Exxon’s own scientists confirmed climate change – back in the 70s!

http://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/exxon-climate-change-17092015/

See also
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming

Sept. 17, 2015

As a new investigation showed today, the scientists of the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon Mobil knew about climate change back in the 70s – but Exxon still helped block the Kyoto protocol in the 90s and invests massive amounts of money into denying climate change. Today, 9 out of 10 funded climate change deniers can be linked to Exxon, despite evidence that they are fully aware of global warming happening.

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But now, there is evidence that Exxon understood global warming even before that. Senior company scientist James Black told Exxon’s Management Committee in 1977:

“In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels.”

He said this in 1977! Exxon was so interested in the issue that they had a supertanker sailing through the Atlantic and taking carbon dioxide measurements to figure out how the oceans were absorbing CO2 and what the effects were. They even had scientists come up with climate models for the future, and the models all showed that we are causing a rising in global temperatures.

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It’s mind blowing to think about it today, but between 1983 and 1984, Exxon researchers published their results detailing how and why climate change was happening in least three peer-reviewed papers in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences and an American Geophysical Union monograph. Roger Cohen, head of theoretical sciences at Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories, and his colleague, Richard Werthamer, senior technology advisor at Exxon Corporation were spearheading this research.

Our “ethical responsibility is to permit the publication of our research in the scientific literature,” Cohen wrote. “Indeed, to do otherwise would be a breach of Exxon’s public position and ethical credo on honesty and integrity.”

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Exxon seemed determined to use their enormous resources to lead mankind into a more responsible future. But then, something changed.

Sometime in the 80s, despite being fully aware of what they were doing by that point, they decided that money is money – and becoming a responsible company simply wasn’t profitable enough. Instead of walking at the forefront of science, they chose to invest massively into climate change denial. They lobbied to block any attempt at limiting emissions. They pay to eliminate environmental laws. They financed superficial, and sometimes even pseudo-science. They created a veil of misinformation that lasts to this day, and continue to be the main investor into climate change denial.

xxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition, an organization with other major oil and industrial companies seeking to halt governmental efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. They allied themselves with the American Petroleum Institute, a right wing organization which represents about 400 oil corporations and invests massively into pro-oil advocacy. API spent more than $3 million annually each year during the period 2005 to 2009 on lobbying, mostly to fight climate change control legislation. They spread their wings and reached out as much as possible in an attempt to leverage their resources into making people believe global warming isn’t happening.

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