... In the 1980s, a group of scientists predicted climate change with uncanny accuracy. Those scientists happened to work for Exxon.
Many fossil fuel companies knew about climate change well before the general public did.
But a recent review of dozens of internal Exxon documents from the 1970s and 80s, found company scientists knew a lot more than the basics of what greenhouse gasses were doing to the planet.
To understand what Exxon knew and how they knew it, let's go back to 1977. This was an important moment in history: Scientists and government agencies were just starting to seriously study climate change. Researchers knew the basics " carbon dioxide levels were rising, and the Earth would most likely get warmer " but there were still a lot of unanswered questions. And Exxon, a major fossil fuel company with a skilled research department, decided to spend millions of dollars to answer those questions for themselves.
If you read historical documents or interviews from this time, you get the sense that Exxon scientists were genuinely interested in understanding climate change " even a bit idealistic! A top company scientist at the time envisioned Exxon at the center of a global climate research project "aimed at benefiting mankind." ...
Exxon scientists' first climate models were published privately in 1982, years before the general public was aware of climate change. Exxon predicted the climate would warm just under half a degree celsius between 1980 and 2000. And by the early 2000s, they found the earth could be warm enough to objectively detect climate change. (Scientists officially detected climate change in 1995). ...
[many links in the article, which see]
Exxon believed that good climate science would only help their business. You see, the company had been watching another industry facing another environmental crisis.
