Documents Show Chapter & Verse How Exxon Cut Research Funding In 1980s, And Why

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Exxon's pivoting from the cutting edge of early climate change science to the forefront of climate denial was described in a six-part series published by InsideClimate News beginning in September, based largely on primary sources including Exxon's own internal documents. Similar findings were reached independently by a team based at the Columbia Journalism School in partnership with the Los Angeles Times.

Exxon spokesman Ken Cohen has questioned ICN's reporting that the company "curtailed" its research program after a few years of unusually advanced experiments and modeling work in the 1980s. But several documents uncovered by ICN show that the budget cuts during the 1980s were steep and sudden. The cuts reversed the course that the company followed in the late 1970s, when top company scientists warned Exxon's management for the first time of the risks of climate change, and launched internal research programs unparalleled among its oil industry peers.

ICN provided an Exxon spokesman copies of the documents being published today and requested any additional information about climate research spending during the 1980s, the period closely examined in ICN's series, "Exxon: The Road Not Taken." The spokesman, Alan Jeffers, declined to provide any additional budget numbers.

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Exxon's documents show not only that the research was curtailed, but why. The idea to cut back the research program first surfaced in a January 1981 "scoping study." That was a type of internal Exxon planning document meant to be the "initial phase in the development of comprehensive plans for high-impact programs," a cover sheet explained.

"Our recommendation is that comprehensive program plan development not be undertaken for the atmospheric CO2 area," said the cover sheet. After all, said the 16-page scoping study, "There is no near term threat of legislation to control CO2. One reason for this is that it has not yet been proven that the increases in atmospheric CO2 constitute a serious problem that requires immediate action."

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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/25112015/exxon-deep-cuts-climate-change-research-budget-1980s-global-warming

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1. There are hardly words available to describe the enormity of this crime. (nt)