A 1981 internal memo – nearly 40 years ago! – reveals that Exxon knew there was a 'distinct possibility' its 50-year emissions plan would 'produce effects which will indeed be catastrophic (at least for a substantial fraction of the Earth’s population)' dumptheguardian.com/environment/ng…
A 1988 confidential report for Shell warns the rise in temperatures over the next 40 years may be ‘the greatest in recorded history’. By the time changes are detectable, ‘it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even stabilise the situation’
The following year, 1989, major US industries launch a lobbying campaign to deny global warming and delay action that could harm their profits. Pet scientists are bought, including those who duped the public over the dangers of tobacco smoke for decades. They are still at work
The Guardian report is titled 'Half a century of dither and denial'. But it wasn't only the oil industries that hid the evidence. Media corporations, including the Guardian, also lost us valuable time by amplifying the industry's dithering and denial for many decades
