Several months back , Exxon ’s public range of a function took a well - deserved nosedive after aninvestigation by InsideClimaterevealed that the oil troupe knew about links between fossil fuel and mood changeforty year ago , before proceeding to bury and deny the grounds . But as anotherdetailed InsideClimate investigationshows , Exxon was n’t alone .
In fact , scientist from legion American and multinational oil colour companies associate with the American Petroleum Institute ( API ) were very much aware of global warming in the late 1970s and early 1980s . And in news that will surprise exactly no one , the vegetable oil - friendly scientist adjudicate to ignore and obfuscate the truth .
From 1979 to 1983 , the API convene a labor force of scientist — initially the CO2 and Climate Task Force , later the Climate and Energy Task Force — to monitor and deal clime inquiry . According to internal documents obtained by InsideClimate News and audience with the job force ’s former director , that group included aged scientist from Exxon , Mobil , Amoco , Phillips , Texaco , Shell , Sunoco , Sohio , and Standard Oil of California and Gulf Oils ( the predecessor to Chevron ) .
Exxon began conducting research on the climate warming impacts of CO2 in the recent 1970s . Throughout the eighties , the company funded world - socio-economic class information gathering and modelling drive . While the API ’s Climate Task Force was more of a discussion grouping than a inquiry unit , it seems middling decipherable that Exxon ’s enquiry - based conclusions were not misplace on them :
A setting theme on CO2 informed API members in 1979 that carbon dioxide in the air was rising steady , and it predicted when the first clear effects of climate change might be mat up , grant to a memo by an Exxon task personnel representative .
In addition , API task effect members appeared unfastened to the idea that the petroleum manufacture might have to shoulder some duty for reducing CO2 discharge by changing refining processes and developing fuels that emitted less C dioxide .
Minutes from an API meeting show the group even talk over “ the proficient conditional relation of vim generator changeover , inquiry timing and requirements . ” In other Word of God , they called for an energy gyration away from fossil fuels — in 1980 ! But as with Exxon , the forward - thinking elements of the chore force would eventually be overridden :
Yet by the 1990s , it was light that API had opt for a markedly dissimilar approach to the threat of climate change . It joined Exxon , other fogy fuel company and major manufacturers in the Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) , a lobbying chemical group whose object was to derail international efforts to curb heat - trapping emissions . In 1998 , a year after the Kyoto Protocol was adopted by countries to cut fossil fuel emissions , API craft a campaign to convince the American populace and lawgiver that clime science was too tenuous for the United States to ratify the treaty .
TheParis Climate Agreement , which wasadopted originally this calendar month , is the first global sweat place at tackling carbon pollution and preclude severe climate change . Unfortunately , as many expert have pointed out , it would have been a heavy first step in 1995 — but it is n’t almost tough enough to get the job done today .
At this point , it ’s unacceptable to indicate that the process was n’t hamstrung by the ego - attend to action of an vegetable oil industry that knew it was in the wrong . The itinerary from find and denial is too well - trodden .
Read the full probe over atInsideClimate . Top image via AP .
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