It turns out far more of the US corporate leadership elite were complicit in the deliberate obfuscation of climate science than just the management at the oil giant Exxon.
Study: Utilities knew about climate change risks decades ago
BY DEVIN HENRY
The Energy and Policy Institute study, citing industry documents, found that utilities and industry groups were aiming to investigate the “effects of carbon dioxide” on the environment — including rising temperatures and sea levels — as early as the 1970s.
One 1988 study, from industry groups Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the Electric Power Research Institute, concluded that “climate changes possible over the next 30 years may significantly affect the electric utility industry.”
The industry heard warnings about climate change as early as 1968, when a science adviser to President Lyndon Johnson told an EEI convention that carbon dioxide emissions could “produce major consequences on the climate — possibly even triggering catastrophic effects such as have occurred from time to time in the past.”
1968!
This is extremely disappointing to learn. These corporate leaders did their due diligence as business professionals to learn about scientific research impacting their industry, but couldn’t do their civic duty to the larger society to help cope the changing circumstances they knew were very likely to come. But as Donald Trump is demonstrating so spectacularly corporate leaders can be the least ethical of groups. Their control of our economy has incentivized cutting corners to save money, and made “corporate citizenship” into a cynical joke.
Also see:
Climate scientists may have been underestimating global warming, finds study
GOP House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith touts "the positive effects of Carbon Enrichment"
