 years, shows concerns over high presence of carbon dioxide in enormous gas field in south-east Asia factored into decision not to tap it


ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial.

The email from Exxon’s in-house climate expert provides evidence the company was aware of the connection between fossil fuels and climate change, and the potential for carbon-cutting regulations that could hurt its bottom line, over a generation ago – factoring that knowledge into its decision about an enormous gas field in south-east Asia. The field, off the coast of Indonesia, would have been the single largest source of global warming pollution at the time.

“Exxon first got interested in climate change in 1981 because it was seeking to develop the Natuna gas field off Indonesia,” Lenny Bernstein, a 30-year industry veteran and Exxon’s former in-house climate expert, wrote in the email. “This is an immense reserve of natural gas, but it is 70% CO2”, or carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.
Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change
Read more

However, Exxon’s public position was marked by continued refusal to acknowledge the dangers of climate change, even in response to appeals from the Rockefellers, its founding family, and its continued financial support for climate denial. Over the years, Exxon spent more than $30m on thinktanks and researchers that promoted climate denial, according to Greenpeace.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding

[daleanime]

1. ......

[Nite Owl]

2. Not surprising

This is who we are fighting against, the reason why in the face of documented facts some insist it isn't man made. Money speaks louder to the greed of those with the power to make changes than facts. The very same people who block changes are the loudest in speaking of saving an unborn fetus while they will be the ones responsible for killing our children and grandcihildren. It makes me want to believe in a place like hell.

[snagglepuss]

3. They knew before 1981, of that I am sure because I

remember clearly, the day in 1973 that my English high school teacher told us about green house gases and global warming and said that in our lifetime we would see the arctic melting.


An well-informed English teacher indeed however if he told us that in 1973, scientists must have know about it for sometime.

[C Moon]

4. That is amazing! A smart person, indeed.

[PSPS]

5. Indeed. The Bell System's "Bell Telephone Science Hour" addressed this in a 1958 broadcast.

Here's the pertinent portion of the program "The Unchained Goddess" -- an hour-long piece about weather:

[Android3.14]

11. I remember this from HS in the '80s

We were still watching films that were almost 30 years old.

The OP's story isn't so much a scandal as it is confirmation of SOP that everyone suspected.

[passnobuck]

10. I remember the "ecology movement" emerged in late 60's

About the same time as McCarthy for President, and many women's liberation issues.

Scientists were beginning to weigh the issues of a global human population explosion with the resources of the planet, and looking at possible negative effects of fossil fuel consumption upon the atmosphere.

That's all I remember, (being a non-science major at college back then, and being more concerned with the VietNam war than most anything else at that time). But by the early 1970's, even Richard Nixon had fostered the start of the EPA.

[think]

6. And this will certainly be Morning Joe tomorrow right?

[SunSeeker]

7. Just like the cigarette companies knew they were killing people yet denied it.

Except the lies of the oil companies have even worse consequences.

[JackInGreen]

8. The reasons

We havnt set them on a rail and dumped them in their own cess are beyond me....well...no they're not, but those reasons are assinine.

[CanonRay]

12. Sounds like a time echo of big tobacco

How long ago did they know smoking was harmful...

[daleo]

14. They wrote the book on denial and delay

And they are still going strong.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, herding cats.

[passnobuck]

15. Nixon, 1969 They knew then

In 1969, Nixon advisor Daniel Patrick Moynihan told Prez rise of CO2 threatened to warm entire planet


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/primary-source/nixon-carbon-dioxide-environment