Timeline

MERRI OK

general: http://www.dkosopedia.com/static/2/0/0/2000s.html**

mostly global warming, but tobacco below

WHY WAS 2007 IPPCC 4TH A TARGET? 1ST DEFINITIVE?

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A Climate Chronology Sharon S. Tisher, J.D. School of Economics and Honors College University of Maine http://umaine.edu/soe/faculty-and-staff/tisher/

massive 200 pp

MAINE

https://umaine.edu/soe/wp-content/uploads/sites/199/2020/03/Climate-Chronology-January-2020.pdf

...1979 Rafe Pomerance joins forces with Gordon Macdonald to engage with policymakers on the understated but startling conclusions of the “Jason report” Pomerance, a historian by training working as the deputy legislative director of the Friends of the Earth, joins with MacDonald to conduct informal briefings with the E.P.A., the National Security Council, The New York Times, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Energy Department, and the senior staff of the president’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). As a result of the meeting with the OSTP, President Jimmy Carter’s chief science advisor Frank Press requests the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to prepare a full assessment of the carbon-dioxide issue.* * Nathaniel Rich and George Steinmetz, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change,” New York Times, August 1, 2018,

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html 1979 (June) President Jimmy Carter climbs to the roof of the White House to mark the installation of 32 solar panels to heat water for the White House At the dedication ceremony for the White House solar panels on June 20, 1979, President Carter announces a “new solar strategy,” to reach a goal to obtain 20% of the nation’s energy from renewables by 2000. He observes, “In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy…. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”* [see 1986]

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1982 Exxon Corporation management receives “wide circulation” of a primer on CO2 and climate change

As reported in a 2015 InsideClimate News investigative report, “Exxon: The Road Not Taken,” the primer given to Exxon management is based on extensive research performed by the company since 1977. The primer states that heading off global warming “would require major reductions in fossil fuel combustion.” Unless that happens, “there are some potentially catastrophic events that must be considered. …Once the effects are measurable, they might not be reversible.” The primer is marked “not to be distributed externally.” In a September, 1982 report summarizing Exxon’s own climate research, Roger Cohen, head of theoretical sciences at Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories, states that "Over the past several years a clear scientific consensus has emerged," which concludes that a doubling of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would produce average global warming of 3 degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.5 degrees C. “There is unanimous agreement in the scientific community that a temperature increase of this magnitude would bring about significant changes in the earth's climate, including rainfall distribution and alterations in the biosphere." Cohen urges publication of these findings because it is our "ethical responsibility is to permit the publication of our research in the scientific literature," while he acknowledges the "connection between Exxon's major business and the role of fossil fuel combustion in contributing to the increase of atmospheric CO2." Exxon will follow his advice: “Between 1983 and 1984, its researchers published their results in at least three peer-reviewed papers in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences and an American Geophysical Union monograph.”* * Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer, “Exxon: The Road Not Taken”, InsideClimate News , Sept. 15, 2015, http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming

1983 The views of climate scientists and economists diverge markedly in a new National Academy of Sciences report on climate change The National Academy of Sciences report, “Changing Climate: Report of the Carbon Dioxide Assessment Committee,” includes five chapters detailing the likelihood of climate change written by climate scientists, including Roger Revelle [see 1957, 1965], and two chapters by economists, including Thomas Schelling [see 1980]. The views diverge markedly. Schelling argues that it is a mistake to assume a “preference for… dealing with causes rather than symptoms… It would be wrong to commit ourselves to the principle that if fossil fuels and carbon dioxide are where the problem arises, that must also be where the solution lies.” The economist William Nierenberg, who chairs the Committee, stresses human migration and adaptation as the likely most economical approach to the problem. Physicist Alvin Weinberg writes a scathing critique of the report, as “so seriously flawed in its underlying analysis and in its conclusions… Does the Committee really believe that the United States or Western Europe or Canada would accept the huge influx of refugees from poor countries that have suffered a drastic shift in rainfall pattern?”*[see 1989] * Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010),

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1990 Secretary of State James Baker’s presentation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proposes a modest, “no-regrets” strategy, taking only those actions which are justified for other reasons, such as increasing fuel efficiency This approach is in conflict with the approach advocated by other countries of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which favor targets and timetables.* The political rationale for Secretary of State James Baker’s approach is outlined in a Feb., 1989 Department of State briefing paper declassified in 2015, under the caption “Opportunities and Problems:” “The most important cause of global warming is CO2 emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. The costs to society of a major cutback in the use of such fuels could be immense (e.g., as much as half a trillion dollars to replace U.S. coal-based electricity generation alone). Major uncertainties about the offsetting effect of an anticipated increase in cloud cover, the dynamics of the ocean/atmosphere interface and other key variables make it difficult to justify those costs politically. But a number of prudent measures could be taken that we would never regret, whether or not global warming ever occurs e.g., increased efficiency in energy use, global reforestation, and phasing out CFC [chlorofluorocarbon] production and use.”** *Karen Fisher-Vanden, “International Policy Instrument Prominence in the Climate Change Debate: A Case Study of the United States.” ENRP Discussion Paper E-97-06, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, August 1997, 14, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/51e2/55ee1e32368df19d41ab1ac5d34a04e7a6e5.pdf **Frederick M. Bernthal, Memorandum to the Secretary, Department of State, “Review of Key Policy Issues: The Environment,” February 27, 1989, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB536-Reagan-Bush-Recognized-Need-for-US-Leadership-on-ClimateChange-in-1980s/documents/Document%2010.pdf

1991 Economist William Nierenberg and the Marshall Institute attack the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and argue that global temperatures will increase at most by 1 degree Celsius by the end of the 21st century In a presentation to the World Petroleum Congress, economist William Nierenberg [see 1983, 1989] and the Marshall Institute attack the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), arguing that global temperatures will increase at most by 1 degree Celsius by the end of the 21st century. In a letter to the American Petroleum Institute, Marshall Institute physicist Robert Jastrow states that “It is generally considered in the scientific community that the Marshall report was responsible for the Administration’s opposition to carbon taxes and restrictions on fossil fuel consumption,” and claims that the Marshall Institute “is still the controlling influence in the White House.” * *Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010), 189-190.

1991 Yale economist William Nordhaus makes a “highly tentative” estimate that the economic damage from a 3-degree Celsius rise in global mean temperature could be “1/4% output for today’s United States economy” Yale economist William Nordhaus publishes an assessment of the costs of global warming, “To Slow or Not to Slow: The Economics of the Greenhouse Effect,” in The Economic Journal. He provides a “highly tentative” estimate that the damage from a 3-degree Celsius rise in global mean temperature could be “1/4% output for today’s United States economy,” but notes that “There are clearly unmeasured and unmeasurable impacts which might raise this impact to 1%, or at most 2% of total global output.” He describes the latter estimate as a “hunch.” Nordhaus’s estimate excludes non-marketed resources such as biodiversity and species loss, damage to human health, non-commercial recreation, and ecosystem damage. He estimates the global costs of greenhouse gas emissions reductions at $2 billion a year for a 10% reduction, $31 billion for a 25% reduction, and $191 billion for a 50% reduction.* This work is influential in supporting the U.S. position against mandatory emissions reduction in international negotiations, and encounters significant criticism by other economists.** *William Nordhaus, “To Slow or Not to Slow: The Economics of the Greenhouse Effect,” The Economic Journal 101, no. 407 (July 1991): 920-937, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2233864?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents **Clive L. Splash, Greenhouse Economics: Value and Ethics (Taylor & Francis: 2002), 161-170

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9/20 found artl that was mostly timeline but forgot to put here

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rick piltz org:

Our review of Exxon Corporation’s 10-K forms, in light of key developments in climate science and policy in the years we reviewed, provided a troubling but insightful timeline. The stark contrast between what Exxon was sharing with its investors and what the rest of the scientific community was reporting to the rest of the world was remarkable, and incriminating of Exxon.

1993 is the earliest year for which we could find an online 10-K for Exxon Corp; we closely reviewed the 10-Ks for 1993-2015 — 23 years worth. Of course to glean an even more comprehensive understanding of what Exxon was saying about climate change and when it was saying it, It will also be important to review Forms 10-K (and perhaps other financial and risk analysis reporting) for the time period beginning in the early 1970s (when Exxon began gearing up to conduct extensive in-house research on carbon dioxide in our oceans) through 1992 as well, to complete the timeline. In the meanwhile, we can set the scene with an initial abbreviated timeline leading up to 1993.

Contrary to popular notions, the story really begins about 150 years ago, much earlier than the 1970s.

INITIAL TIMELINEThe following are some key developments regarding Exxon and climate change, going back to the origins of both Exxon and our awareness of the prospect of global warming. Interestingly, they happened at approximately the same time in human history.

1870: Standard Oil Company (Exxon’s predecessor) was formally established by John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in Ohio.

1890: Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, preventing monopolies like the one Standard Oil had become.

1896: Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, first published his findings after developing the first model for studying the heat-trapping properties and effects on our atmosphere and climate of industrial carbon dioxide. He was one of several scientists of the time to study and call attention to Earth’s changing climate and the role rising CO2 could play.

1911: In enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act, the US Justice Department forced Standard Oil to break up into 34 individual companies.

1920s-1950s: Scientific papers addressing the prospect of global warming and its effect on the Arctic and our glaciers are appearing in scientific literature throughout the developed world.

1957: The National Academy of Sciences submitted its First General Report on Climatology to the Chief of the Weather Bureau through a Committee on Climatology chaired by Dr. Thomas F. Malone. (AIP, NCBI)

1958: Charles David Keeling began taking atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa Laboratory in Hawaii, initiating what has become the most reliable and longest continuous record of tropospheric CO2 concentrations in the world. These essential measurements continue to this day.

1962: Exxon Corporation takes an ad out in the February issue of LIFE Magazine, against a backdrop photograph of Alaska’s Taku Glacier, boasting that Humble Oil and Refining (an Exxon predecessor) supplies enough energy “to melt 7 tons of glacier.”

1965: President Lyndon Johnson warned about the potential dangers of a changing climate in a special message to Congress: “Air pollution is no longer confined to isolated places. This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”

1972: Gas stations bearing the names Esso and Enco were newly named “Exxon” and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey changed its name to the Exxon Corporation.

1977: In July, Exxon senior scientist James F. Black warned top Exxon management of the dangers associated with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from fossil fuel combustion. “Present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to ten years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical,” Black admonishes in an internal briefing paper for Exxon leadership. (Hat tip to InsideClimate News for it’s stellar investigative reporting on this topic.)

1977 and beyond: As early as 1977, representatives of all the major oil companies including Exxon attended and testified at dozens of Congressional hearings addressing the relationship between CO2 emissions, the greenhouse effect, and global warming. Climate scientists such as former GAP client Dr. James Hansen, Charles Keeling, Richard Kerr, and others were busy publishing papers warning of the hazards of global warming as a result of fossil fuel combustion. (UCS report)

1978: Congress passed into law the National Climate Program Act for federal climate science research, a law spearheaded by Rep. George E. Brown of California.

1979: Exxon scientist Henry Shaw led company teams who began to study the absorption rate of CO2 in the oceans. “Exxon must develop a credible scientific team that can critically evaluate the information generated on the subject and be able to carry bad news, if any, to the corporation,” Shaw wrote in a letter to Exxon research executives. (InsideClimate News)

1980s: Scientific papers addressing the growing evidence of the global warming and global climate change threat became even more frequent and compelling.

1987: The National Academy of Sciences issued its first major report on the prospect of rising oceans: Responding to Changes in Sea Level: Engineering Implications.

1988: Dr. James Hansen delivered famous testimony before Congress, declaring that climate change was real, it had arrived, and was already causing impacts. His testimony caused a major splash in the media and news of his conclusions rippled through organizations concerned about our global environment. Exxon had also taken notice: an internal memo from August 1988 lays out the beginnings of what would later become the “global warming denial machine,” a term of art coined and well documented by CSPW founder Rick Piltz. (UCS report)

1989: The United Nations created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

1989: The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) — a well-known front-group for fossil fuel interests — was created in 1989, shortly after the IPCC’s first meeting, operating out of the offices of the National Association of Manufacturers. Exxon Corp. was one of its earliest members, along with Chevron, Ford, General Motors, Shell, Texaco, and of course, the American Petroleum Institute. Throughout the 1990s until it disbands in 1997, the GCC grooms and dispatches well-known climate “skeptics” Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling, Fred Singer, and others (all partly funded by Exxon) as “climate science experts.” (UCS report)

1989: Exxon hired Harvard-educated astrophysicist Brian Flannery to examine the mathematical models being used to better understand global warming and project future scenarios. Through Exxon, Flannery granted funding to universities, starting with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, funding with strings. Flannery was clear in providing direction to MIT researchers: “Embrace the uncertainty in all of this.”

1989: On March 24, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, causing one of the most massive and destructive oil spills in world history.

1990: Exxon faces its first climate-related shareholder resolution, proposed by Brion Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth. With 250,000 Exxon shares, Blackwelder asked Exxon’s Board of Directors to develop a company-wide plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the company’s energy production plants and facilities worldwide.” Exxon pushed its typical “scientific uncertainty” message in its opposition statement: “Exxon’s own examination supports the idea that the facts today and the projection of future effects are very unclear.” The proposal was defeated, winning only six percent of the vote. But, it was a start. (ICN: Exxon’s 25 Years of ‘No’)

1990: Exxon scientist Brian Flannery inserts himself into the IPCC process, submitting papers, attending meetings, and, as the first IPCC summary document on climate change was being prepared by scientists, Flannery boldly asked the drafters how they could justify large cuts in CO2 emissions, given all the uncertainties?

1990: The US Global Change Research Act — a much-improved version of the National Climate Program Act — was signed into law; the GCRA codified (i.e. mandated by law) the interagency US Global Change Research Program, where CSW founder Rick Piltz later held senior positions from 1995-2005.

1991: The National Academy of Sciences issued another seminal report: Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming.

1992: While still a US Senator from Tennessee, soon to be named Vice President, Al Gore wrote his first book addressing the climate problem: Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.

Without the 10-K reports for these years, especially for the 1970s when the company was conducting its own research on carbon dioxide in the oceans, it is difficult to know what Exxon was revealing to the SEC and its shareholders regarding its understanding of the relationship between fossil fuel combustion and global warming. Even so, we can learn much from the 23 years of 10-Ks from 1993-2015: CSPW’s summary and analysis, with important points of context, begins below for the period 1993-2000.

Part Two of this series will cover the period 2001-2008. Part Three will cover 2009-2015. Each of these reports was prepared by Exxon’s accounting firm, Price Waterhouse LLP, which merged with Coopers & Lybrand in 1998 to become PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, now known simply as PwC, the 6th largest privately owned organization in the US.

[1993 BAD btu TAX BEAT?]

1993: In January 1993, Lee Raymond had officially taken the helm as Exxon’s Chair of the Board and CEO, held previously by Lawrence Rawl. For calendar (and fiscal) year 1993 — again, the earliest year we could find Exxon’s SEC filings online — Exxon Corporation’s Form 10-K makes no mention of climate change at all. A global word search yields zero results for each of the following search terms: “climate,” “weather,” “global warming,” “carbon dioxide,” “CO2,” or “greenhouse gases.” In addressing overall risks, Exxon had this to say to the SEC and its shareholders:

“The operations and earnings of the corporation and its affiliates throughout the world have been, and may in the future be, affected from time to time in varying degree by political developments and laws and regulations, such as forced divestiture of assets; restrictions on production, imports and exports; price controls; tax increases and retroactive tax claims; expropriation of property; cancellation of contract rights and environmental regulations(emphasis added). Both the likelihood of such occurrences and their overall effect upon the corporation vary greatly from country to country and are not predictable (emphasis added).”

This theme — that the Exxon leadership views future potential environmental regulations as (potentially adversely) affecting “operations and earnings” and are unpredictable — and language similar to it, carries through all of the 10-K statements we reviewed.

As the SEC requires reporting on company litigation matters, the 1993 10-K includes a paragraph regarding the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spillin Prince William Sound, Alaska:

“A number of lawsuits, including class actions, have been brought in various courts against Exxon Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries relating to the release of crude oil from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. Most of these lawsuits seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages; several lawsuits seek damages in varying specified amounts. Certain of the lawsuits seek injunctive relief. The claims of many individuals have been dismissed or settled. Most of the remaining actions are scheduled for trial in federal court commencing May 2, 1994. Other actions will likely be tried in state court later in 1994. The cost to the corporation from these lawsuits is not possible to predict; however, it is believed that the final outcome will not have a materially adverse effect upon the corporation’s operations or financial condition.”

Exxon never did pay for long-term environmental damages to Prince William Sound and its vast shoreline.

1994: With the exception of changes in the financial details, the 10-K for FY 1994 is essentially the same as that for FY 1993. No mention is made of climate, global warming, carbon dioxide, CO2, or greenhouse gases. There is one mention of “weather” — Exxon notes that “despite unseasonably warm temperatures in both the US and Europe during the fourth quarter of 1994, worldwide natural gas production” still rose from 1993 levels. So, shareholders: no worries, thumbs up.

1995: The Form 10-K for FY 1995 also makes no mention at all of climate, weather, global warming, carbon dioxide, CO2, or greenhouse gases. However, Exxon reassured investors that, although a federal judge had imposed punitive damage verdicts against the company for the “accidental release” (their words) of oil in Alaska, the verdict was “unjustified” and Exxon vowed to appeal. The underlying message was that Exxon simply could not, would not, allow Valdez liabilities to cut too deeply into the lucrative profit margin.

Meanwhile, the oil industry’s own scientists had been warning of climate change dangers, and we have evidence to prove it. For example, a leaked internal draft document prepared in 1995 by a team of scientists at Mobil Corporation (which had not yet merged with Exxon), intended for fossil industry executives but not the general public, unequivocally states:

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.”

While there are plenty of other sources to cite, CSPW would like to recommend an informative, well-documented dissertation addressing the full extent of Big Oil’s role in over-emphasizing scientific uncertainties regarding anthropogenic climate change: a 2015 report produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists, The Climate Deception Dossiers.

Tropospheric CO2 concentrations were rising fast: at the famous Mauna Loa laboratory, Charles Keeling was continuing (as he always had since 1958) to measure and report atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. In 1995 he published a scientific paper in Nature, “Interannual Extremes in the Rate of Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide since 1980.” By 1995, the climate problem was well known and knowable; one would have to have been an ostrich with its head in the sand not to understand that we were conducting an enormous experiment with Earth’s atmosphere with potentially dire consequences.

1996: Our reading experience of Form 10-K for FY 1996, in the words of Yogi Berra, was “Déjà vu all over again.” Mention of climate or anything related: zip. The weather, however, is mentioned in a positive note for investors: in 1996 natural gas production rose to the highest level in 15 years, up nine percent from the year before, “due to colder weather in Europe and the US.” The relationship between weather conditions and product sales does not escape Exxon.

Meanwhile, the IPCC released two major reports in 1996: The Science of Climate Change, and Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific-Technical Analysesby Robert T. Watson, IPCC’s Chair in 1996. (Note: Exxon would later play a major role in ousting Watson from this position, in full character in its role as global bully).

1997: Our review of Form 10-K for FY 1997 revealed more of the same, with some variations and, of course, updated financials for fiscal year 1997. Exxon was doing well, holding its superior position in the global marketplace. The fact that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was imposing penalties of up to $25,000 per day for Clean Air Act violations at Exxon’s Baytown, Texas oil refinery was reported almost as a minor nuisance. Again, Exxon’s 10-K was completely devoid of any mention of climate, weather, global warming, carbon dioxide (CO2), or greenhouse gases.

What was the climate change backdrop in 1997?

The most reliable data set for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations being gathered at Mauna Loa Observatory was about to turn 40 years old; Dr. Charles Keeling received a special achievement award from then Vice President Gore at a July 1997 White House ceremony.

The buzz regarding the fossil industry’s wholesale denial of climate change gained some new energy. Journalist Ross Gelbspan published his first book about climate change denial: The Heat is On: The High Stakes Battle over Earth’s Threatened Climate.

Exxon’s leaders were worried and anxious in anticipation of the upcoming climate negotiations among world leaders in December when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was to take place in Kyoto, Japan. Exxon’s Chairman and CEO Lee Raymond delivered a major speech in October 1997 to the World Petroleum Congress in Beijing. He opened by bragging that Exxon had been selling odorless kerosene oil to the Chinese people since 1910 and giving away kerosene lamps, gaining Exxon the nickname “Keepers of Light” among the Chinese people. He noted that the area of the world open for energy development had increased by one third, and emphasized the dominant role of fossil fuels in meeting energy needs. A good part of his speech was devoted to dismissing climate change as a real problem and warning how “tragic” it would be if the region was “deprived of the opportunity for continued prosperity by misguided restrictions and regulations” addressing carbon emissions.

Exxon Corp. was essentially petrified of any sort of global consensus on driving down global greenhouse gas emissions as the result of the upcoming Kyoto climate negotiations. Exxon was not alone: all of the majors in the oil and gas industry, well-represented by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and its so-called Global Climate Science Communications Team, were doing their best to derail an agreement on placing limits on carbon emissions and thus constraining fossil fuel use, as there is no way to “scrub” CO2 out of emissions like we can for the pollutants causing acid rain. Raymond argued:

“Proponents of the [Kyoto Protocol] agreements say they are necessary because burning fossil fuels causes global warming. Many people – politicians and the public alike – believe that global warming is a rock-solid certainty. But it’s not… the case for so called global warming is far from airtight. You would think that all the uncertainty would give political leaders pause. Unfortunately, it hasn’t, and officials continue to insist that agreement is needed in Kyoto.”

Uncertainty (and thus, doubt) is precisely the product Exxon was selling (a notion well-documented in the book authored by Naomi Oreskes, Merchants of Doubt), and its CEO was doing all he could to ensure the message stuck. The brand of doubt and scientific uncertainty being sold was indeed a form of denial, being strategically employed as a tool to help ensure delay of public policy regulating CO2 emissions.

“We need to understand the issue better, and fortunately, we have time,” Raymond assured his audience, “It is highly unlikely that the temperature in the middle of the next century will be significantly affected whether policies are enacted now or 20 years from now.” Exxon’s own scientists knew better, as we have since learned through investigations by InsideClimate and others. (And, of course, consensus of the Parties to the UNFCCC was reached anyway, resulting in the Kyoto Protocol.)

1998: The warmest year (on average) on Earth, in the warmest decade, in the warmest century, for at least a thousand years, as noted in a climate change timeline prepared by the World Wildlife Fund.

And yet, Exxon’s Form 10-K for FY 1998, once again, failed to make any mention of climate, global warming, carbon dioxide (CO2), or greenhouse gases. Again, a full paragraph is devoted to ongoing litigation surrounding the Exxon Valdez oil spill, nearly a decade after the disaster, and Exxon reasserts its belief that punitive damages being sought by federal courts are “unwarranted.” Exxon’s big news for 1998 was that it had successfully merged with Mobil Corporation to become ExxonMobil, a deal that was formally sealed on November 30, 1998.

It’s not like Exxon wasn’t prodded again that year to consider the climate change problem. At its annual shareholders meeting in May 1998, a resolution was proposed asking the company to consider and report on the impact climate change would have on its operations and business, liabilities it might face for contributing to the problem, and how it could cut carbon emissions. After a failed attempt to get the SEC to block the proposal, claiming it “implies a scientific certainty on climate change which, in fact, does not exist,” the resolution was put to a vote and handily defeated, with less than 5% of the shareholders voting yea. (This resolution and others are well-chronicled in the InsideClimate report, *Exxon’s 25 Years of ‘No’*)

While the public was kept in the dark at the time, we now know that Exxon Corporation’s Washington, DC lobbyist, Randy Randol, contributed substantially to an API internal strategy memo dated April 3, 1998 laying out the scope of a Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan designed to convince “average citizens” and the media of “uncertainties” in scientific findings regarding climate change, despite nearly unanimous agreement in the global scientific community and an abundance of evidence of anthropogenic global warming. The action plan was taken right out of the Big Tobacco playbook for deceiving the public on the health hazards of cigarette smoking, noting that “victory” would be achieved once the notion of scientific uncertainty regarding climate change had been embraced by the general public and policymakers. This diabolical plan was crafted by the Global Climate Science Communications Team whose members, in addition to Exxon’s Randol, included representatives of The Marshall Institute, Frontiers of Freedom, The Southern Company, Chevron Corporation, and the American Petroleum Institute (See the UCS 2015 report *The Climate Deception Dossiers*).

Attorneys General in California, New York, and other states that may decide to investigate ExxonMobil and other oil companies, to determine whether they misrepresented to shareholders the known risks of climate change and a host of accompanying impacts, should take a hard look at the April 1998 oil industry communications action plan memo in light of what Exxon was telling — and failing to tell — its own investors about the way it perceived the climate change threat.

So, what else was happening in 1998 on the climate change science and policy front?

The newly crafted Kyoto Protocol now required ratification by a requisite number of participating nations, so the question became one of whether the US Senate would take up the matter and ratify the agreement. As we well know, it did not, and hasn’t since.

1998 represented the 40-year mark for continuous measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere taken at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, overseen by Charles Keeling. Levels had risen from 316 parts per million (by volume) in 1958 to 369 ppm in 1998. The upward trend was unmistakable and tracked closely with global fossil fuel use.

The following are citations for some of the scientific papers that were published in 1998; note the publication authored by known climate denier Fred Singer, attempting to plant more seeds of scientific uncertainty:

Keeling, Charles D. (1998). “Rewards and Penalties of Monitoring the Earth.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 23: 25-82.

Kerr, Richard A. (1998). “Among Global Thermometers, Warming Wins Out.” Science 281: 1948-49.

Mann, Michael E., et al. (1998). “Global-Scale Temperature Patterns and Climate Forcing over the Past Six Centuries.” Nature 392: 779-87

Oppenheimer, Michael (1998). “Global Warming and the Stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.” Nature 393: 325-32.

Rosenzweig, Cynthia, and Daniel Hillel (1998). Climate Change and the Global Harvest: Potential Effects of the Greenhouse Effect on Agriculture. New York: Oxford University Press.

Singer, S. Fred (1998). Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate. Oakland, CA: Independent Institute.

1999: The seventh 10-K we reviewed, Form 10-K for FY 1999, followed in the tradition of failing to mention any prospect of climate change or global warming, carbon dioxide, or greenhouse gases. The report does contain, however, extensive discussions of the extraction of Alberta tar sands as part of a joint venture called Syncrude, something Mobil Corp brought to the table in the merger. And, with “Y2K” fast approaching, much discussion was devoted to compliance with requirements for ensuring a smooth transition into the year 2000.

In November 1999, Kenneth P. Cohen was named Vice President, Public & Government Affairs — a position he kept until his forced retirement at age 65 in January 2016. Cohen did his part, and then some, to carry forward the elements of the communications action plan designed to cast in stone a public perception of the inherent uncertainty of climate science. The plan was oft referred to as diabolical in climate change policy circles, and, it worked. Public opinion was swayed, a conclusion that has been verified and well documented in the study by Justin Farrell published by the National Academy of Sciences (see abstract).

Also in 1999, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences published a report, Global Environmental Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade(online here) addressing areas of scientific research needing attention. (See later discussion under 2001).

Some of the more notable scientific papers published in 1999 included:

Immerwahr, John (1999). “Waiting for a Signal: Public Attitudes toward Global Warming, the Environment and Geophysical Research.” New York: Public Agenda

Krabill, William, et al. (1999). “Rapid Thinning of Parts of the Southern Greenland Ice Sheet.” Science 283: 1522-24.

Mann, Michael E., et al. (1999). “Northern Hemisphere Temperatures During the Past Millennium: Inferences, Uncertainties, and Limitations.” Geophysical Research Letters 26: 759-62.

Jeremy Leggett authored an insightful book,The Carbon War: Dispatches from the End of the Oil Century, relating a first-hand account of climate negotiations throughout the 1990s. And, again, we see a publication by Fred Singer sowing more doubt and uncertainty:

Singer, S. Fred (1999). “Human Contribution to Climate Change Remains Questionable.” Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 80(16): 183-87.

2000: With apologies for painful repetition, Form 10-K for FY 2000 also avoided mentioning climate change, global warming, carbon dioxide, or greenhouse gases. The merger with Mobil had not only introduced Synfuels to the Exxon portfolio, it had also brought additional problems for the company with the EPA: several refineries and oil production facilities that had been owned and operated by Mobil were penalized and fined for violating federal clean air and water laws.

For the US, it was a historic presidential election year. President Bill Clinton was serving the last year of a two-term presidency. The November election results were too close to call, resulting in a December 12, 2000 landmark decision by the Supreme Court to name George W. Bush as the 43rd President of the United States.

Meanwhile, the US Global Change Research Program had finally met one of its more important legal mandates: to produce a scientific assessment report to Congress, due at least once every four years, that:

Integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings;

Analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity;

Analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years.For the first time since the GCRA had been passed into law, the USGCRP National Assessment Synthesis Team published and distributed its report to Congress and the public: Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change.

By 2000, even scientific papers reflected the dichotomy of public opinion versus known scientific findings that had high degree of confidence. A certain amount of national cognitive dissonance was well underway, and little imagination is needed to visualize Exxon’s high-fives.

Hansen, James E., et al. (2000). “Climate Modeling in the Global Warming Debate.” In General Circulation Model Development, edited by David A. Randall, pp. 127-64. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Hansen, James E., et al. (2000). “Global Warming in the Twenty-First Century: An Alternative Scenario.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 9875-80.

Krosnick, Jon A., et al. (2000). “The Impact of the Fall 1997 Debate About Global Warming on American Public Opinion.” Public Understanding of Science 9: 239-60.

Lovelock, James E. (2000). Homage to Gaia. The Life of an Independent Scientist. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap (2000). “Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement’s Counter-Claims.” Social Problems 47: 499-522.

Newell, P. (2000). Climate for Change: Non-State Actors and the Global Politics of the Greenhouse. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Sarewitz, Daniel, and Roger Pielke, Jr. (2000). “Breaking the Global-Warming Gridlock.” Atlantic Monthly, July, pp. 55-64.

:{Preview to Our Next Post: :{ExxonMobil’s 10-Ks for 2001-2008

On January 20, 2001 President George W. Bush took office. This would mark the beginning of an unprecedented level of access to the White House for many major oil, gas, and coal companies, including of course, ExxonMobil. One would think that, by now, with all of the compelling evidence from the previous decades, increased world attention to the problem at the level of the United Nations, and the growing sense in the US that we must act decisively to avoid the many problematic impacts carefully outlined in the USGCRP National Assessment report, ExxonMobil might begin to talk about the climate change threat in its Form 10-K for FY 2001.}:

One would be wrong…

Senior CSPW Contributor Anne Polansky has 30 years of experience in public policies relating to energy and the environment, with a strong focus on climate change and renewable energy.

This entry was posted in Climate Science Watch. Bookmark the permalink.

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https://whistleblower.org/general/climate-science-watch/exxonmobil-and-climate-change-a-story-of-denial-delay-and-delusion-told-in-forms-10-k-2001-2008/

pt 2

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exxon knew

timeline infographic: https://insideclimatenews.org/content/long-tale-exxon-and-climate-change

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guk

no lnx guk

Timeline

Half a century of dither and denial – a climate crisis timeline

Fossil fuel companies have been aware of their impact on the planet since at least the 1950s

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api knew?

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08042020/science-denial-coronavirus-covid-climate-change

American science denialism, deployed for years against climate change and, most recently, the coronavirus, can be traced back to the early 1950s during the fight over smog in Los Angeles.

When a Cal-Tech biochemist fingered nitrogen oxide emissions and uncombusted hydrocarbons from automobiles and refineries as the cause of the thick smog that often blanketed the city, theAmerican Petroleum Institutecounter-attacked by highlighting the alleged uncertainty of his science.The tactic was a test run for the fossil fuel industry's assault 40 years later on climate science.

Decades of climate denial now appear to have paved the way for denial of Covid-19 by many on the right, according to experts on climate politics. After the fossil fuel industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars attacking climate scientists and accentuating the supposed uncertainty of climate science, it isn't hard to understand how that happened.

President Trump, who denies climate change, has brushed off Covid-19's seriousness until recently by relying on many of the same arguments he uses to dismiss global warming, such as ignoring government scientists or blaming China. ...

1959

The physicist Edward Teller tells the American Petroleum Institute (API) a 10% increase in CO2 will be sufficient to melt the icecap and submerge New York. “I think that this chemical contamination is more serious than most people tend to believe.”

1965

Lyndon Johnson’s President’s Science Advisory Committee states that “pollutants have altered on a global scale the carbon dioxide content of the air”, with effects that “could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings”. Summarising the findings, the head of the API warned the industry: “Time is running out.”

1970

Shell and BP begin funding scientific research in Britain this decade to examine climate impacts from greenhouse gases.

1977

A recently filed lawsuit claims Exxon scientists told management in 1977 there was an “overwhelming” consensus that fossil fuels were responsible for atmospheric carbon dioxide increases.

1981

An internal Exxon memo warns “it is distinctly possible” that CO2 emissions from the company’s 50-year plan “will later produce effects which will indeed be catastrophic (at least for a substantial fraction of the Earth’s population)”.

1988

The Nasa scientist James Hansen testifies to the US Senate that “the greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now”. In the US presidential campaign, George Bush Sr says: “Those who think we are powerless to do anything about the greenhouse effect forget about the White House effect … As president, I intend to do something about it.”

2 January 1988

A confidential report prepared for Shell’s environmental conservation committee finds CO2 could raise temperatures by 1C to 2C over the next 40 years with changes that may be “the greatest in recorded history”. It urges rapid action by the energy industry. “By the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even stabilise the situation,” it states.

1989

Exxon, Shell, BP and other fossil fuel companies establish the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a lobbying group that challenges the science on global warming and delays action to reduce emissions.

1990

Exxon funds two researchers, Dr Fred Seitz and Dr Fred Singer, who dispute the mainstream consensus on climate science. Seitz and Singer were previously paid by the tobacco industry and questioned the hazards of smoking. Singer, who has denied being on the payroll of the tobacco or energy industry, has said his financial relationships do not influence his research.

1991

Shell’s public information film Climate of Concern acknowledges there is a “possibility of change faster than at any time since the end of the ice age, change too fast, perhaps, for life to adapt without severe dislocation”.

1992

At the Rio Earth summit, countries sign up to the world’s first international agreement to stabilise greenhouse gases and prevent dangerous manmade interference with the climate system. This establishes the UN framework convention on climate change. Bush Sr says: “The US fully intends to be the pre-eminent world leader in protecting the global environment.”

[1993 BAD btu TAX BEAT?] NO BILL FOR A DECADE?

1997

Two month’s before the Kyoto climate conference, Mobil (later merged with Exxon) takes out an ad in The New York Times titled Reset the Alarm, which says: “Let’s face it: the science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil.”

1998

The US refuses to ratify the Kyoto protocol after intense opposition from oil companies and the GCC.

2006 INC TRUTH

2007 IPCC 4TH ATTACKED BY AEI, EXXON, WHY? 1ST DEFINITIVE?

2009

The US senator Jim Inhofe, whose main donors are in the oil and gas industry, leads the “Climategate” misinformation attack on scientists on the opening day of the crucial UN climate conference in Copenhagen, which ends in disarray.

1 January 2013

A study by Richard Heede, published in the journal Climatic Change, reveals 90 companies are responsible for producing two-thirds of the carbon that has entered the atmosphere since the start of the industrial age in the mid-18th century.

1 January 2016

The API removes a claim on its website that the human contribution to climate change is “uncertain”, after an outcry.

1 January 2017

Exxon, Chevron and BP each donate at least $500,000 for the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.

2019

Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of Opec, which represents Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran and several other oil states, says climate campaigners are the biggest threat to the industry and claims they are misleading the public with unscientific warnings about global warming.

Jonathan Watts

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YhTZWC-wk_IPmFL27PZNfD19m4qpS2eSEe1dvXYCA3w/edit?usp=sharing

Chronology

1827: French scientist Jean-Baptiste Fourier is the first to consider the "greenhouse effect", the phenomenon whereby atmospheric gases trap solar energy, increasing Earth's surface temperature.

1896Arrhenius publishes first calculation of global warming from human emissions of CO2. =>Simple models

1949 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

In December, 1953,H&K designed thetobacco industry's strategy for counteracting scientific evidence which linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer. The campaign began with the publication of a full-page newspaper ad called The Frank Statement [2] which was printed in hundreds of newspapers throughout the USA in January, 1954. H&K also helped organize the Council for Tobacco Research [3]. As a result, H&K was named a co-defendant of Philip Morris in numerous tobacco lawsuits.

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api knew? 1954?

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08042020/science-denial-coronavirus-covid-climate-change

American science denialism, deployed for years against climate change and, most recently, the coronavirus, can be traced back to the early 1950s during the fight over smog in Los Angeles.

1960: Climate science gets a key tool with the "Keeling Curve," a yardstick of rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere.

LBJ Sci Adv Comm said co2 significant impact on climate (even ocean acid)

1970First Earth Day. Environmental movement attains strong influence, spreads concern about global degradation. =>Public opinion

1971 Powell Memo (leads to 1973 4 sisters)? CTT

1973 oil embargo

Post-Watergate reforms: Church hearings, campaign finance, FOIA?

1977 cooling over, consensus on warming

1981

Election of Reagan brings backlash against environmental movement to power. Political conservatism is linked to skepticism about global warming. =>Government

IBM Personal Computer introduced. Advanced economies are increasingly delinked from energy.

Hansen and others show that sulfate aerosols can significantly cool the climate, raising confidence in models showing future greenhouse warming. =>Aerosols

Some scientists predict greenhouse warming "signal" should be visible by about the year 2000. =>Modern temp's

1984 Heartland founded (PM tobacco)

1987 montreal ~cfc; end fairness doctrine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine

1988: UN sets up a scientific authority to vet the evidence on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). B1 elected

Denialspere really kicked in 1988 Thatcher says real, Hansen testifies to congress; media consolidation; Limbaugh moves to NYC

Bush 1 elected 1988, lost 1992

1989 GCC founded, Berlin wall falls, GMI sees green as new red

1990: First IPCC reportsays levels of man-made greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere and predicts these will cause global warming.

1990 Geneva Conf on world climate; 700 sci reviews ripcc rport and issued Scientist's Declaration urged immed action US says no regrets policy

In 1990 SINGER set up the Science & Environmental Protection Project (SEPP) to argue against preventive measures against global warming. After the 1991 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Earth Summit, Singer started writing and speaking out frequently to cast doubt on the science.

1992:Rio Summitagrees to set up the UNFCCC, a vehicle for addressing climate change. The UNFCCC today has 194 parties. rio said sci uncertain shd not stop action; Jacques et al said this catalyzed ctr-movement mirror (threat to global capitalism, seek allies); got geared up just in time for: Clinton elected

BTU tax 1993 first attempt at US carbon legiSlation? NAM and GCC, American Energy Alliance (BM) handed Clinton his ass, demos understood danger

[1993 BAD btu TAX BEAT?] NO NEW BILL FOR A DECADE?

1994 STATS GMU

1995 When the IPCC released its Second Assessment Report (SAR) in 1995, it met a similarly aggressive response.

1997: UNFCCC members sign the Kyoto Protocol. Under its first commitment period, industrialised countries must cut emissions of six greenhouse gases so they are 5.2 percent lower than 1990 levels by the end of 2012. (Byrd-Hagel) Gore

1998 API et al game plan = doubt (admits AGW exists in secret docs?)

2000 Bush2 "elected" Brooks bros

2001 – the Third Assessment Report (TAR)

http://www.projectcensored.org/8-secrets-of-cheneys-energy-task-force-come-to-light/

2001Third IPCC report states baldly that global warming, unprecedented since end of last ice age, is "very likely," with possible severe surprises. Effective end of debate among all but a few scientists. =>International

Bonn meeting, with participation of most countries but not US, develops mechanisms for working towards Kyoto targets. =>International

National Academy panel sees a "paradigm shift" in scientific recognition of the risk of abrupt climate change (decade-scale). =>Rapid change

Warming observed in ocean basins; match with computer models gives a clear signature of greenhouse effect warming. =>Models (GCMs)

2001 Luntz memo

2001: The Kyoto Protocol, still in framework form, is abandoned by the United States, then the world's biggest carbon emitter. The pact is saved by the European Union (EU), which pilots an agreement on its rulebook and mechanisms, opening the way to ratification.

McCain-Liberman 2003; Gov Davis recall, Govinator

2005: Kyoto Protocol takes effect on February 16.

2005 Katrina; energy bill haliburton loophole

2006: China overtakes the United States as the world's No. 1 carbon emitter. Inc truth

CA 2006 AB 32 under Arnold? (prop 23 tried to reverse)

2007: 4th Assessment Report by the IPCC says evidence for global warming is "unequivocal" and forecasts warming of 1.8-4.0 degrees C (3.2-7.2 degrees F) by 2100 and an unquantifiable rise in sea levels. Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to IPCC and former US vice president Al Gore, whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" raised climate change awareness. UNFCCC parties agree a "Bali Road Map" for negotiating a post-2012 climate treaty. (AR4) At the end of 2007, the IPCC released the final document in its fourth assessment (AR4): the Synthesis report.

It confirmed and built on the previous reports, saying that the warming of the Earth’s climate systems was now

‘unequivocal’.

Bali, December 2007 gore saved kyoto and tried to save bali, tho stick it to US he admitted satis 13

Waxman-Lieberman 2007

Kerry-Lieberman 2010 Graham failure undermined Obama at COP15

2009: UNFCCC summit in Copenhagen, intended to seal a post-2012 deal, nearly ends in disaster. To save face, a small group of leaders sets a broad goal of limiting warming to 2 C (3.6 F) and sketches financial provisions for poor countries. But it identifies no staging posts for reaching the target, nor requires emissions curbs to be binding.

2010: Climate change retreats as a political priority after the trauma of Copenhagen, economic problems in rich countries and attacks on the IPCC over flaws in the 4th Assessment Report.

Nov 24: UN's World Meteorological Organisation says greenhouse-gas concentrations reached record levels in

Higher temperatures could unleash methane emissions from the Arctic, creating a vicious circle of warming.

Nov 29-Dec 10: Annual conference of the UNFCCC in Cancun sets sights on incremental approach, with progress on climate finance, technology transfer and deforestation.

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Longer/science:

Timeline (Milestones)

Here are gathered in chronological sequence the most important events in the history of climate change science. (For a narrative see the Introduction: summary history.) This list of milestones includes major influences external to the science itself. Following it is a list of other external influences.

1800-1870

Level of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere, as later measured in ancient ice, is about 290 ppm (parts per million).

Mean global temperature (1850-1870) is about 13.6°C.

First Industrial Revolution. Coal, railroads, and land clearing speed up greenhouse gas emission, while better agriculture and sanitation speed up population growth.

1824Fourier calculates that the Earth would be far colder if it lacked an atmosphere. =>Simple models

1859

Tyndall discovers that some gases block infrared radiation. He suggests that changes in the concentration of the gases could bring climate change. =>Other gases

1896

Arrhenius publishes first calculation of global warming from human emissions of CO2. =>Simple models

1897

Chamberlin produces a model for global carbon exchange including feedbacks. =>Simple models

1870-1910

Second Industrial Revolution. Fertilizers and other chemicals, electricity, and public health further accelerate growth.

1914-1918

World War I; governments learn to mobilize and control industrial societies.

1920-1925

Opening of Texas and Persian Gulf oil fields inaugurates era of cheap energy.

1930s

Global warming trend since late 19th century reported. =>Modern temp's

Milankovitch proposes orbital changes as the cause of ice ages. =>Climate cycles

1938

Callendar argues that CO2 greenhouse global warming is underway, reviving interest in the question. =>CO2 greenhouse

1939-1945

World War II. Grand strategy is largely driven by a struggle to control oil fields.

1945

US Office of Naval Research begins generous funding of many fields of science, some of which happen to be useful for understanding climate change. =>Government

In December, 1953, H&K designed the tobacco industry's strategy for counteracting scientific evidence which linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer. The campaign began with the publication of a full-page newspaper ad called The Frank Statement [2] which was printed in hundreds of newspapers throughout the USA in January, 1954. H&K also helped organize the Council for Tobacco Research [3]. As a result, H&K was named a co-defendant of Philip Morris in numerous tobacco lawsuits.

1956

Ewing and Donn offer a feedback model for quick ice age onset. =>Simple models

Phillips produces a somewhat realistic computer model of the global atmosphere. =>Models (GCMs)

Plass calculates that adding CO2 to the atmosphere will have a significant effect on the radiation balance. =>Radiation math

1957

Launch of Soviet Sputnik satellite. Cold War concerns support 1957-58 International Geophysical Year, bringing new funding and coordination to climate studies. =>International

Revelle finds that CO2 produced by humans will not be readily absorbed by the oceans. =>CO2 greenhouse

1958

Telescope studies show a greenhouse effect raises temperature of the atmosphere of Venus far above the boiling point of water. =>Venus & Mars

1960

Mitchell reports downturn of global temperatures since the early 1940s.=>Modern temp's

Keeling accurately measures CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and detects an annual rise. =>CO2 greenhouse The level is 315 ppm. Mean global temperature (five-year average) is 13.9°C.

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis, peak of the Cold War.

1963

Calculations suggest that feedback with water vapor could make the climate acutely sensitive to changes in CO2 level. =>Radiation math

1965

Boulder, Colo. meeting on causes of climate change: Lorenz and others point out the chaotic nature of climate system and the possibility of sudden shifts. =>Chaos theory

1966

Emiliani's analysis of deep-sea cores shows the timing of ice ages was set by small orbital shifts, suggesting that the climate system is sensitive to small changes. =>Climate cycles

1967

International Global Atmospheric Research Program established, mainly to gather data for better short-range weather prediction, but including climate. =>International

Manabe and Wetherald make a convincing calculation that doubling CO2 would raise world temperatures a couple of degrees. =>Radiation math

1968

Studies suggest a possibility of collapse of Antarctic ice sheets, which would raise sea levels catastrophically. =>Sea rise & ice

1969

Astronauts walk on the Moon, and people perceive the Earth as a fragile whole. =>Public opinion

Budyko and Sellers present models of catastrophic ice-albedo feedbacks. =>Simple models

Nimbus III satellite begins to provide comprehensive global atmospheric temperature measurements. =>Government

1970

First Earth Day. Environmental movement attains strong influence, spreads concern about global degradation. =>Public opinion

Creation of US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the world's leading funder of climate research. =>Government

Aerosols from human activity are shown to be increasing swiftly. Bryson claims they counteract global warming and may bring serious cooling. =>Aerosols

1971

SMIC conference of leading scientists reports a danger of rapid and serious global change caused by humans, calls for an organized research effort. =>International

Mariner 9 spacecraft finds a great dust storm warming the atmosphere of Mars, plus indications of a radically different climate in the past .=>Venus & Mars

SST ban? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_transport ozone; later lifted

1972

Ice cores and other evidence show big climate shifts in the past between relatively stable modes in the space of a thousand years or so, especially around 11,000 years ago. =>Rapid change

1973

Oil embargo and price rise bring first "energy crisis". =>Government

1974

Serious droughts since 1972 increase concern about climate, with cooling from aerosols suspected to be as likely as warming; scientists are doubtful as journalists talk of a new ice age.=>Public opinion

1975

Warnings about environmental effects of airplanes leads to investigations of trace gases in the stratosphere and discovery of danger to ozone layer. =>Other gases

Manabe and collaborators produce complex but plausible computer models which show a temperature rise of several degrees for doubled CO2. =>Models (GCMs)

1976

Studies show that CFCs (1975) and also methane and ozone (1976) can make a serious contribution to the greenhouse effect. =>Other gases

Deep-sea cores show a dominating influence from 100,000-year Milankovitch orbital changes, emphasizing the role of feedbacks. =>Climate cycles

Deforestation and other ecosystem changes are recognized as major factors in the future of the climate. =>Biosphere

Eddy shows that there were prolonged periods without sunspots in past centuries, corresponding to cold periods .=>Solar variation

1977

Scientific opinion tends to converge on global warming, not cooling, as the chief climate risk in next century. =>Public opinion

1978

Attempts to coordinate climate research in US end with an inadequate National Climate Program Act, accompanied by rapid but temporary growth in funding. =>Government

1979

Second oil "energy crisis." Strengthened environmental movement encourages renewable energy sources, inhibits nuclear energy growth. =>Public opinion

US National Academy of Sciences report finds it highly credible that doubling CO2 will bring 1.5-4.5°C global warming. =>Models (GCMs)

World Climate Research Programme launched to coordinate international research. =>International

1981

Election of Reagan brings backlash against environmental movement to power. Political conservatism is linked to skepticism about global warming. =>Government

IBM Personal Computer introduced. Advanced economies are increasingly delinked from energy.

Hansenand others show that sulfate aerosols can significantly cool the climate, raising confidence in models showing future greenhouse warming. =>Aerosols

Some scientists predict greenhouse warming "signal" should be visible by about the year 2000. =>Modern temp's

1982

Greenland ice cores reveal drastic temperature oscillations in the space of a century in the distant past. =>Rapid change

Strong global warming since mid-1970s is reported, with 1981 the warmest year on record. =>Modern temp's

1983

Reports from US National Academy of Sciences and Environmental Protection Agency spark conflict, as greenhouse warming becomes prominent in mainstream politics. =>Government

1985Ramanathan and collaborators announce that global warming may come twice as fast as expected, from rise of methane and other trace greenhouse gases.=>Other gases

Villach Conference declares consensus among experts that some global warming seems inevitable, calls on governments to consider international agreements to restrict emissions.=>International

Antarctic ice cores show that CO2 and temperature went up and down together through past ice ages, pointing to powerful biological and geochemical feedbacks. =>CO2

Broecker speculates that a reorganization of North Atlantic Ocean circulation can bring swift and radical climate change. =>The oceans

1987

Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention imposes international restrictions on emission of ozone-destroying gases. =>International

1988

News media coverage of global warming leaps upward following record heat and droughts plus testimony by Hansen. =>Public opinion

Toronto conference calls for strict, specific limits on greenhouse gas emissions; UK Prime Minister Thatcher is first major leader to call for action. =>International

Ice-core and biology studies confirm living ecosystems give climate feedback by way of methane, which could accelerate global warming. =>Other gases

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established. =>International

1989Fossil-fuel and other U.S. industries form Global Climate Coalition to tell politicians and the public that climate science is too uncertain to justify action. =>Public opinion

1990

First IPCC report says world has been warming and future warming seems likely. =>International

1991

Mt. Pinatubo explodes; Hansen predicts cooling pattern, verifying (by 1995) computer models of aerosol effects. =>Aerosols

Global warming skeptics claim that 20th-century temperature changes followed from solar influences. (The solar-climate correlation would fail in the following decade.) =>Solar variation

Studies from 55 million years ago show possibility of eruption of methane from the seabed with enormous self-sustained warming. =>Rapid change

1992

Conference in Rio de Janeiroproduces UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but US blocks calls for serious action. =>International

Study of ancient climates reveals climate sensitivity in same range as predicted independently by computer models. =>Models (GCMs)

1993Greenland ice cores suggest that great climate changes (at least on a regional scale) can occur in the space of a single decade. =>Rapid change

BTU tax 1993 first attempt at US carbon legilation? NAM and GCC, American Enenrgy Alliance (BM) handed Clinton his ass, demos understood danger

1994 STATS GMU

1995Second IPCC report detects "signature" of human-caused greenhouse effect warming, declares that serious warming is likely in the coming century. =>International

Reports of the breaking up of Antarctic ice shelves and other signs of actual current warming in polar regions begin affecting public opinion. =>Public opinion

1997Toyota introduces Prius in Japan, first mass-market electric hybrid car; swift progress in large wind turbines and other energy alternatives.

International conference produces Kyoto Protocol, setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if enough nations sign onto a treaty. =>International

1998

"Super El Niño" causes weather disasters and warmest year on record (approximately matched by 2005 and 2007). Borehole data confirm extraordinary warming trend. =>Modern temp's

Qualms about arbitrariness in computer models diminish as teams model ice-age climate and dispense with special adjustments to reproduce current climate. =>Models (GCMs)

1999Criticism that satellite measurements show no warming are dismissed by National Academy Panel. =>Modern temp's

Ramanathan detects massive "brown cloud" of aerosols from South Asia. =>Aerosols

2000Global Climate Coalition dissolves as many corporations grapple with threat of warming, but oil lobby convinces US administration to deny problem. =>Public opinion

Variety of studies emphasize variability and importance of biological feedbacks in carbon cycle, liable to accelerate warming. =>Biosphere

Bonn meeting, with participation of most countries butnot US, develops mechanisms for working towards Kyoto targets. =>International

National Academy panel sees a "paradigm shift" in scientific recognition of the risk of abrupt climate change (decade-scale). =>Rapid change

Warming observed in ocean basins; match with computer models gives a clear signature of greenhouse effect warming. =>Models (GCMs)

2002Studies find surprisingly strong "global dimming," due to pollution, has retarded arrival of greenhouse warming, but dimming is now decreasing. =>Aerosols

2003Numerous observations raise concern that collapse of ice sheets (West Antarctica, Greenland) can raise sea levels faster than most had believed. =>Sea rise & ice

Deadly summer heat wave in Europe accelerates divergence between European and US public opinion. =>Public opinion

2004In controversy over temperature data covering past millenium, most conclude climate variations were not comparable to the post-1980 warming.

=>Modern temp's; =>Solar variation

First major books, movie and art work featuring global warming appear. =>Public opinion

2005Kyoto treaty goes into effect, signed by major industrial nations except US. Work to retard emissions accelerates in Japan, Western Europe, US regional governments and corporations. =>International

2006 Inc truth

Hurricane Katrina and other major tropical storms spur debate over impact of global warming on storm intensity. =>Sea rise & ice

2007Fourth IPCC report warns that serious effects of warming have become evident; cost of reducing emissions would be far less than the damage they will cause. =>International

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover found to be shrinking faster than expected.=>Sea rise & ice

2009Many experts warn that global warming is arriving at a faster and more dangerous pace than anticipated just a few years earlier. =>International

Level of CO2 in the atmosphere reaches 385 ppm.

Mean global temperature (five-year average) is 14.5°C, the warmest in hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timeline.htm

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really detailed tobacco :

http://archive.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History21.html

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/timelines/fullindex.html

Full Chronology

1950 American scientists Ernst L. Wyndner and Evarts A. Graham publish a report that 96.5 percent of lung-cancer patients are moderate to heavy smoker.

1952 Liggett publicizes a study by Arthur D. Little showing that smoking Chesterfields has no adverse effect on the throat.

1953 A landmark study by Ernst Wyndner shows that painting cigarette tar on the backs of mice creates tumors.

1954 Eva Cooper sues R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for the death of her husband from lung cancer. Cooper loses the case.

1954 The Tobacco Industry Research Committee (later becomes Council on Tobacco Research) issues a "Frank Statement" to the public. It's a nationwide two-page ad that states cigarette makers don't believe their products are injurious to a person's health.

1963 Brown & Williamson general counsel Addison Yeaman notes in a memo, "Nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug."

1964 U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issues the first surgeon general report citing health risks associated with smoking.

1965 U.S. Congress passes the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, requiring a surgeon general's warning on cigarette packs.

1971 All broadcast advertising for cigarettes is banned.

1972 Philip Morris's Marlboro becomes the best-selling brand in the world.

1982 U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop finds that secondhand smoke may cause lung cancer.

1983 Rose Cipollone, a smoker, sues the tobacco industry. She dies in 1984 and her family takes up the lawsuit.

1985 Melvin Belli, who in Louisiana in 1958 had argued the first tobacco liability case to reach a jury, filed a claim of $100 million on behalf of Mark Galbraith, a three-pack-a-day smoker who had died at sixty-nine, against R.J. Reynolds in Santa Barbara, CA. It was the first such action to go before a jury in fifteen years, but Belli lost, holding that neither causation nor addiction had been proven.

1986 In May, Nathan Horton, a fifty-year-old African American smoker, files suit in Holmes County, Miss., for $17 million in damages from American Tobacco, on the use of fertilizers and pesticides in growing tobacco products in excess of government approved limits. His attorney, Don Barrett, brings the suit before a jury in January 1988, but the judge declares a mistrial because of a hung jury.

1988 Michael Moore is elected Attorney General of Mississippi.

1988 Merrell Williams is hired by Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs in Louisville to analyze and sort Brown & Williamson internal documents.

1988 Jackie Thompson first gets sick from tobacco related illness.

1988 Judge Lee Sarokin rules that he has found evidence of tobacco industry conspiracy in the Cipollone case; Liggett is ordered to pay Cipollone $400,000 in compensatory damages.

1989 Jeffrey Wigand starts work for Brown & Williamson as Vice President of Scientific Research.

1990 Don Barrett, the Mississippi attorney representing smoker Nathan Horton, wins the case against the industry during a new trial in Oxford, Miss. His client is awarded no damages in the case.

Smoking is banned on U.S. passenger flights of less than six hours' duration.

1992 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the 1965 warning labels on cigarette packs does not shield companies from lawsuits.

1992 Wayne McLaren, who modeled as the "Marlboro Man," dies of lung cancer.

1992 Merrell Williams is laid off from law firm of Brown & Williamson.

1992 Matthew Fishbein and other US Attorneys from the Eastern District of New York open a federal probe into criminal wrongdoing by the tobacco industry, focusing on Judge Sarokin's opinion in the Haines case. Sarokin called the industry the "king of concealment."

March 1993

May 1993 Mike Lewis visits Jackie Thompson in the Memphis hospital and begins discussing a suit against the tobacco industry on her behalf. In the elevator after the visit, Mike Lewis comes up with the idea of suing the tobacco industry on behalf of the state to recover costs from treating smokers.

Sept 1993 Jeffrey Wigand is sued for libel by Brown & Williamson for saying malicious things about the company president to another employee - they threatened suspended pay and health insurance.

In the summer of 1993, the law firm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs filed a civil suit accusing Merrell Williams of copying and removing confidential Brown & Williamson documents from the firm. The suit was filed after his lawyer had returned a box of these documents to the law firm. In a letter that accompanied the box, Williams' attorney alleged that Williams had suffered smoking related illnesses, a condition made worse by seeing the information in the documents, and he sought a settlement of Williams' claims.

Nov 1993 Jeffrey Wigand and Brown & Williamson sign a confidentiality agreement.

Feb 1994 FDA Commissioner David Kessler announces plans to consider regulation of tobacco as a drug, stating that tobacco manufacturers use nicotine to satisfy addiction.

2/28/94 ABC's "Day One" airs a report by producer Walt Bogdanich which claims that cigarette companies "spike" levels of nicotine.

Mar 1994 A national class action suit is filed on behalf of smokers, known as the Castano suit, after Peter Castano, a former Louisiana attorney who died of lung cancer.

3/7/94 Second "Day One" Segment airs, listing secret additives in cigarettes.

3/24/94 Philip Morris announces lawsuit against ABC in the circuit court for the city of Richmond, VA.

3/25/94 FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler testifies about tobacco and nicotine in Congressional hearings.

4/14/94 Seven leading tobacco company executives testify during Waxman's Congressional hearings that they believe "Nicotine is not addictive."

May 1994 Richard Scruggs hand carries Brown & Williamson internal documents to Waxman in Washington.

5/7/94 New York Times publishes Brown & Williamson internal documents, saying they were received by a government official.

5/12/94 Stan Glantz receives Brown & Williamson documents from "Mr. Butts."

5/18/94 Jeffrey Wigand (using the code name "Research") pays his first visit to Dr. Kessler's office at the FDA.

5/23/94 Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore announces the filing of a lawsuit against the tobacco industry seeking to recoup the $940 million the state spent treating sick smokers.

June 1994 Geoffrey Bible is named President and CEO of Philip Morris

6/21/94 Dr. David Kessler testifies in Congressional hearings about the investigation into whether tobacco and niotine should be regulated by the FDA.

July 1994 Justice Dept opens criminal investigation into possible perjury by top tobacco company executives in their testimony before the Congress during the Waxman hearings.

8/17/94 Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

9/20/94 Attorney General of West Virginia files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

12/94 Florida Legislature passes a law making it much easier to sue the tobacco industry for Medicaid costs. The tobacco industry fights the passage of the law, but looses.

12/14/94 Congressman Marty Meehan sends an 111-page prosecution memo to the Justice Department, requesting that Attorney General Janet Reno open a formal criminal investigation against the tobacco industry and several of their law firms and industry organizations.

2/14/95 Brown & Williamson sues UCSF and Stanton Glantz demanding return of internal industry documents.

2/21/95 Attorney General Bob Butterworth of Florida files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco companies.

7/1/95 Stanton Glantz posts the Brown & Williamson documents on the Internet.

8/16/95 ABC agrees to settle their lawsuit with a prime-time apology and $15 million to cover Philip Morris legal fees. Separate $200,000 settlement with RJR.

Oct 1995 Steven Goldstone is named CEO of RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp., after having served as President and General Counsel.

11/5/95 New York Times story appears on CBS pulling full Wigand story for fear of tortious interference lawsuit.

11/12/95 "60 Minutes" airs cut tobacco piece without the full Wigand Interview. Several days later the Westinghouse/CBS merger is approved by CBS shareholders.

11/21/95 Brown & Williamson lead lawyer, Gary Moresrow, announces that they are suing Wigand for theft, fraud and breach of contract. Judge in Kentucky issues restraining order on Wigand, stopping him from discussing confidential documents.

11/27/95 Kentucky judge clarifys restraining order, saying Wigand is bound by his confidentiality agreement not to testify in any case without first cooperating with the tobacco industry lawyers.

11/28/95 Mississippi judge rules that State Attorney's can question Wigand despite restraining order made by Judge in Kentucky.

11/29/95 Jeffrey Wigand is deposed in Pascagoula in state of Mississippi's Medicaid lawsuit against the Tobacco Industry.

Dec 1995 Wigand is also questioned by US Justice Dept officials (Grand Jury Testimony) in the criminal investigation of the Tobacco Industry.

12/19/95 Massachusetts files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

1/26/96 Wall Street Journal runs piece including excerpts of Wigand's leaked deposition and places entire deposition on the Internet.

2/4/96 CBS runs full Wigand Interview.

3/96 The Liggett Group settles with five states and 67 law firms suing the industry - the first such agreement in 40 years of litigation.

3/96 Steven Goldstone, RJR Nabisco CEO says the industry would consider settlement.

3/13/96 Louisiana files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

3/28/96 Texas files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

4/11/96 New Jersey announces that they will file a Medicaid suit against the tobacco indsutry. Actually file suit on 9/10/96.

5/96 Federal appeals court dismisses the Castano national class-action lawsuit. Lawyers in the Castano group begin filing class-action lawsuits in individual states.

5/1/96 Maryland files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/5/96 Washington files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

7/18/96 Connecticut files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

8/96 A Jacksonville, FL, jury awards $750,000 to Grady Carter, who had sued Brown & Williamson. One juror says the released Brown & Williamson documents had an effect on the decision. Philip Morris's stock loses $12 billion in value within an hour.

8/20/96 Kansas files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

8/21/96 Michigan files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

8/22/96 Oklahoma files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

8/23/96 President Clinton announces that the FDA will regulate Nicotine as a drug.

9/10/96 New Jersey files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

9/30/96 Utah files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

10/96 B.A.T. Industries CEO Martin Broughton says a settlement of tobacco lawsuits would be "common sense."

10/17/96 Alabama files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

11/12/96 Illinois files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

11/27/96 Iowa files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

12/96 RJR hires North Carolina lawyer Phil Carlton to lobby the White House and try to meet with Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore.

1/27/97 New York files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

1/31/97 Hawaii files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

2/97 Phil Carlton meets with White House deputy counsel Bruce Lindsey.

The tobacco industry argues in U.S. district court in Greensboro, NC, that the FDA does not have the power to regulate tobacco.

2/5/97 Wisconsin files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

2/19/97 Indiana files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

3/97 The Mississippi Supreme Court rules that the state's lawsuit can proceed to trial.

Liggett CEO Bennett LeBow settles with more than 20 states, and agrees to release internal industry documents.

3/18/97 Joe Rice, an attorney in Ron Motley's law firm, meets for the first time in Charlotte, NC, with tobacco company attorneys to discuss a settlement of all lawsuits facing the industry, the first time a major tobacco company representative sits across the table from an antitobacco attorney, apart from litigation.

3/31/97 Mike Moore, Dick Scruggs, Matt Myers, and John Coale meet with Phil Carlton.

4/3/97 Phillip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible, RJR Nabisco's CEO Steven Goldstone, and their attorneys meet in Crystal City, VA, with state attorneys general to discuss a national settlement.

4/14/97 Alaska files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

4/22/97 Pennsylvania files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

4/25/97 U.S. District Judge William Osteen in Greensboro, NC, rules that the FDA has the authority to regulate nicotine as a drug. The tobacco industry immediately appeals the ruling.

5/5/97 RJR wins a lawsuit in Jacksonville, FL, filed by a smoker who died and blamed the cigarette maker for not adequately warning her of the dangers of smoking.

5/5/97 Montana files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

Arkansas files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/8/97 Ohio files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/9/97 South Carolina files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/10/97 Missouri files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/21/97 Nevada files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/27/97 New Mexico files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

5/28/97 Scruggs and Moore meet with the leaders of the Public Health community in Chicago to discuss the potential deal.

5/29/97 Vermont files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/4/97 New Hampshire files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/5/97 Colorado files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/10/97 Oregon files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/97 Idaho files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/12/97 California files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/16/97 Puerto Rico files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/18/97 Maine files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/18/97 Rhode Island files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

6/20/97 The tobacco companies and state attorneys general announce a landmark $368.5 billion settlement agreement.

July 1997 Congress includes a $50 billion tobacco-tax credit in a new tax bill. New taxes paid by smokers will save the industry billions of dollars by reducing the amount of money companies would owe according to the settlement.

7/15/97 The State of Mississippi settles its Medicaid case with the tobacco industry for $3.4 billion dollars.

8/25/97 Florida settles. Tobacco companies agree to pay $11.3 billion.

8/29/97 Georgia files a Medicaid suit against the tobacco industry.

9/11/97 Senate votes to repeal the $50 billion tax break for the tobacco industry that was slipped into the tax cut legislation just before it was passed in July.

9/17/97 Clinton announces his position on the upcoming tobacco legislation in Congress.

10/13/97 Tobacco companies settle first secondhand smoke class-action in the Florida Broin case brought by flight attendants.

10/17/97 Philadelphia Judge Clarence Newcomer throws out a massive Castano group suit, a national class-action lawsuit against the cigarette companies, weeks before they were set to go to trial.

12/4/97 Cong. Bliley subpoenaes documents from four tobacco companies that are part of the Minnesota Medicaid case. The documents are released to his office and to the public later that week.

12/10/97 Hearings in Congressional Judiciary Committee on Lawyers Fees in the national tobacco settlement.

1/7/98 Justice Department brings charges against the DNA Plant Technology Corporation for their cooperation in developing Y-1 Tobacco, with high levels of nicotine and illegally exporting seeds to Brazil.

1/15/98 Texas settles with the tobacco industry for a record $14.5 billion.

1/26/98 Minnesota trial starts.

1/29/98 Tobacco executives testify before Congress that nicotine is addictive under current definitions of the word and smoking may cause cancer.

2/25/98 Tobacco executives tell Congress they would never agree to modify their advertising and marketing practices unless the lawmakers gave the industry substantial protection against lawsuits.

4/1/98 Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) passes the McCain bill in the Senate Commerce Committee. The bill gives the FDA unrestricted control over nicotine and is much tougher than the June 20th agreement. It provides no liability protection for the industry, just a cap on potential yearly damages.

4/8/98 Steven Goldstone of RJR Nabisco announces that RJR is pulling support for a settlement and complains that the McCain bill will bankrupt his company. Within hours, the rest of the tobacco industry backs away from the global settlement.