ExxonMobil climate change denial
From the 1980s to mid 2000s,
ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the International Policy Network.[3]: 67 [4][5] Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16 million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.[6] From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal that said that the science of climate change was unsettled.[7]
An analysis conducted by The Carbon Brief in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to
Since the 1970s, ExxonMobil and its predecessors had engaged in climate research focusing on global warming. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. A review in 2023 found that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much CO2 would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."[11][12]
In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicted that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access would result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.[13] In 2015 it expressed support for a carbon tax.[14]
In 2015, the
Own research
From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon, one of predecessors of ExxonMobil, had a public reputation as a pioneer in climate change research.
In July 1977, a senior scientist of Exxon, James Black reported to the company's executives that there was a general scientific agreement at that time that the burning of fossil fuels was the most likely manner in which mankind was influencing global climate change.
In 1981, Exxon shifted its research focus to climate modelling.[31] In 1982, Exxon's environmental affairs office circulated an internal report to Exxon's management which said that the consequences of climate change could be catastrophic, and that a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption would be necessary to curtail future climate change. It also said that "there is concern among some scientific groups that once the effects are measurable, they might not be reversible."[32]
In 1992, the senior ice researcher, leading a research team in Exxon's Canadian subsidiary
In 2016, the
Denial tactics despite own research results
In 1989, shortly after the presentation by the Exxon's manager of science and strategy development Duane LeVine to the board of directors which reiterated that introducing public policy to combat climate change "can lead to irreversible and costly Draconian steps," the company shifted its position on the climate change to publicly questioning it.[18][37] This shift was caused by concerns about the potential impact of the climate policy measures to the oil industry.[18]
In the fall of 2015,
The company also denied claims made by InsideClimate News that it had curtailed carbon dioxide research in favor of climate denial. Exxon's statement said the drop in oil prices hurt oil companies in the 1980s and caused research cutbacks. The statement also claimed that it was uncertain if increases in greenhouse gas emissions caused significant warming, or if immediate action on climate change was necessary.[39]
The
In 2023, Science journal published a paper reporting that the global warming projections documented by and the models created by ExxonMobil's own scientists between 1977 and 2003 had "accurately" projected and "skillfully" modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning, and had reasonably estimated how much CO2 would lead to dangerous warming. The authors of the paper concluded: "Yet, whereas academic and government scientists worked to communicate what they knew to the public, ExxonMobil worked to deny it."[11][12]
Funding of climate change denial
Of the
A study published in Nature Climate Change in 2015 found that ExxonMobil "may have played a particularly important role as corporate benefactors" in the production and diffusion of contrarian information.[48]
During the 1990s and 2000s Exxon helped advance climate change denial internationally.
ExxonMobil has funded, among other groups, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the International Policy Network.[57][4][5] Since the Kyoto Protocol, Exxon has given more than $20 million to organizations supporting climate change denial.[58]
Between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16 million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming.[59]
The
According to
Between 2007 and 2015, ExxonMobil gave $1.87 million to Republicans in congress and $454,000 to the American Legislative Exchange Council. ExxonMobil denied funding climate denial.[68] ExxonMobil was a member of ALEC's "Private Enterprise Advisory Council"[1].;[69] it left ALEC in 2018 [2].
In January 2007, ExxonMobil vice president for public affairs Kenneth Cohen said that, as of 2006, ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six' similar groups".[70] While ExxonMobil did not identify the other similar groups, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace listed five groups "at the heart of the climate change denial industry" ExxonMobil had stopped funding, as well as 41 similar groups which were still receiving ExxonMobil funds.[71]
In May 2008, ExxonMobil pledged in its annual corporate citizenship report that it would cut funding to "several public policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention" from the need to address climate change.
From 1989 till April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal that said that the science of climate change was unsettled.[7] In 2000, responding to the 2000 US First National Assessment of Climate Change, an ExxonMobil advertorial said "The report's language and logic appear designed to emphasize selective results to convince people that climate change will adversely impact their lives. The report is written as a political document, not an objective summary of the underlying science."[80] Another 2000 advertorial published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal entitled "Unsettled Science" said "it is impossible for scientists to attribute the recent small surface temperature increase to human activity."[81][82][83]
ExxonMobil announced in 2008 that it would cut its funding to many of the groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy, although in 2008 still funded over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis."[84] A survey carried out by the UK Royal Society found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed US$2.9 million to 39 groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".[84]
The Union of Concerned Scientists produced a report titled 'Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air',[85] that criticizes ExxonMobil for "underwriting the most sophisticated and most successful disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry" and for "funnelling about $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and advocacy organizations that manufacture uncertainty on the issue". In 2006, Exxon said that it was no longer going to fund these groups[86] though that statement has been challenged by Greenpeace.[87]
To investigate how widespread such hidden funding was, senators
Funding scientists who are climate change deniers
The
On 2 February 2007, The Guardian stated[95][96] that Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar with AEI, had sent letters[97] to scientists in the UK and the U.S., offering US$10,000 plus travel expenses and other incidental payments in return for essays with the purpose of "highlight[ing] the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC process", specifically regarding the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.[98]
An analysis conducted by The Carbon Brief in 2011 found that 9 out of 10 of the most prolific authors who cast doubt on climate change or speak against it had ties to
Lobbying against emissions regulations
In February 2001, the early days of the administration of US President
On June 14, 2005, ExxonMobil announced they would hire Philip Cooney, four days after Cooney resigned as chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Bush White House, two days after the non-profit Government Accountability Project released documents which showed that Cooney had edited government scientific reports so as to downplay the certainty of the science behind the greenhouse effect.[104][105][106] Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times, "Of all the people the Bush team would let edit its climate reports, we have a guy who first worked for the oil lobby denying climate change, with no science background, then went back to work for Exxon. Does it get any more intellectually corrupt than that?"[107]
Some researches say that ExxonMobil's strategy succeeded to delay the world's response to climate change,[108] others are not sure if company's different behavior would have brought a different outcome.[50]
Acknowledgement of climate change
Internal ExxonMobil documents showed that after the company issued its first press statement acknowledging that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change in 2006, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and other company executives sought to diminish public concern about climate change by casting doubt on the severity of climate change impacts.[109]
In 2007, ExxonMobil for the first time disclosed to stockholders the financial risks to profitability of climate change.
In April 2014, ExxonMobil released a report publicly acknowledging climate change risk for the first time. ExxonMobil predicted that a rising global population, increasing living standards and increasing energy access would result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.[13]
ExxonMobil is dismissive of the fossil fuel divestment movement, writing on ExxonMobil's blog in October, 2014 that fossil fuel divestment was "out of step with reality" and that "to not use fossil fuels is tantamount to not using energy at all."[114][115][116]
Exxon routinely uses an internal shadow price on CO2 in its business planning.[14][117] In December 2015, following similar earlier announcements, Exxon noted that if carbon regulations became a requirement, the best approach would be a carbon tax.[118]
State and federal investigations
As early as 2012 the idea of using RICO laws against the fossil fuel industry, on the model of their use against Big Tobacco, was being considered by some environmental groups.[119] In May 2015 Sheldon Whitehouse put forward the suggestion in The Washington Post.[120] Later the same year, on October 14, Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier wrote to the United States Attorney General (US AG) requesting an investigation into whether ExxonMobil violated any federal laws by "failing to disclose truthful information" about climate change.[121][122] Asked about the letter by The Guardian, an Exxon spokesperson said "This is complete bullshit. We have a 30 year continuous uninterrupted history of researching climate change..."[123] On October 30, 2015, more than 40 leading US environmental and social justice organizations also wrote to the US AG requesting a federal investigation into ExxonMobil deceiving the public about climate change.[124] Former Vice President Al Gore and all three Democratic primary candidates for President of the United States called for a Department of Justice investigation.[125][126]
On October 29, Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey issued a letter to Exxon questioning their donations to Donors Trust, a group which funds climate change denial.[127] Subsequently, in January 2016,
Still in 2015, the
Following published reports, based on internal Exxon documents, suggesting that during the 1980s and 1990s Exxon used climate research in its business planning but simultaneously argued publicly that the science was unsettled, the
On March 29, 2016, the attorneys general of Massachusetts and the United States Virgin Islands announced investigations. Seventeen attorneys general were cooperating on investigations. Exxon said the investigations were "politically motivated."[132][133][134] In June, the attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands agreed to withdraw the subpoena,[119] and ExxonMobil began an action suing the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.[135] In 2019 the U.S.Supreme Court found in favor of the Massachusetts attorney general and allowed their case against Exxon to move forward.[136] As a result of that decision, Exxon can no longer withhold records that the AG needs for their investigation into whether Exxon concealed that they were cognizant of the fossil fuels contributing to climate change and knowingly misled both the public and their own investors.[136]
Relations with the Rockefeller family
Beginning in 2004, the descendants of
In March 2016 the Rockefeller Family Fund announced plans to "eliminate holdings" of ExxonMobil.
Kaiser wrote in December 2016, "Our criticism carries a certain historical irony. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, and ExxonMobil is Standard Oil's largest direct descendant. In a sense we were turning against the company where most of the Rockefeller family's wealth was created."[143]
Other climate change activities
Beginning in 2002, ExxonMobil has invested up to US$100m over a ten-year period to establish the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, which "would focus on technologies that could provide energy without adding to a buildup of greenhouse gases".[144][145] According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, "The funding of academic research activity has provided the corporation legitimacy, while it actively funds ideological and advocacy organizations to conduct a disinformation campaign."[146]
Board shakeup
In 2021 hedge fund Engine No. 1, a critic of ExxonMobil's climate strategy, seated three board members with backing from major institutional investors.[147][148][149] Ric Marshall, executive director at ESG Research at MSCI, said, "It shows not just that there is more seriousness apparent in the thinking among investors about climate change, it's a rebuff of the whole attitude of the Exxon board."[147]
See also
- Business action on climate change
- Effects of climate change
- Fossil fuels lobby
- Merchants of Doubt
- People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corp.
- The Petroleum Papers
- The Power of Big Oil
- Tobacco industry playbook
References
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- ^ "Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air | Union of Concerned Scientists". www.ucsusa.org. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ISBN 978-0-231-52638-8.
- ^ a b Lee, Jennifer 8. (May 28, 2003). "Exxon Backs Groups that Question Global Warming". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
the company... has increased donations to... policy groups that, like Exxon itself, question the human role in global warming and argue that proposed government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions associated with global warming are too heavy handed. Exxon now gives more than $1 million a year to such organizations, which include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom, the George C. Marshall Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation Center for Policy Research and the American Legislative Exchange Council... Exxon has become the single-largest corporate donor to some of the groups, accounting for more than 10 percent of their annual budgets. While a few of the groups say they also receive some money from other oil companies, it is only a small fraction of what they receive from ExxonMobil.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Barnett, Antony; Townsend, Mark (November 28, 2004). "Claims by think-tank outrage eco-groups". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
- ^ Weart, S. (2025) The public and climate change. In: The Discovery of Global Warming
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Yet since 2007 ExxonMobil, the world's biggest publicly listed oil company, is proposing a carbon tax, and has already put a shadow price on each tonne of CO2 it emits... a robust carbon price can make it easier to decide where to invest for the future. Like ExxonMobil, many of the oil companies make investment decisions based on proxy carbon prices.
- ^ a b Gillis, Justin; Kraussnov, Clifford (November 5, 2015). "Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General". The New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
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- ^ Jerving et al. 2015: Since the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Exxon had been at the forefront of climate change research, funding its own internal science as well as research from outside experts at Columbia University and MIT.
- fossil fuel emissionscould pose risks for society. Company scientists have contributed to dozens of scientific papers that supported this view and explored the extent of the risks.
- ^ Banerjee, Song & Hasemyer 2015b: "ExxonMobil scientists have been involved in climate research and related policy analysis for more than 30 years, yielding more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed publications."
- ^ a b Cohen, Ken. "When it Come to Climate Change, Read the Documents". ExxonMobil Perspectives. ExxonMobil. Retrieved Jan 31, 2016.
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- ^ Black 1978 What is considered the best presently available climate model for treating the Greenhouse Effect predicts that a doubling of the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would produce a mean temperature increase of about 2°C to 3°C over most of the earth.
- ^ Hall 2015: ...the company's knowledge of climate change dates back to July 1977, when its senior scientist James Black delivered a sobering message on the topic. "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," Black told Exxon's management committee. A year later he warned Exxon that doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees—a number that is consistent with the scientific consensus today. He continued to warn that "present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical."
- ^ Banerjee, Song & Hasemyer 2015a: Exxon budgeted more than $1 million over three years for the tanker project to measure how quickly the oceans were taking in CO2.
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- ^ Banerjee, Song & Hasemyer 2015a
- ^ Jerving et al. 2015: An extended open water season, Croasdale said in 1992, could potentially reduce exploratory drilling and construction costs by 30% to 50%...he advised the company to consider and incorporate potential "negative outcomes," including a rise in the sea level, which could threaten onshore infrastructure; bigger waves, which could damage offshore drilling structures; and thawing permafrost, which could make the earth buckle and slide under buildings and pipelines.
- ^ Whitman 2015: Croasdale said global warming could lower the costs but increase the length of time it would be possible to explore for oil in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory. He and his team of researchers had developed models that showed with climate change, drilling in the Beaufort Sea could grow from two months per year to as many as five, with costs cut by as much as half. At the same time, rising sea level due to climate change could hurt infrastructure
- ^ a b Lieberman, Amy; Rust, Susanne (December 31, 2015). "Big Oil braced for global warming while it fought regulations". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
- ^ Schwartz, John (April 14, 2016). "Pressure on Exxon Over Climate Change Intensifies With New Documents". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
The documents, according to the environmental law center's director, Carroll Muffett, suggest that the industry had the underlying knowledge of climate change even 60 years ago. "From 1957 onward, there is no doubt that Humble Oil, which is now Exxon, was clearly on notice" about rising CO2 in the atmosphere and the prospect that it was likely to cause global warming, he said. ... Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, called the new allegations absurd. "To suggest that we had definitive knowledge about human-induced climate change before the world's scientists is not a credible thesis," he said.
- ^ Banerjee, Song & Hasemyer 2015b: "After a decade of frank internal discussions on global warming and conducting unbiased studies on it, Exxon changed direction in 1989 and spent more than 20 years discrediting the research its own scientists had once confirmed."
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- ^ Gillis & Schwartz 2015: ExxonMobil rejected the comparison to the tobacco industry
- .
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major figures from the US (such as ExxonMobil, conservative think-tanks and leading contrarian scientists) have helped spread climate change denial to other nations.
- ^ a b Krugman, Paul (April 17, 2006). "Enemy of the Planet". The New York Times. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
Although most governments have done little to curb greenhouse gases, and the Bush administration has done nothing, it's not clear that policies would have been any better even if Exxon Mobil had acted more responsibly. But the fact is that whatever small chance there was of action to limit global warming became even smaller because ExxonMobil chose to protect its profits by trashing good science.
- ^ Van den Hove, Le Menestrel & De Bettignies 2002: ExxonMobil—together with its partners in US lobby groups—has been instrumental to the hindrance of US ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. I
- ^ Whitman 2015: The company, which in 1999 became ExxonMobil, helped found the Global Climate Coalition, which from 1989 to 2002 argued the role "of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood," The New York Times reported Friday.
- ^ Banerjee, Song & Hasemyer 2015a: "Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition, an alliance of some of the world's largest companies seeking to halt government efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions."
- ^ Van den Hove, Le Menestrel & De Bettignies 2002: Instrumental to the implementation of Exxon's strategy was its participation in industry and lobby groups. Exxon is a prominent member of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the major US petroleum industry trade association, and was, from the date of its creation in 1989, a board member of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), one of the most influential US lobbying front group on the climate issue.
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In the decade after the Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997, Exxon-Mobil invested more than $20 million in think tanks that promoted climate change denial. This inspired the Royal Society of London to challenge Exxon-Mobil to stop funding organizations that disseminated climate denial.
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Other corporations persisted in denial. The largest of all, ExxonMobil, continued to spend tens of millions of dollars on false-front organizations that amplified any claim denying the scientific consensus.
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Meet the 12 loudest members of the chorus claiming that global warming is a joke and that CO2 emissions are actually good for you...ExxonMobil, the Michael Jordan of climate change denial, was supposed to have quit the game...Yet corporate records released earlier this year show that the world's largest petroleum company hasn't cut off the cash altogether.
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In 2013, 29 companies - based or operating in the US - disclosed that that they use an internal price of carbon in their business planning...For example, ExxonMobil is assuming a cost of $60 per metric ton by 2030.
- InsideClimate News. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
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Sources
- Banerjee, Neela; Song, Lisa; Hasemyer, David (September 16, 2015a). "Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago". InsideClimate News. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- Banerjee, Neela; Song, Lisa; Hasemyer, David (September 17, 2015b). "Exxon Believed Deep Dive Into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business". InsideClimate News. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
- Breslow, Jason M. (September 16, 2015). "Investigation Finds Exxon Ignored Its Own Early Climate Change Warnings". Frontline. PBS. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
- Gillis, Justin; Schwartz, John (October 30, 2015). "Exxon Mobil Accused of Misleading Public on Climate Change Risks". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
- Goldenberg, Suzanne (July 8, 2015). "Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2015. Reprinted as Goldenberg, Suzanne (July 9, 2015). "Exxon Knew About Global Warming More Than 30 Years Ago". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- Hall, Shannon (October 26, 2015). "Exxon Knew about Climate Change almost 40 years ago". Scientific American. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
- Jennings, Katie; Grandoni, Dino; Rust, Susanne (October 23, 2015). "How Exxon went from leader to skeptic on climate change research". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
- Jerving, Sara; Jennings, Katie; Hirsch, Masako Melissa; Rust, Susanne (October 9, 2015). "What Exxon knew about the Earth's melting Arctic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
- Johnston, Ian (July 8, 2015). "Did oil giant ExxonMobil know about climate change in 1981?". The Independent. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- Mann, Michael E. (2013). The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231526388.
- Mann, Michael E. (September 21, 2015). "Doubling Down on Denial and Deceit". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- Oreskes, Naomi (October 9, 2015). "Exxon's Climate Concealment". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
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- Van den Hove, Sybille; Le Menestrel, Marc; De Bettignies, Henri-Claude (2002). "The oil industry and climate change: strategies and ethical dilemmas". Climate Policy. 2 (1): 3–18. S2CID 219594585.
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Select ExxonMobil documents
- Black, James F. (June 6, 1978). "The Greenhouse Effect" (PDF). Exxon. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
- Glaser, M. B. (November 12, 1982). "CO2 "Greenhouse" effect" (PDF). Exxon. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
- Levine, Duane G. (February 22, 1989). "Potential Enhanced Greenhouse Effects: Status and Outlook, Presentation to the Board of Directors of Exxon Corporation" (PDF). Exxon. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- Shaw, Henry; McCall, P. P. (December 8, 1980). "Exxon Research and Engineering Company's Technological Forecast CO2 Greenhouse Effect" (PDF). Exxon. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
Timelines
- "A Range of Opinions on Climate Change at Exxon Mobil". The New York Times. November 6, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
- "Exxon's Climate Denial History: A Timeline; A review of Exxon's knowledge and subsequent denial of climate change". Greenpeace. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- "The Long Tale of Exxon and Climate Change". InsideClimate News. September 15, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- Ages, Naomi (November 25, 2015). "4 Priceless Moments in ExxonMobil's History of Climate Denial". Greenpeace. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
Further reading
External links
- Rex Tillerson speaks about future climate change (2012, video)
- "The Power of Big Oil". FRONTLINE. Season 40. Episode 10–12. PBS. WGBH. Retrieved July 8, 2022.