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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dunno if technically evil, but self-ish, corrupted and co-opted and suppressed science</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62225696">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62225696</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix</font></div><div>The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change</div><div>Published</div><div><b>23 July 2022</b></div><div>
</div><div>Related Topics</div><div>Climate change</div><div>Polluting industrial chimneys</div><div>IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES</div><div>By Jane McMullen</div><div>BBC News</div><div>Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem. The little-known meeting - between some of America's biggest industrial players and a PR genius - forged a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the consequences of which are all around us.</div><div>
</div><div>On an early autumn day in 1992, E Bruce Harrison, a man widely acknowledged as the father of environmental PR, stood up in a room full of business leaders and delivered a pitch like no other.</div><div>
</div><div>At stake was a contract worth half a million dollars a year - about £850,000 in today's money. The prospective client, the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) - which represented the oil, coal, auto, utilities, steel, and rail industries - was looking for a communications partner to change the narrative on climate change.</div><div>
</div><div>Don Rheem and Terry Yosie, two of Harrison's team present that day, are sharing their stories for the first time.</div><div>
</div><div>"Everybody wanted to get the Global Climate Coalition account," says Rheem, "and there I was, smack in the middle of it."</div><div>
</div><div>The GCC had been conceived only three years earlier, as a forum for members to exchange information and lobby policy makers against action to limit fossil fuel emissions.</div><div>
</div><div>Though scientists were making rapid progress in understanding climate change, and it was growing in salience as a political issue, in its first years the Coalition saw little cause for alarm. President George HW Bush was a former oilman, and as a senior lobbyist told the BBC in 1990, his message on climate was the GCC's message.</div><div>
</div><div>There would be no mandatory fossil fuel reductions.</div><div>
</div><div>But all that changed in 1992. In June, the international community created a framework for climate action, and November's presidential election brought committed environmentalist Al Gore into the White House as vice-president. It was clear the new administration would try to regulate fossil fuels.</div><div>
</div><div>The Coalition recognised that it needed strategic communications help and put out a bid for a public relations contractor.</div><div>
</div><div>E Bruce Harrison</div><div>IMAGE SOURCE,E BRUCE HARRISON</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>E Bruce Harrison was known as the “Dean of green PR”</div><div>Though few outside the PR industry might have heard of E Bruce Harrison or the eponymous company he had run since 1973, he had a string of campaigns for some of the US's biggest polluters under his belt.</div><div>
</div><div>He had worked for the chemical industry discrediting research on the toxicity of pesticides; for the tobacco industry, and had recently run a campaign against tougher emissions standards for the big car makers. Harrison had built a firm that was considered one of the very best.</div><div>
</div><div>Media historian Melissa Aronczyk, who interviewed Harrison before he died in 2021, says he was a strategic linchpin for his clients, ensuring everyone was on the same page.</div><div>
</div><div>"He was a master at what he did," she says.</div><div>
</div><div>BBC iPlayer</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Big Oil v the World</b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8cnif4">pt 2 7 23</a>&nbsp;60 min&nbsp; kert davies smoking gun&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-family: ABCFavorit, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Big Oil v the World episode 2: Even as the science grew more certain, the oil industry continued to block action to tackle climate change in the new millennium. In a revelatory interview, Christine Todd Whitman, George W Bush’s former environment chief, tells the story of how the industry successfully lobbied President Bush to reverse course on his campaign promise to regulate carbon emissions.</span></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div>Drawing on thousands of newly discovered documents, this three-part film charts how the oil industry mounted a campaign to sow doubt about the science of climate change, the consequences of which we are living through today.</div><div>
</div><div>Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only)</div><div>
</div><div>BBC iPlayer</div><div>Before the pitch, Harrison had assembled a team of both seasoned PR professionals and almost total novices. Among them was Don Rheem, who had no industry credentials. He had studied ecology before becoming an environmental journalist. A chance meeting with Harrison, who must have seen the strategic value of adding Rheem's environmental and media connections to the team, led to a job offer on the GCC pitch.</div><div>
</div><div>"I thought, 'Wow, this is an opportunity to get a front row seat at probably one of the most pressing science policy and public policy issues that we were facing.'</div><div>
</div><div>"It just felt enormously important," Rheem says.</div><div>
</div><div>Don Rheem as a younger man</div><div>IMAGE SOURCE,DON RHEEM</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>Don Rheem as a younger man</div><div>Terry Yosie - who had recently been recruited from the American Petroleum Institute, becoming a senior vice-president at the firm - remembers that Harrison began the pitch by reminding his audience that he was instrumental in fighting the auto reforms. He had done so, in part, by reframing the issue.</div><div>
</div><div>The same tactics would now help beat climate regulation. They would persuade people that the scientific facts weren't settled, and that alongside the environment, policy makers needed to consider how action on climate change would - in the GCC's view - negatively affect American jobs, trade and prices.</div><div>
</div><div>The strategy would be implemented through an extensive media campaign, everything from placing quotes and pitching opinion pieces (so-called op-eds), to direct contacts with journalists.</div><div>
</div><div>GCC press card (extract)</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>An extract from a GCC business card for reporters, shared by former journalist Nicky Sundt</div><div>"A lot of reporters were assigned to write stories," Rheem says, "and they were struggling with the complexity of the issue. So I would write backgrounders so reporters could read them and get up to speed."</div><div>
</div><div>Uncertainty ran through the full gamut of the GCC's publications, a creative array of letters, glossy brochures, and monthly newsletters.</div><div>
</div><div>Rheem and the team were prolific - within a year, Harrison's firm claimed to have secured more than 500 specific mentions in the media.</div><div>
</div><div>GCC document: The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon produced by naturally occurring atmospheric gases. To date, there is no evidence to demonstrate the climate has changed as a result of any "enhancement" to this natiral phenomenon by man-made greenhouse gases.</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>An extract from a 1994/5 GCC booklet made by E Bruce Harrison's team, from the collection of Nicky Sundt</div><div>In August 1993, Harrison took stock of progress in another meeting with the GCC.</div><div>
</div><div>"The rising awareness of the scientific uncertainty has caused some in Congress to pause on advocating new initiatives," declared an updated internal strategy pitch, shared with the BBC by Terry Yosie.</div><div>
</div><div>"Activists sounding the alarm over 'global warming' have publicly conceded that they lost ground in the communications arena over the past year."</div><div>
</div><div>Now, Harrison counselled, they needed to expand the external voices making their case.</div><div>
</div><div>"Scientists, economists, academics and other noted experts carry greater credibility with the media and general public than industry representatives."</div><div>
</div><div>Promotional artwork for Harrison's company - "At most public relations firms, it's an emerging division [Environmental Affairs]. At Harrison, it's our entire world."</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>Harrison was "a master at what he did," says historian Melissa Aronczyk, who shared this undated advert with the BBC</div><div>While most climate scientists agreed that human-caused climate change was a real issue that would require action, a small group argued there was no cause for alarm. The plan was to pay these sceptics to give speeches or write op-eds - about $1,500 (£1,250) per article - and to arrange media tours so they could appear on local TV and radio stations.</div><div>
</div><div>"My role was to identify the voices that were not in the mainstream and to give those voices a stage," Rheem says. "There was a lot we didn't know at the time. And part of my role was to highlight what we didn't know."</div><div>
</div><div>He says the media was hungry for these perspectives.</div><div>
</div><div>"Journalists were actually actively looking for the contrarians. It was really feeding an appetite that was already there."</div><div>
</div><div>John PassacantandoBBC</div><div>If you say something enough times, people will begin to believe it</div><div>John Passacantando</div><div>Executive director, Ozone Action 1992-2000</div><div>Many of these sceptics or deniers have rejected the idea that funding from the GCC and other industry groups had any impact on their views. But the scientists and environmentalists tasked with repudiating them - arguing the reality of climate change - encountered a well-organised and effective campaign they found hard to match.</div><div>
</div><div>"The Global Climate Coalition is seeding doubt everywhere, fogging the air… And environmentalists really don't know what's hitting them," environmental campaigner John Passacantando remembers.</div><div>
</div><div>"What the geniuses of the PR firms who work for these big fossil fuel companies know is that truth has nothing to do with who wins the argument. If you say something enough times, people will begin to believe it."</div><div>
</div><div>Graphic showing the Global Climate Coalition's logo - and quote: "When communicating emphasise the scientific uncertainties"</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>Harrison's company paid experts to argue that mainstream climate scientists were overstating the problem</div><div>In a document dating from around 1995, shared with the BBC by Melissa Aronczyk, Harrison wrote that the "GCC has successfully turned the tide on press coverage of global climate change science, effectively countering the eco-catastrophe message and asserting the lack of scientific consensus on global warming."</div><div>
</div><div>The groundwork had been laid for the industry's biggest campaign to date - opposing international efforts to negotiate emissions reductions at Kyoto, in Japan, in December 1997. By then, a consensus had emerged among scientists that human-caused warming was now detectable. But the US public was still showing signs of doubt. As many as 44% of respondents to a Gallup poll believed scientists were divided. Public antipathy made it harder for politicians to fight for action, and America never implemented the agreement reached in Kyoto. It was a major victory for the industry coalition.</div><div>
</div><div>"I think E Bruce Harrison was proud of the work he did. He knew how central he had been to moving the needle on how companies intervened in the conversation about global warming," says Aronczyk.</div><div>
</div><div>Al GoreBBC</div><div>I think it's the moral equivalent of a war crime</div><div>Al Gore</div><div>Former Vice President and environmentalist</div><div>The same year as the Kyoto negotiation, Harrison sold his firm. Rheem decided that public relations wasn't the right career, while Yosie had long since moved on to other environmental projects for the firm. Meanwhile, the GCC began to disintegrate, as some members grew uncomfortable with its hard line. But the tactics, the playbook, and the message of doubt were now embedded and would outlive their creators. Three decades on, the consequences are all around us.</div><div>
</div><div>"I think it's the moral equivalent of a war crime," says former US Vice-President Al Gore of the big oil companies' efforts to block action.</div><div>
</div><div>"I think it is, in many ways, the most serious crime of the post-World War Two era, anywhere in the world. The consequences of what they've done are just almost unimaginable."</div><div>
</div><div>Don Rheem</div><div>Image caption,</div><div>Don Rheem is now a workplace and leadership consultant</div><div>"Would I do anything differently? It's a hard question to answer," reflects Don Rheem, who says he was "way down the totem pole" of the GCC's operation. "There's some sadness that not much has happened."</div><div>
</div><div>He maintains that climate science was too uncertain in the 1990s to warrant "drastic actions", and that developing countries - particularly China and Russia - have ultimately been responsible for the decades of climate inaction, rather than American industry.</div><div>
</div><div>"I think it's really easy to create a conspiracy theory about really pernicious intent of industry to completely halt any progress," Rheem says. "Personally, I didn't see that.</div><div>
</div><div>"I was very young. I was very curious... Knowing what I know today, would I have done some things differently then?</div><div>
</div><div>"Perhaps, probably."</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></font></div><div style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>f<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/todaysnews/15092020/fives-states-have-filed-climate-change-lawsuits-seeking-damages-big-oil-and-gas" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">ive States Have Filed Climate Change Lawsuits, Seeking Damages From Big Oil and Gas</a></b></span><span open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">&nbsp;-&nbsp;</span><span open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: inherit;">InsideClimate News</span></font></font></div><div style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14092020/climate-change-lawsuit-connecticut-deleware"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/1409</span><b>2020</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">/climate-change-lawsuit-connecticut-deleware</span></font></a></span></font></div><div style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></font></div><div style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>c</b></span><b>onnecticut and Delaware have joined a growing list of states, cities and counties that have filed climate change lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry,</b>&nbsp;claiming oil and gas companies knew their products caused sea level rise and stronger hurricanes and willfully misled the public about those and other dangers related to global warming.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Connecticut's lawsuit, filed Monday, named ExxonMobil as a sole defendant, while the lawsuit filed on Friday by Delaware named 31 fossil fuel companies and trade groups. They joined&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24102019/massachusetts-sues-exxon-climate-change-investor-fraud-misleading-advertising-healey" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Massachusetts</a>, Rhode Island and&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062020/minnesota-climate-change-lawsuit-exxon-mobil-api-koch-industries" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Minnesota</a>&nbsp;as states that have filed such litigation.&nbsp;</font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Former Vice President Joe Biden, who served 36 years as a senator from&nbsp;<b>Delaware,</b>&nbsp;cited the state's lawsuit in a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14092020/joe-biden-climate-change-wildfires-donald-trump-2020-election" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">climate change address</a>&nbsp;on Monday to underscore the costs of global warming and the Trump Administration's failure to address the issue. He called Trump, who was surveying the devastation of wildfires in California, a "climate arsonist."</font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Just last week Delaware state attorney general sued 31—31—big fossil fuel companies alleging they knowingly wreaked havoc and damage on climate—our climate—damage that is plain for everyone to see but the President," he said.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The coastal city of Charleston, South Carolina, also filed a climate lawsuit last week, joining close to 20 other cities and counties seeking to hold the fossil fuel industries liable for damages resulting from increased flooding and precipitation, droughts and intensifying storm surges, in addition to sea level rise and stronger hurricanes. The other cities include Baltimore, Oakland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Connecticut's suit filed Monday, Attorney General William Tong sued Exxon for violating the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act, which allows for wide-ranging claims of public and private nuisance, trespass, negligence and for violating its Consumer Fraud Act.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span></b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"ExxonMobil sold oil and gas, but it also sold lies about climate science," Tong said when announcing the multi-billion dollar climate lawsuit against the company.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This spate of lawsuits comes after a series of recent rulings in similar cases that appear to give the advantage to states, counties and cities, legal scholars say.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The lawsuits also may send further tremors through the financial world that this summer has seen&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26082020/exxon-mobil-dow-jones-industrial-wall-street-coronavirus-big-oil" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Exxon dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average</a>&nbsp;and a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission report that concluded climate change threatens U.S. financial markets, those experts say.</font></font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Connecticut Singles Out Exxon for its 'Deceptive Record'</font></font></font></font></h3><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Unlike the other climate lawsuits confronting the oil and gas industry that sweep up the world's largest producers, the Connecticut lawsuit singles out Exxon as the sole defendant because the company's deceptive record is well established</span>, Tong said in an email interview.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"ExxonMobil is a leader in the industry and has been for decades," Tong said. "We have evidence that shows that Exxon knew from its own scientists that climate change was occurring, made a deliberate decision to deceive consumers, and then successfully implemented that plan over the course of decades.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"That's the evidence we have, and it makes our case very straightforward."</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The climate lawsuits cite&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">an InsideClimate News series</a>&nbsp;and a later&nbsp;<a href="https://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Los Angeles Times story</a>&nbsp;that revealed the extent of Exxon's knowledge about the central role of fossil fuels in causing climate change as far back as the 1970s, based on research performed by its own scientists.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">"ExxonMobil's campaign of deception has contributed to myriad negative consequences in Connecticut, including but not limited to sea level rise, flooding, drought, increases in extreme temperatures and severe storms, decreases in air quality, contamination of drinking water, increases in spread of disease, and severe economic consequences," Connecticut's&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7208246-Connecticut-Climate-Lawsuit-9-14-2020.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;says.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The lawsuit seeks money to pay for defending against climate change threats, restitution for remediation costs already made, disgorgement of corporate profits, civil penalties and disclosure of all climate research.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It also calls for the creation of a climate change education fund and an immediate end to the false and misleading information that ExxonMobil has been disseminating for years.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Exxon did not respond to a request for comment.</font></font></font></font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Recent Rulings Weaken the Fossil Fuel Industry's Defense</font></font></font></font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Although the industry will no doubt put up a strenuous fight against these lawsuits, its chances of winning them have been diminished by a series of court rulings favorable to the plaintiffs, said Richard Frank, director of the California Environmental Law & Policy Center at the University of California, Davis School of Law.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Frank cited a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052020/ninth-circuit-ruling-california-climate-change-oil-industry" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">recent ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals</a>&nbsp;that ordered seven cases filed by local governments in California transferred from federal court to state court.</font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"The decision on where these cases will be heard seems to be pretty well settled," Frank said. "The state court forum gives the advantage to the plaintiffs whereas federal judges may not have had as much sympathy for these cases."</font></font></font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18072017/oil-gas-coal-companies-exxon-shell-sued-coastal-california-city-counties-sea-level-rise" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">first salvo in the legal war</a>&nbsp;was fired in 2017 when Marin and San Mateo counties, near San Francisco, and the&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27062018/coastal-cities-lawsuit-fossil-fuel-oil-climate-change-sea-level-rise-damage-imperial-beach-california" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">city of Imperial Beach</a>, south of San Diego, filed climate lawsuits and drew national attention for daring to take on the powerful fossil fuel industry.&nbsp;</b>&nbsp;</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A ripple from the mounting number of lawsuits could be the further weakening of the oil industry's standing in financial markets, said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;">Parenteau said&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26082020/exxon-mobil-dow-jones-industrial-wall-street-coronavirus-big-oil" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a decision by the&nbsp;</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26082020/exxon-mobil-dow-jones-industrial-wall-street-coronavirus-big-oil" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a>&nbsp;to drop Exxon was a wakeup call to investors,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">as was last week's decision by federal financial regulators to identify the cost of climate change as a factor in market stability. &nbsp; Their&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/9-9-20%20Report%20of%20the%20Subcommittee%20on%20Climate-Related%20Market%20Risk%20-%20Managing%20Climate%20Risk%20in%20the%20U.S.%20Financial%20System%20for%20posting.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">report called out the costs</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;of wildfires, storms, droughts, flooding—and climate litigation as market stressors.&nbsp;</span></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Now that the industry is potentially facing multi-billion dollar judgments, the pressure will continue to mount on these companies from financial markets to divorce from their oil-only business model, Parenteau said.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"There is going to be a verdict and it's going to be big," he said. "The smart money people see that and they don't want to be holding the bag."</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The industry's primary defense has been that climate change issues are not a matter for judicial review but rather of legislative remedy. The courts have largely disagreed, saying as a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06032020/baltimore-maryland-climate-change-lawsuit-fossil-fuels" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">federal court of appeals did in a case filed by Baltimore</a>, that local jurisdiction was proper. Although those rulings have given momentum to the cities and states, they still face formidable challenges by the industry.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Another possible showdown in the Supreme Court looms later this month when the court will consider whether to take on the jurisdiction question that could provide definitive guidance on the venue of these claims.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">While the states, cities and counties, for the most part, want their lawsuits heard in state courts, the industry prefers the federal courts as a venue so that they can argue&nbsp;</span>the Clean Air Act and other federal laws preempt any claim under state law that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels cause climate change and related property damage.</font></font></font></font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">'It is Not About Stopping Climate Change. It's About Delaware Surviving It'</font></font></font></font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Delaware's lawsuit against 31 fossil fuel entities and trade groups claims negligent failure to warn, trespass, public nuisance and multiple violations of Delaware's Consumer Fraud Act. It seeks monetary damages to compensate the state and punish the companies, including $10,000 per violation of the Consumer Fraud Act.&nbsp;</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Defendants have known for decades that climate change impacts could be catastrophic, and that only a narrow window existed to take action before the consequences would be irreversible," Democrat Kathy Jennings, the Delaware attorney general, says in the lawsuit</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The complaint, which targets such oil giants as Exxon, Chevron and Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute trade organization, argues that changes to Delaware's environment are a "direct and proximate consequence of Defendants' wrongful conduct," and disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">At the heart of&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7205673-Deleware-Climate-Lawsuit-9-10-2020.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">the lawsuit</a>&nbsp;is the matter of who will pay for the mounting financial, environmental and public health costs of the climate crisis, Jennings said during a news conference announcing the lawsuit.</font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"It is not about stopping climate change. It's about Delaware surviving it," she said.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The lawsuit further blasts the industry for falsely</span> claiming through advertising campaigns ... that their businesses are substantially invested in lower carbon technologies and renewable energy sources.</font></font></font></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"In truth, each Fossil Fuel Defendant has invested minimally in renewable energy while continuing to expand its fossil fuel production ... None of Fossil Fuel Defendants' fossil fuel products are 'green' or 'clean' because they all continue to ultimately warm the planet," according to the lawsuit.</font></font></font></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c65d2705-7fff-63f9-3d7b-ab49a9df063f" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Shell and Chevron disputed the claims.</b></font></span></font></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000" style=""><font color="#000000" style=""><font color="#000000" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">"These&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">special-interest-promoted&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">lawsuits designed to&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">punish&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">a few companies who&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">lawfully deliver affordable, reliable and ever cleaner energy&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102); font-weight: inherit;">undermine real efforts to address the complex policy issues presented by global climate change,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); font-weight: inherit;">"&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: inherit;">&nbsp;Chevron spokesperson Sean Comey said in an email</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">There is no evidence Chevron misled the public about climate change.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Those claims are false."</span></font></font></font></font></font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/how-exxon-chevron-and-their-buddies-58986784/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/how-exxon-chevron-and-their-buddies-58986784/</a></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">f</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">OOTNOTES:</span></font></font></p><div class="css-cmf3mf e1rvx4i30" itemprop="podcastDescription" style="letter-spacing: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 2rem; margin-top: 1rem;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50132400" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Exxon accused of misleading investors on climate change</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://influencemap.org/report/Climate-Lobbying-by-the-Fossil-Fuel-Sector" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An investor enquiry: how much big oil spends on climate lobbying</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://influencemap.org/report/Climate-Lobbying-by-the-Fossil-Fuel-Sector" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://influencemap.org/report/Climate-Lobbying-by-the-Fossil-Fuel-Sector</a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-exxonmobil-20170822-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Column: A new study shows how Exxon Mobil downplayed climate change when it knew the problem was real</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/exxons-climate-concealment.html?r=2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exxon’s Climate Concealment</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/exxons-climate-concealment.html?r=2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/exxons-climate-concealment.html?r=2</a></font></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Shell Knew Fossil Fuels Created Climate Change Risks Back in 1980s, Internal Documents Show</font></a></font></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/sep/19/shell-and-exxons-secret-1980s-climate-change-warnings" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Shell and Exxon's secret 1980s climate change warnings</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On its 100th birthday in 1959, Edward Teller warned the oil industry about global warming</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;https://yyy.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/science/earth/24deny.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-exxonmobil-just-admit_b_8625514" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Did ExxonMobil Just Admit It’s Still Funding Climate Science Deniers?</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-exxonmobil-just-admit_b_8625514" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-exxonmobil-just-admit_b_8625514</a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/18/1509433112.abstract" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/18/1509433112.abstract" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/18/1509433112.abstract</a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/nov/25/two-faced-exxon-the-misinformation-campaign-against-its-own-scientists" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Two-faced Exxon: the misinformation campaign against its own scientists</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;https://yyy.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/nov/25/two-faced-exxon-the-misinformation-campaign-against-its-own-scientists</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2020/02/04/rex-tillerson-to-oil-industry-not-sure-humans-can-do-anything-to-battle-climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Rex Tillerson to oil industry: Not sure humans can do anything to battle climate change</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08062017/exxon-climate-fraud-rex-tillerson-erased-wayne-tracker-emails-witness" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Exxon May Have Erased 7 Years of Tillerson's 'Wayne Tracker' Emails, Witness Says</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30102019/exxon-climate-fraud-trial-rex-tillerson-testifies-denies-misleading-investors" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Rex Tillerson Testifies, Denying Exxon Misled Investors About Climate Risk</font></a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘All Rhetoric and No Action’: Oil Giants Spent $1 Billion on Climate Lobbying and Ads Since Paris Pact, Says Report</font></a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/03/22/paris-oil-exxon-chevron-bp-total-shell-billion-climate-lobbying-advertising-influencemap/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">&nbsp;https://www.desmog.com/2019/03/22/paris-oil-exxon-chevron-bp-total-shell-billion-climate-lobbying-advertising-influencemap/</a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2019/10/22/attribution-science-fossil-fuels-climate-change-001290" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new science fossil fuel companies fear</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2019/10/22/attribution-science-fossil-fuels-climate-change-001290" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2019/10/22/attribution-science-fossil-fuels-climate-change-001290</a></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a target="blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-10-21/oil-companies-exxon-climate-change-denial-report" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Report details how ExxonMobil and fossil fuel firms sowed seeds of doubt on climate change</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-10-21/oil-companies-exxon-climate-change-denial-report" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-10-21/oil-companies-exxon-climate-change-denial-report</a></font></li><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; padding: 0px;" /></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/03/22/paris-oil-exxon-chevron-bp-total-shell-billion-climate-lobbying-advertising-influencemap/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.desmog.com/2019/03/22/paris-oil-exxon-chevron-bp-total-shell-billion-climate-lobbying-advertising-influencemap/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NO LNX grfx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘All Rhetoric and No Action’: Oil Giants Spent $1 Billion on Climate Lobbying and Ads Since Paris Pact, Says Report</font></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Sharon Kelly on&nbsp;<b>Mar 22, 2019</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">A new report by a British think tank estimates that since the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s five largest listed oil and gas companies spent more than $1 billion lobbying to prevent climate change regulations while also running public relations campaigns aimed at maintaining public support for climate action.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Combined, the companies spend roughly $200 million a year pushing to delay or alter climate and energy rules, particularly in the U.S. — while spending $195 million a year “on branding campaigns that suggest they support an ambitious climate agenda,</b>” according to InfluenceMap, a UK-based non-profit that researches how corporations influence climate policy.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InfluenceMap cites as an example&nbsp;<b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">ExxonMobil’s heavily-touted algae-biofuels research</span>,</b>&nbsp;which the oil giant says “offers some of the greatest promise for next-generation biofuels” with significant climate benefits and has made it the focus of its “The Tiny Organism” ad campaign.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InfluenceMap notes that “detailed disclosures from the company show its goal of 10,000 barrels of bio-fuel a day would equate to only<b>&nbsp;0.2 percent of its current refinery capacity.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Oil majors are projecting themselves as key players in the energy transition while lobbying to delay, weaken, or oppose meaningful climate policy,” Edward Collins, author of the new report, said in a statement. “They advocate gradual implementation of market-based and technological climate solutions, but the latest [United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report makes clear that urgent policy action and limitations on fossil fuel use are needed to avoid dangerous climate change.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Today’s report updates the group’s 2016 report that estimated these companies spent $115 million a year lobbying against climate regulations — even policies companies said they supported.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Say one thing,” said&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Senator<b>&nbsp;Sheldon Whitehouse,</b>&nbsp;as he described InfluenceMap’s 2016 research on the floor of the U.S. Senate</span>, “do another.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The new estimates suggest that spending to influence climate policy by the five oil giants has increased sharply over the last two years.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"><b>It also comes as global banks are investing more in fossil fuel projects since the Paris Agreement.</b>&nbsp;In addition, the five oil companies are spending heavily on finding and producing more fossil fuels — and putting only a tiny fraction of their budgets into efforts to transition away from climate-altering fuels.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“This spending accompanies the expansion of the companies’ operations with combined annual sales of over $1 [trillion] and profits of $55 [billion in] 2018, the vast majority of which is oil and gas related,” InfluenceMap wrote. “Combined capital investment will increase to $115 [billion] in 2019 but only about 3 percent of this will go to low carbon investments, according to company disclosures.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lobbying One Message While Advertising Another</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report focuses on the world’s five largest listed oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Total, and Chevron, leaving out state-controlled oil giants like Saudi Aramco and China’s Sinopec.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InfluenceMap examined the extent to which each company’s branding efforts and advertising campaigns focused on climate change.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Shell's&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">branded content</span>&nbsp;about its emissions scenario in The New York Times</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell’s branded content about its “Sky” emissions scenario in The New York Times.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">“The research suggests that Total maintains the highest proportion of its branding activities on climate (29 percent),” the new report finds. “</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Following this, ExxonMobil, which has faced significant negative media attention in 2018, allocates 19 percent.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Shell&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">and BP followed with 16 percent and 14 percent respectively</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">. Chevron appears far less concerned, using approximately 2 percent of its branding budget on climate issues in 2018.”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The think tank’s research also looked at what the companies were saying to government regulators, either directly or through industry groups funded by the oil majors.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">“Since Paris, Chevron, BP and<b>&nbsp;ExxonMobil have led in opposition to a range of climate-motivated policy stands,</b>” InfluenceMap wrote. “<b>For example, in 2018 both BP and Chevron have directly lobbied U.S. policymakers for a rollback on U.S. methane requirements</b>.” (Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the major constituent in natural gas.)</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report credits Shell and Total for becoming “more positive on a number of climate policy issues” since 2015, but adds that they “continue to support policies that will extend the role for fossil fuels in the energy mix and remain part of highly climate-oppositional trade associations.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mixed Messages and Industry Trade Groups</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At times, the public stances of a corporation’s leadership stand starkly at odds with the messages from industry groups funded by that same corporation.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, on electric vehicles,&nbsp;<b>Shell’s CEO Ben Van Beurden had a very direct and simple message in July 2018. “We need battery electric vehicles,</b>” he said. And a year earlier, at the oil industry conference, CERAWeek, in 2017, he expressed support for “regulations that speed up investment in low carbon technologies and ? at the same time ? move consumer demand.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil and gas lobbying on climate policies through trade associations. Credit: InfluenceMap, 2019</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In May 2018, the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. trade group for oil and gas, pushed the U.S. Congress to move in the opposite direction by rolling back incentives for electric vehicles.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“American Petroleum Institute (API) opposes mandates and subsidies,” API testified before the U.S. House of Representatives,</b>&nbsp;according to InfluenceMap’s new report. The fossil fuel trade group voiced its opposition for subsidies for electric vehicles, adding that “the level of market penetration achieved by electric vehicles should not rely on government interference.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The report also notes the difficulty in tracking corporate lobbying in the U.S. given the rise of so-called “dark money” groups and the lack of transparency surrounding political contributions in the U.S. “Political contributions that were made without full disclosure of their ultimate source totaled $539 [million] in the 2018 election cycle</span>&nbsp;according to OpenSecrets.org,” the report says.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Social Influencers</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InfluenceMap also dives deep into how companies used<b>&nbsp;social media</b>&nbsp;to influence Americans during the mid-term elections last year.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><b>“During this time ExxonMobil was by far the most prolific spender, racking up over $400K&nbsp;</b>in four weeks on over 360 individual political ads,” InfluenceMap wrote. “The ads urge rejecting specific ballot initiatives whilst promoting the benefits of increased fossil fuel production. Facebook’s data indicates that ExxonMobil’s ads made over 10 million ‘impressions’ in this time with users in Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil industry spending on Facebook and Instagram ads leading up to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Credit: InfluenceMap, 2019</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of this spending has implications for shareholders, InfluenceMap observed — and some shareholder groups appear to be listening.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">“InfluenceMap’s research confirms a widely held suspicion that Big Oil’s glossy sustainability reports and shiny climate statements are all rhetoric and no action,” Catherine Howarth, Chief Executive of ShareAction, a UK charity focused on responsible investment, said in a statement accompanying the report. “These companies have mastered the art of corporate doublespeak — by boasting about their climate credentials while quietly using their lobbying firepower to sabotage the implementation of sensible climate policy and pouring millions into groups that engage in dirty lobbying on their behalf.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeSmog has reached out to ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Total, and Chevron for comment.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“We firmly reject the premise of this report. We are very clear about our support for the Paris agreement, and the steps that we are taking to help meet society’s needs for more and cleaner energy,”<b> Shell s</b>aid in a statement provided to The Guardian.&nbsp;<b>“We make no apology for talking to policymakers and regulators around the world to make our voice heard on crucial topics such as climate change and how to address it.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We have not been afforded the opportunity to review the data but we disagree with the assertion that Chevron has engaged in ‘climate-related branding and lobbying’ that is ‘overwhelmingly in conflict’ with the Paris Agreement,” Chevron said in a statement provided to DeSmog, adding that the c<b>ompany was taking “prudent, cost-effective actions” and seeking “balanced and transparent” policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. “We believe climate change is real and human activity contributes to it. We accept the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</b>.”</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">api knew?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><div><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08042020/science-denial-coronavirus-covid-climate-change" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08042020/science-denial-coronavirus-covid-climate-change</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-239956ee-7fff-2577-babe-e0cd9347437e" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">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, the</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;American Petroleum Institute&nbsp;</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">counter-attacked by highlighting the alleged uncertainty of his science.&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The tactic was a test run for the fossil fuel industry's assault 40 years later on climate science.&nbsp;</span></font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-239956ee-7fff-2577-babe-e0cd9347437e" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Decades of climate denial now appear to have paved the way for denial of Covid-19 by many on the right,</b>&nbsp;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.&nbsp;</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-239956ee-7fff-2577-babe-e0cd9347437e" style="box-sizing: inherit;">President Trump, who denies climate change, has brushed off Covid-19's seriousness until recently&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19032020/denial-climate-change-coronavirus-donald-trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">by relying on many of the same arguments he uses to dismiss global warming, such as ignoring government scientists or blaming China.&nbsp;</a>&nbsp; ...</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2645549099" style="margin-top: -15px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/user/ddrugmand" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Dana Drugmand</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/user/ddrugmand" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;" /></span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/user/ddrugmand" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Two years after&nbsp;</a><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">internal documents surfaced</a>&nbsp;showing that Royal Dutch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/shell" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Shell</a>, like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/exxonmobil" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">ExxonMobil</a>, knew about climate dangers decades ago, the oil giant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2020/shell-publishes-2019-annual-report-and-form-20f.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">released its latest annual report</a>&nbsp;outlining its business strategy and approach to addressing climate change. Despite clear warnings from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">scientists</a>, global&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/28/climate-change-already-a-health-emergency-say-experts" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">health experts</a>&nbsp;and even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/01/31/green-swan-central-banks-financial-crisis-climate-change" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">central banks</a>&nbsp;of impending climate-driven crises, Shell's report largely sends a message that everything is fine and the company's "business strategy is sound."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That is not to say that Shell is ignoring the challenges facing it and other oil majors. But overall Shell appears to be toeing the line between saying it is responding to the climate challenge and inevitable energy transition on the one hand, and maintaining its core oil and gas business model on the other.</font></p><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-1" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Shell's&nbsp;<a href="https://reports.shell.com/annual-report/2019/servicepages/downloads/files/download2.php?file=shell_annual_report_2019.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">2019 Annual Report</a>&nbsp;is filled with statements that reveal the company's perspective on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Paris-agreement" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Paris agreement</a>, the energy transition, and climate litigation and regulatory risk to its business. A few of these statements seem contradictory, and it is important to keep in mind the context of #ShellKnew when the company says now, in 2020, that it is committed to being part of the solution.</b></font></p><p /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="shells-strategy" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell’s&nbsp;Strategy</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the report, there are three parts to Shell's overall strategy going forward: to thrive in the energy transition, to provide a world-class investment case, and to sustain a strong societal license to operate. That may sound good on paper, but in reality significant challenges are mounting for each of these pillars.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In terms of the energy transition, Shell appears to be paying lip service to it more than actually revamping its portfolio or overhauling its business model. Its core business remains oil and gas. Period.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The company may be ahead of some other oil giants like Exxon and Chevron in terms of adding alternative energies to its energy mix, but overall its commitment to clean energy is minimal.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell notes in its report that it spends "$1-2 billion a year until 2020 in different services and products from a range of cleaner sources," and "investments in power could grow to $2-3 billion a year on average" from 2021 to 2025. The vast majority of the company's capital expenditure ($24bn to $29bn in 2020) goes into oil and gas, and failure to replace proved reserves could have a "material adverse effect." Instead of aligning with the energy transition, Shell's business model is based on continual hydrocarbon exploitation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-3" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In terms of a "world-class investment," the oil and gas sector is particularly vulnerable at the moment to financial pressure and investors are increasingly turning away from fossil fuels. Jim Cramer infamously dubbed fossil fuels "<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/02/01/cnbc-jim-cramer-fossil-fuel-industry-death-knell-phase" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">in the death knell phase</a>.</b>" Shell acknowledges this risk. It notes in its report that fossil fuel divestment "could have a material adverse effect on the price of our securities and our ability to access capital markets."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell also recognizes its vulnerability to an eroding social license as the public and particularly younger generations start to scorn Big Oil.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In 2019, many protested about climate change, sometimes directly targeting Shell," Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden wrote in the report. The company includes challenges to its reputation as a risk factor, noting, "There is increasing focus on the role of oil and gas in the context of climate change and energy transition. This could negatively affect our brand, reputation and licence to operate."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the risk to its social license.</font></p><p /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="shell-claims-to-support-paris-agreement-plans-for-gradual-energy-transition" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem4"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell Claims to Support Paris Agreement, Plans for Gradual Energy&nbsp;Transition</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In its report, Shell says it fully supports the Paris agreement goal to limit warming well below 2 degrees C, and supports "the vision of a transition towards a net-zero emissions energy system." But, in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bernard-looney-announces-new-ambition-for-bp.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">contrast to fellow European oil major BP</a>, Shell is not committing its own business to net zero emissions.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Shell says it has "no immediate plans to move to a net-zero emissions portfolio over our investment horizon of 10-20 years.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" Instead, Shell's Net Carbon Footprint "ambition" is to reduce emissions (including its customers' and suppliers' emissions) of its energy production and products by 20 percent by 2035 and by 50 percent by 2050. This is not aligned with climate science guidelines that say complete decarbonization or "net zero" is necessary by 2050 at the latest.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell's own business is therefore not aligned with the goal of the Paris agreement, and the company is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2019/04/05/shell-sued-in-the-netherlands-for-insufficient-action-on-climate-change/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">facing a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;over this in its home country of the Netherlands. Current emissions reduction plans or "Nationally Determined Contributions" (NDCs) submitted by countries under the Paris agreement are also inadequate. As Shell notes in its report, current NDCs amount to about 3 degrees C of warming. "In coming decades, we expect countries to tighten these NDCs to meet the goals of the Paris agreement," the report states. Shell's view appears to be that the world has decades to get its act together.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In that view, Shell says it is fully on board with the energy transition and plans to transform its own business "over time." The report includes statements like "Shell aims to become an integrated power player and grow, over time, a material new business", and, "for us, protecting the environment also means working to transform our product mix over time, for example, by expanding the choice of lower-carbon products we offer customers."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-5" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" data-id="5" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem5"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Yet, in a seeming contradiction to these statements, Shell says it "agrees with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5°C special report," which clearly warned that limiting warming to 1.5°C would require, as Shell notes, "an even more rapid escalation in the scale and pace of change."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Shell claims to fully support the Paris agreement, in another seeming contradiction, the company states in its report that the government action necessary to meet Paris targets could harm its business: "Policies and regulations designed to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C could have a material adverse effect on Shell – through higher operating costs and reduced demand for some of our products."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell also says it is wary of governments actually taking climate action: "we believe measures taken by governments to control national energy transitions may also have unintended consequences."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, at the same time, Shell says it expects to be subject to increasing regulation. "We also expect that&nbsp;<span style="background-color: initial;">GHG</span>&nbsp;regulation, as well as emission reduction actions by customers, will continue to result in suppression of demand for fossil fuels, either through taxes, fees and/or incentives to promote the sale of lower-carbon electric vehicles or even through the future prohibition of sales of new diesel or gasoline vehicles, such as the prohibition in the United Kingdom (<span style="background-color: initial;">UK</span>) beginning in 2035. This could result in lower revenue and, in the long term, potential impairment of certain assets," the report states.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="climate-litigation-risk" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6" data-id="6" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem6"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate Litigation&nbsp;Risk</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell, like other fossil fuel companies, has long been concerned about governments imposing climate policies or regulations that would affect its business. Shell and its industry peers are already facing climate lawsuits, and Shell is explicitly identifying climate litigation as part of a broader risk factor associated with "rising climate change concern."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In its report, Shell acknowledged the lawsuits could negatively impact its financial condition:&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"In some countries, governments, regulators, organisations and individuals have filed lawsuits seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for costs associated with climate change. While we believe these lawsuits to be without merit, losing any of these lawsuits could have a material adverse effect on our earnings, cash flows and financial condition."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell actually foresaw climate-related lawsuits as a possibility more than 20 years ago. One of the internal documents that a Dutch news organization first uncovered (and published on the site Climate Files) is a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/shell/1998-shell-internal-tina-group-scenarios-1998-2020-report/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">1998 document of Shell planning scenarios</a>&nbsp;where the company hypothetically envisions a series of violent storms battering the eastern U.S., which then spur environmental&nbsp;<span style="background-color: initial;">NGO</span>s to bring "a class-action suit against the&nbsp;<span style="background-color: initial;">US</span>&nbsp;government and fossil-fuel companies on the grounds of neglecting what scientists (including their own) have been saying for years: that something must be done."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="shell-knew" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-annual-report-2645549099.html?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7" data-id="7" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem7"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell Knew&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">One statement from Shell's annual report rings particularly true: "Shell has long recognised that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of fossil fuels are contributing to the warming of the climate system."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Indeed, Shell has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/04/04/here-what-shellknew-about-climate-change-way-back-1980s" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">long known</a>&nbsp;that fossil fuels are warming the planet and that the consequences would be of a huge magnitude.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">One internal Shell document from 1988 called "The Greenhouse Effect" warned that GHG emissions would lead to warming over the next century, likely ranging from 1.5 C to 3.5 C</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. According to that document, "The changes may be the greatest in recorded history." Some parts of the planet may become uninhabitable, and there may be "significant changes in sea level, ocean currents, precipitation patterns, regional temperature and weather," it says. Impacts could be severe and "could have major social, economic, and political consequences."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What did Shell do with that knowledge? It started introducing doubt and giving weight to a 'significant minority' of 'alternative viewpoints' as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/17/shell-knew-charting-thirty-years-corporate-climate-denialism" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">full implications for the company's business model</a>&nbsp;became clear.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shell was a member of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/global-climate-coalition" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Global Climate Coalition</a>, a fossil fuel industry-funded group that worked to undermine climate science and block climate policy internationally. The group formed in 1988 and Shell was a member throughout much of the 1990s.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During that time Shell was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/08/20/exclusive-company-docs-show-shell-secretly-studied-climate-risks-10-years-warning-investors" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">not exactly upfront with its own shareholders</a>&nbsp;about potential risks climate change posed to its business. The first time Shell even mentioned climate change was in a 1991 annual report. But it wasn't until 2004 that Shell made a clear warning in its annual report about financial risk associated with fossil fuel investment.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics have for many years accused Shell's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/04/11/how-shell-greenwashed-its-image-internal-documents-warned-fossil-fuels-contribution-climate-change" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">of greenwashing</a>&nbsp;— acknowledging the climate threat and touting its "commitment" to being part of the solution, despite continuing to spend heavily on oil and gas with only minimal investment in alternative energy. Shell's latest annual report suggests the company isn't deviating far from that strategy.</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">API KNEW</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/21/headlines/report_oil_industry_knew_about_dangers_of_climate_change_in_1954" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/21/headlines/report_oil_industry_knew_about_dangers_of_climate_change_in_1954</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Leaders of the U.S. fossil fuel industry knew as early as 1954 that carbon dioxide pollution accumulating in the atmosphere posed a growing threat to life on Earth, but failed to warn the public. That’s according to new research published by Stanford historian Benjamin Franta in the journal Nature Climate Change. Franta found that in the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">1950s the American Petroleum Institute commissioned a study by a Caltech scientist which concluded global CO2 levels had risen by 5 percent in a century.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> It’s the earliest known industry-funded research into climate change, and the findings</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;led in part to a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 1965 report by President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on the threat posed by global warming</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Speaking to members of an oil industry conference that year, Frank Ikard, then-president of the American Petroleum Institute, warned, “This report unquestionably will fan emotions, raise fears, and<b> bring demand for action. The substance of the report is that there is still time to save the world’s peoples from the catastrophic consequence of pollution, but time is running out.” The American Petroleum Institute would instead go on to fund decades of climate change denial while fighting efforts to switch to renewable energy sources.</b></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/explosive-report-shows-coal-industry-was-aware-of-the-impending-climate-crisis-as-far-back-as-1966/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/explosive-report-shows-coal-industry-was-aware-of-the-impending-climate-crisis-as-far-back-as-1966/</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Explosive report shows coal industry was aware of the impending climate crisis as far back as 1966</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Eoin Higgins / Common Dreams November 22, 2019</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new report shows conclusively that the coal industry was aware of the climate impacts of burning fossil fuels as far back as 1966—and, like other sectors of the fossil fuel industry with knowledge of the consequences of their business model, did next to nothing about it.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The revelation was published in an article by Élan Young at HuffPost Friday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It wasn’t just big oil that knew about climate change decades ago,” tweeted HuffPost editor Kate Sheppard.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kate Sheppard&nbsp;</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">@kate_sheppard</span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It wasn’t just big oil that knew about climate change decades ago, @YoungElan reports in @HuffPost today https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coal-industry-climate-change_n_5dd6bbebe4b0e29d7280984f?g4 … #exxonknew #coalknew</font></p><p>
</p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Coal Knew, Too</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A newly unearthed journal from 1966 shows the coal industry, like the oil industry, was long aware of the threat of climate change.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpost.com</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The story uses a discovery by Chris Cherry, professor of civil engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to show industry foreknowledge of the ramifications of extractive technologies over 50 years ago. Cherry found the evidence in a 1966 copy of the Mining Congress Journal he was given by his father-in-law.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dave Anderson</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@cleantechfacts</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 1966 article in the Mining Congress Journal shows that #CoalKnew about the climate risks of burning fossil fuels decades before the industry engaged in a campaign of climate denial that continues today https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coal-industry-climate-change_n_5dd6bbebe4b0e29d7280984f …</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the journal, James R. Garvey, president of now-defunct research firm Bituminous Coal Research Inc., describes the future consequences of coal.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There is evidence that the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is increasing rapidly as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels,” Garvey wrote. “If the future rate of increase continues as it is at the present, it has been predicted that, because the CO2 envelope reduces radiation, the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere will increase and that vast changes in the climates of the earth will result.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Garvey added that the result of the changes in climate could include melting icecaps and rising seas.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Such changes in temperature will cause melting of the polar icecaps, which, in turn, would result in the inundation of many coastal cities, including New York and London,” wrote Garvey.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is astonishing,” tweeted historian Brad Simpson.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article sent shockwaves across the environmental movement.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The entire fossil fuel industry knew about the risks of climate change and covered it up for decades all to make a buck,” said Earther reporter Brian Kahn.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Young writes in her article, though, it’s difficult to know what the revelations in her reporting will result in as far as damages or accountability.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Even as the Trump administration has promised a coal resurgence and rolled back Obama-era regulations, the industry’s profitability continues to experience a downward slide,” writes Young. “If the slogan ‘Coal Knew’ ever does take off, it’s unclear who’ll be left to sue.”</b></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div>