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EXXONMOBIL PUBLICLY DOWNPLAYED climate change even though scientists for the oil giant had accurately predicted global warming from fossil fuels as far back as the late 1970s, according to a study published yesterday.
“They modelled and predicted global warming with shocking accuracy and skill, only for the company to spend the next couple of decades denying that very climate science,” said Geoffrey Supran, a coauthor of the study in the journal Science.
ExxonMobil, formed in a 1999 merger between Exxon and Mobil Oil, has faced accusations for years that it knew about the threat of global warming decades ago.
Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times first revealed in 2015 that ExxonMobil was aware for a long time that climate change was real and was the result of human activity.
The company is the target of a number of lawsuits in the United States, several of which are ongoing, an activist campaign tagged “Exxon Knew,” and the European Parliament and US Congress have held hearings into the oil behemoth.
“I see this as “Exxon Knew 2.0,” Supran said of his research, performed while he was at Harvard University.
He told AFP the study, for the first time, compared the findings of ExxonMobil’s own scientists to what other climate researchers knew at the time and to what has subsequently occurred.
“They didn’t just vaguely know something about global warming decades ago,” said Supran.
“They knew as much as independent, academic and government scientists did, and arguably, they knew what they needed to know to begin to take action and warn the public.”
Supran, who now teaches at the University of Miami, said he and his coauthors from Harvard and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research had analysed private ExxonMobil graphs and tables that had never been scrutinised before.
“We’ve gone from a qualitative understanding of what they knew to a quantitative statistically precise one,” he said. “Our analysis truly seals the deal on what Exxon knew and literally puts a number on it.”
The researchers analysed 32 internal documents produced by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2002 and 72 peer-reviewed scientific publications that they authored or coauthored.
The documents contained 16 global mean temperature projections linked to a rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
“Overall, ExxonMobil’s global warming projections closely track subsequent observed temperature increases,” the study said.
Ten of the 16 projections are “consistent with historical observations,” two forecast more warming than observed and four forecast less.
On average, the ExxonMobil scientists predicted average warming of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade, equivalent to the current rate.
Senior ExxonMobil executives meanwhile were dismissing climate warnings.
“Projections are based on completely unproven climate models, or, more often, sheer speculation,” ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond said in 1999.
Climate models are “not competent,” said his successor, Rex Tillerson.
Several of the ExxonMobil scientists involved with coming up with the projections testified before Congress in 2019.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked one of them, Martin Hoffert, about the uncanny accuracy of his 1982 climate projections.
“We were excellent scientists,” Hoffert replied.
The World Meteorological Organization said yesterday that the past eight years were the hottest since records began and the US space agency NASA released similar global temperature findings.
Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said tackling climate change would involve much more than just “naming and shaming” the oil companies.
“It isn’t as if we could just turn around and say, ‘ExxonMobil stop producing fossil fuels,’ and then we’d solve the problem,” Schmidt said. “All those products are being used by people and by industries and by cities and other infrastructure.”
Asked about the Science report, Todd Spitler, an ExxonMobil spokesman, said “this issue has come up several times in recent years.
“And, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how ‘Exxon Knew’ are wrong in their conclusions,” he said.
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There is nothing more demoralizing than being bullied or intimidated in the workplace.
You want to give 100% to the customer/company and enjoy your job.
But it only takes 1 or 2 sad individuals to destroy any good feelings you have.
It saps your self confidence and ability to give the customer the service they deserve.
It isn’t physical intimidation (these bullies are far too scared to do that) .
It’s the whisper campaigns , doing things they know annoys you, they turn other workers against you and basically make life miserable.
Sad little individuals.
I left a job I truly loved 10 years ago and still regret it.
@Justice Mickey: Same thing happened to me.HR didnt want to know.Ended up having to quit.Found out later he had been asked to leave his previous job for the same thing.Nasty piece of work.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: I’ve see it happen. Nasty pieces of work, like you, I reported it in writing, & faced the bully nose to nose, he backed down and moved on to other softer touches, & like you most of these people, packed up & moved on. The Employer lost some fantastic people, & another loser is the Employer.
Moral in my storey is, stand up to the B’ast4rds, they cant handle it when someone puts it up to them. I know that shouldn’t be the way, but in life you gotta do what you gotta do?
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne:
So sorry to read that Trish and hopefully you are in a better place mentally and physically.
Happy New year to you.
@Dom Layzell:
HR are totally useless and toothless, I confronted the ring leader and went Nose to Nose and he was scared shitless but it reverted back once he had his sleveen devious buddies behind him.
Then he made sure there would never be another opportunity.
Bullies are nothing but sad little cowards whit zero personalities or social skills.
They think that by belittling someone they are seen as “The big man/woman”.
I would hate to be in their shoes and be know as a pure looser and be the laughing stock.
In most cases these people turn into miserable old and unwanted people that will die alone and nobody will care.
@Justice Mickey: you’re wrong – it’s bad enough being subjected to bullying but what is even worse is when you bring the matter to the attention of your HR Department as advised & HR then proceeds to ignore their own policies and timelines continuously for months/years on end, while you continue to have to work with the person who bullies you…. that is demoralising & that is what currently goes on in some civil/public service jobs
@Justice Mickey: Thank you.I ended up in a job i love with amazing people so he did me a favour in the end!
@Justice Mickey: HR are there to protect the company, not the employees. Don’t listen to anyone in HR trying to tell you otherwise.
Bullying is in every workplace. People with comments, snide remarks, looks, judging, deliberately leaving people out from a conversation or not inviting them to lunch etc. Then these bullies play the victim when a complaint is made, that’s all bullying if you make a person feel uncomfortable. It says so much about the person /people doing it. Some people can make others feel physically sick about going in to work because of the way they are treated and it makes me so mad. But these bullies have other issues you have to remember this.
Quite a misleading headline, at odds with the statistics presented in the body.
11 complaints in 11 months for a force of 14000. Well done to the Gardai. They seem to be well on top of the problem.
Bullying costs lives. It’s incalculable how much decent man and woman hours have been lost to the public, all around the country, through incompetent middle and senior management. Just look at the incompetence of senior management that was exposed through the Maurice McCabe affair. Just look at what came out.
have your say