New Study Confirms ExxonMobil Knew Exactly the Danger Posed by Climate Change - Horowitz

ExxonMobil knew just how much the continuing use of carbon-producing fossil fuels was likely to heat up the planet at the same time it was funding a comprehensive public relations campaign, denying the reality of global warming as well as the role of human activity in spurring it, according to a new study published in the journal Science.  Beginning in the late 1970’s, the new study finds that ExxonMobil’s own scientists’ internal modeling accurately predicted the level of global temperature increases and that this information was shared with the company’s executives in a series of reports.  

“Our results show that in private and academic circles since the late 1970s and early 1980s, ExxonMobil predicted global warming correctly and skillfully,” wrote the study’s authors. “Using established statistical techniques, we find that 63 to 83% of the climate projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists were accurate in predicting subsequent global warming.”

 

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As Geoffrey Supran, one of the study’s authors, told CNBC, “We now have airtight, unimpeachable evidence that ExxonMobil accurately predicted global warming years before it turned around and publicly attacked climate science and scientists. Our findings show that ExxonMobil’s public denial of climate science contradicted its own scientists’ data. This corroborates and adds statistical precision to the prior conclusions of scholars, journalists, lawyers, and politicians.”

 

In fact, a 2017 analysis of the company’s public communications found that the majority promoted doubt about the reality of climate change and its causes.  Additionally, ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies funded aggressive efforts to spread doubts about the science of climate change.  This all-effort paid extra dividends with receptive conservative media outlets-- the venues where most Republican voters get their news---as viewers and readers were fed a diet of misleading information, contributing to skepticism about climate change in this subset of the electorate.

 

As the evidence of the reality of climate change and the human role in it has become just about impossible to refute, ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies now acknowledge the science. Correspondingly, Republican elected officials and conservative media outlets have moved from outright denial to minimizing the problem, professing in contradiction of the scientific consensus that there we can wait until sometime in the distant future to bring about the transition away from fossil fuels, leaving the false impression we don’t have to do very much in the short-term. 

 

There are lasting impacts, however, to the years of saturating Republicans and conservatives with misinformation about climate change. It is a major reason why a majority of Republicans still doubt that climate change is related to human activity, while the overwhelming majority of Americans overall now grasp and believe in the connection.  This lingering doubt in the reality of climate change and its causes, despite all the evidence, remains especially prevalent among older Republicans and conservatives; Republicans and conservatives, who are 30 and under, are closer to the rest of the electorate in their attitudes on the topic.

 

And the current minimization or trivialization of the problem in conservative and Republican-leaning media remains problematic and a disservice to its audience.  A recent panel segment on Fox News’ nightly news show, Special Report is a case in point. Bret Baier, the host, played clips of Al Gore and John Kerry at Davos, making what he clearly viewed as over-the-top statements about climate change, kicking off a conversation about elites who go to Switzerland in their private jets, lecturing the rest of us.  This all too familiar approach to the topic in conservative media is certainly fair game, but it misses the point. Solving this problem, which if not addressed in time is going to have severe consequences, is not going to be done on the basis of individual virtue. It can only be accomplished by accelerating the transition to non-carbon-producing renewable energy.

 

“Facts are stubborn things,” said John Adams. In the case of climate change, despite ExxonMobil’s efforts to spread information it knew was false and misleading to create doubts about the reality, causes and dangers of global warming, the facts are finally winning out.  This large corporation’s decision to put short-term profits over lasting damage to people and the planet, however, is a major reason that a strong consensus for action on climate change in the United States has taken so long to build and remains still somewhat elusive. This requires us to move much faster to make up for lost time.

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