We’re tweeting details from @NathanielRich’s story about how some of the efforts to raise the alarm about climate change in the 1980s played out. nyti.ms/2M073cg
In 1979, Jule Charney, the father of modern meteorology, gathered the nation’s top oceanographers, atmospheric scientists and climate modelers to judge whether the world was, in fact, headed to cataclysm. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz 
Charney’s group had considered everything known about the ocean, sun, sea, air and fossil fuels and had distilled it to a single number: 3. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
When the doubling threshold of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was broached, as appeared inevitable, the world would warm 3 degrees Celsius. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
The last time the world was 3 degrees warmer was during the Pliocene, 3 million years ago, when beech trees grew in Antarctica, the seas were 80 feet higher and horses galloped across the Canadian coast of the Arctic Ocean. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
After the publication of the Charney report, Exxon decided to create its own dedicated carbon-dioxide research program, but with a slightly different question: How much of the warming Exxon could be blamed for? nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
Every few years, industry scientists, at the behest of their corporate bosses, had reviewed the problem and found good reasons for alarm and better excuses to do nothing. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
But the Charney report had changed industry’s cost-benefit calculus. Now there was a formal consensus about the nature of the crisis. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
In 1978, an Exxon colleague circulated an internal memo warning that humankind had only 5 to 10 years before policy action would be necessary. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
The Charney report had confirmed the diagnosis of the problem — a problem that Exxon helped create. Now Exxon would help shape the solution. nyti.ms/2LTtuzz
