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Global Warming Has Been on the Oil Industry's Radar Since the 1960s Xpost fm EE
CO2's Role in Global Warming Has Been on the Oil Industry's Radar Since the 1960s
Historical records reveal early industry concern with air pollutants, including smog and CO2, and unwanted regulation.
BY NEELA BANERJEE, JOHN H. CUSHMAN JR., DAVID HASEMYER AND LISA SONG
APR 13, 2016
The oil industry's leading pollution-control consultants advised the American Petroleum Institute in 1968 that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels deserved as much concern as the smog and soot that had commanded attention for decades.
Carbon dioxide was "the only air pollutant which has been proven to be of global importance to man's environment on the basis of a long period of scientific investigation," two scientists from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) told the API.
This paper, along with scores of other publications, shows that the risks of climate change were being discussed in the inner circles of the oil industry earlier than previously documented. The records, unearthed from archives by a Washington, D.C. environmental law organization, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), reveal that the carbon dioxide questionan obscure corner of research for much of the 20th centuryhad been closely studied since the 1950s by some oil company researchers.
By the 1960s, the CO2 problem was gaining wider scientific recognition, especially as President Lyndon B. Johnson's science advisers and leading experts brought it to the attention of the White House in 1965.
"If CO2 levels continue to rise at present rates, it is likely that noticeable increases in temperature could occur," SRI scientists Elmer Robinson and R.C. Robbins wrote in their 1968 paper to API....
Historical records reveal early industry concern with air pollutants, including smog and CO2, and unwanted regulation.
BY NEELA BANERJEE, JOHN H. CUSHMAN JR., DAVID HASEMYER AND LISA SONG
APR 13, 2016
The oil industry's leading pollution-control consultants advised the American Petroleum Institute in 1968 that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels deserved as much concern as the smog and soot that had commanded attention for decades.
Carbon dioxide was "the only air pollutant which has been proven to be of global importance to man's environment on the basis of a long period of scientific investigation," two scientists from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) told the API.
This paper, along with scores of other publications, shows that the risks of climate change were being discussed in the inner circles of the oil industry earlier than previously documented. The records, unearthed from archives by a Washington, D.C. environmental law organization, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), reveal that the carbon dioxide questionan obscure corner of research for much of the 20th centuryhad been closely studied since the 1950s by some oil company researchers.
By the 1960s, the CO2 problem was gaining wider scientific recognition, especially as President Lyndon B. Johnson's science advisers and leading experts brought it to the attention of the White House in 1965.
"If CO2 levels continue to rise at present rates, it is likely that noticeable increases in temperature could occur," SRI scientists Elmer Robinson and R.C. Robbins wrote in their 1968 paper to API....
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/13042016/climate-change-global-warming-oil-industry-radar-1960s-exxon-api-co2-fossil-fuels
Library of documents from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
This is a story about how the worlds most powerful industry used science, communications, and consumer psychology to shape the public debate over climate change. And it begins earlierdecades earlierthan anyone suspected.
Explore our documents and discover what they knew, when they knew it, and how they collaborated to confuse the public, promote scientific theories that contradicted their own best information, and block action on the most important challenge of our time.
Explore our documents and discover what they knew, when they knew it, and how they collaborated to confuse the public, promote scientific theories that contradicted their own best information, and block action on the most important challenge of our time.
https://www.smokeandfumes.org/#/
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Global Warming Has Been on the Oil Industry's Radar Since the 1960s Xpost fm EE (Original Post)
kristopher
Apr 2016
OP
ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)1. Not only did Mobil Exxon know, so did the SIERRA CLUB!!!
Where I live, the Sierra Club endorsed a candidate for mayor, the corporate candidate, who got caught dumping paint into Sarasota Bay!
KT2000
(20,584 posts)2. Insurance industry as bellweather
Reality checks can be found in the insurance industry too. Their exemptions for reducing exposure to risk tells us a lot. Most of us have exemptions for chemical contamination on our homeowner policies. They knew a long time ago that the potential claims could ruin them. Insurance companies have already stopped writing some policies in vulnerable areas due to climate change.
No matter what the political discussion may include, the industry usually deals in reality quietly behind the scenes.
http://evanmills.lbl.gov/pubs/pdf/climate-action-insurance.pdf