More than forty years ago, Exxon began researching the potential effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion on the climate. As far back as 1982, honest scientists doing respectable scientific work had realized that there was already a scientific consensus that a doubling of the carbon dioxide in the earth\u2019s atmosphere would produce average global warming of 3 degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.5 degrees C. And they knew it would have significant changes in the earth\u2019s climate, including rainfall distribution and disturbances in the biosphere, accompanied by major economic consequences.<\/p>\n
But then, after climate scientist James Hansen\u2019s presentation to Congress in 1988, Exxon did an about-face. It spiked its own research and started working on climate denial. For the next 20 years its efforts were oriented around manufacturing doubt and lobbying to block federal action. Along with other companies in the fossil fuel lobby, Exxon spent considerable effort and money on a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public and policymakers about the risks of climate change.<\/p>\n
Our guest in this episode is a veteran energy and environment journalist who, as part of an investigative team at Inside Climate News in 2015, pieced together the story of Exxon\u2019s history of doing research on climate change, and then discrediting their own research in an effort to frustrate action on climate change and energy transition. If you\u2019ve ever wondered why the public and certain elected officials continue to deny the reality of climate change, this episode is for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exxon was doing some of the best research on climate change 40 years ago. Why did they then commit to a global climate disinformation campaign?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[787,786,781,23,107,211,782,778,779,777,776,785,783,784,780],"class_list":["post-2650","xen_episodes","type-xen_episodes","status-publish","hentry","category-energy-transition-show-podcasts","tag-american-petroleum-institute","tag-api","tag-bp","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-science","tag-conocophillips","tag-denial","tag-disinformation","tag-exxon","tag-exxon-mobil","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-lawsuit","tag-new-york-attorney-general","tag-propaganda","xen_guests-neela-banerjee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n