50 years back, the largest oil company made exceptional climate change predictions (and then spent decades being a denier)
Jan 20, 2023, 19:32 IST
Once upon a time, there lived a big, burly wolf. This wolf was not like the others; he was a bit of a genius. And using his extraordinary brain, he came up with an impressive idea: he was going to sell shawls.
However, this was no ordinary shawl. The wolf dipped the shawl into the village's common well, which imparted a magnificent gleam to the cloth. And this simple practice helped the wolf sell the most amount of shawls, easily multiply his profits, reputation and fame within the village.
But one day, the villagers started falling sick one by one. Feeling obligated, the wolf began investigating. Sniffing around, he noticed an innocent bucket of water leaning against the well, brimming with rainbow-coloured liquid. The water smelled horrible, and the wolf knew what he had done.
However, the wolf could not bear to tell the villagers that his shawl business was polluting the local well, so that he could keep reaping its benefits. Instead, he began convincing everyone that it was simply some type of seasonal flu, completely unrelated to his shawls in any manner.
Exxon has been known for conducting vigorous campaigns to disprove global warming in the past. However, a juicy new trove of information from internal documents has shown that not only did Exxon personally know that global warming was serious and very much underway, they knew it as far back as the 1950s — a time when we had more opportunity to nip things in the bud.
This is, of course, horribly irresponsible, but the company had already made a reputation as an avid climate change denier over decades of organised marketing. What's somehow more shocking is that Exxon's scientists had predicted current scenarios to such an unprecedented and accurate extent, sometimes even better than academic and governmental models of climate prediction.
These observations were catalogued over 100 internal documents and peer-reviewed scientific publications, which clearly showed a positive correlation between rising temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. Not only did this conclusively prove that climate change was a human-made phenomenon after all, this was also a premise they protested against for years.
In addition, they predicted that global warming would be detected around the year 2000, and that a carbon budget would become necessary to prevent humanity from imploding on itself. They also knew that fossil fuel emissions would cause a 0.20°C global temperature rise, which is more or less what we've actually seen so far. Furthermore, their scientists had already dismissed the then prevalent idea that a new ice age was coming — all internally, of course.
Exxon keeps disagreeing with these reports. However, the public is starting to notice. At the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed this issue, saying, "Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie".
Fossil fuel companies must pay for the situation they've put the Earth in by carelessly expanding production. Like Guterres says, it is high time that, 'like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account.' For worldwide systematic reform, this is the only way forward.
However, this was no ordinary shawl. The wolf dipped the shawl into the village's common well, which imparted a magnificent gleam to the cloth. And this simple practice helped the wolf sell the most amount of shawls, easily multiply his profits, reputation and fame within the village.
But one day, the villagers started falling sick one by one. Feeling obligated, the wolf began investigating. Sniffing around, he noticed an innocent bucket of water leaning against the well, brimming with rainbow-coloured liquid. The water smelled horrible, and the wolf knew what he had done.
However, the wolf could not bear to tell the villagers that his shawl business was polluting the local well, so that he could keep reaping its benefits. Instead, he began convincing everyone that it was simply some type of seasonal flu, completely unrelated to his shawls in any manner.
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History is a storybook riddled with tragic instances of the powerful misleading the weak. Tobacco companies did it, medical companies did it, and new leaks have shown that Exxon, one of the largest oil conglomerates in the world, indulged in such skilful and sinister lies as well. Lies that could've helped tremendously with the current climate jeopardy.Exxon has been known for conducting vigorous campaigns to disprove global warming in the past. However, a juicy new trove of information from internal documents has shown that not only did Exxon personally know that global warming was serious and very much underway, they knew it as far back as the 1950s — a time when we had more opportunity to nip things in the bud.
This is, of course, horribly irresponsible, but the company had already made a reputation as an avid climate change denier over decades of organised marketing. What's somehow more shocking is that Exxon's scientists had predicted current scenarios to such an unprecedented and accurate extent, sometimes even better than academic and governmental models of climate prediction.
These observations were catalogued over 100 internal documents and peer-reviewed scientific publications, which clearly showed a positive correlation between rising temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations. Not only did this conclusively prove that climate change was a human-made phenomenon after all, this was also a premise they protested against for years.
In addition, they predicted that global warming would be detected around the year 2000, and that a carbon budget would become necessary to prevent humanity from imploding on itself. They also knew that fossil fuel emissions would cause a 0.20°C global temperature rise, which is more or less what we've actually seen so far. Furthermore, their scientists had already dismissed the then prevalent idea that a new ice age was coming — all internally, of course.
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Exxon keeps disagreeing with these reports. However, the public is starting to notice. At the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed this issue, saying, "Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie".
Fossil fuel companies must pay for the situation they've put the Earth in by carelessly expanding production. Like Guterres says, it is high time that, 'like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account.' For worldwide systematic reform, this is the only way forward.