ECOnomics Article 51: The War on Science
The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore for the film “An Inconvenient Truth.” The film also won an Oscar that year for best documentary film. The Nobel Committee stated the prize was awarded: “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change.”
The basic science of global warming and climate change has been known since the 1960s. Research in 1968 concluded projected increases in CO2 would accelerate warming and potentially destabilize the climate. Independent research conducted by the petroleum industry in 1969 reached precisely these same conclusions.
The oil industry determined the truth was inconvenient. They knew of the damage their products would cause to the environment at the same time as the rest of the scientific community. Their response was to conduct a multi-million dollar propaganda and disinformation campaign over five decades to discredit climate science. It continues to this day.
The oil industry followed the tobacco industry’s disinformation playbook. They too found the science documenting health risks associated with tobacco use to be an inconvenient truth.
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/06/27/economics-article-51-the-war-on-science/