Executives privately sought to downplay link between fossil fuels and climate change despite public pronouncements, WSJ reports

ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal.

The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil.

Many of the newly released documents date back to the 2006-16 tenure of former chief executive Rex Tillerson, who oversaw a major shift in the company’s climate messaging. In 2006, Exxon publicly accepted that the climate crisis posed risks, and it went on to support the Paris agreement. Yet behind closed doors, the company behaved differently, the documents show.

    • Spendrill@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Everybody else is saying kill them and I think, somehow, that’s letting them off easy. Let them all go and be the self-made, self sufficient men and ladies they have always wanted to be. They can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and show us once and for all we’re just crap people by not only surviving but thriving under the conditions that they, more than anyone else, have made.

      Seems like my proposal has balance and justice about it.

      • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The risk of them making others think like them is pretty great.

        The risk of them doing things to prolong their bloodline at the expense of others is also pretty good.

        Better to remove the risk.