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September 17, 2015

Exxon Knew of Role of Fossil Fuel in Global Warming Decades Ago 
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A new report by Inside Climate News reveals how oil giant Exxon Mobil's
own research confirmed the role of fossil fuels in global warming
decades ago. By 1977, Exxon's own senior experts had begun to warn the
burning of fossil fuels could pose a threat to humanity. At first, Exxon
launched an ambitious research program, outfitting a supertanker with
instruments to study carbon dioxide in the air and ocean. But toward the
end of the 1980s, Exxon changed course and shifted to the forefront of
climate change denial. Since the 1990s, it has spent millions of dollars
funding efforts to reject the science its own experts knew of decades
ago. Scientist Richard Werthamer worked at Exxon from 1978 to 1983,
where he supervised Exxon's carbon dioxide program.

Richard Werthamer: "The implications of increasing carbon dioxide were
not that significant for Exxon per se. They were significant because it
implied dramatic changes in climate, and that could provoke very
substantial legislative consequences that would impact Exxon's business
significantly. You know, if you think that burning fossil fuels is going
to flood your cities, well, there's going to be some national discussion
about what to do about it, and one possibility is we're going to have to
burn fewer — less carbon-based fuels."

 

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