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Article

28 Jul 2015

Author:
Elliott Negin, Union of Concerned Scientists, (USA)

Commentary: "Internal documents show fossil fuel industry has been aware of climate change for decades"

"Internal documents show fossil fuel industry has been aware of climate change for decades", 8 July 2015

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse created a stir recently when he speculated that fossil fuel companies may be violating federal racketeering law by colluding to defraud the public about the threat posed by carbon pollution. Whitehouse likened their actions to those of the tobacco companies that conspired to manufacture doubt about the link between smoking and disease when they were all too aware of it...in 2007, a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report revealed that ExxonMobil...had spent $16 million between 1998 and 2005 on a network of more than 40 front groups to try to discredit mainstream climate science...[T]he report reveals that ExxonMobil and five other top carbon polluters -- BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, coal giant Peabody Energy and Royal Dutch Shell -- were fully aware of the reality of climate change but continued to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote contrarian arguments they knew to be wrong...The collected documents reveal the fossil fuel industry campaign has relied on a variety of deceptive practices, including creating phony grassroots groups, secretly funding purportedly independent scientists, and even forging letters from nonprofit advocacy groups to lobby members of Congress...[S]hareholder engagement, divestment campaigns, consumer boycotts and state court litigation all can play an important role in forcing them to curb their emissions, end their disinformation campaigns, and even pay the cost of climate damages, preparedness and mitigation…

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