Big Oil and big lies

December 15, 2023

Smoke, mirrors and disinformation indeed. (Analysis exposes big oil P & I 1/12/2023) The International Energy Agency(IEA) has recently called out the oil sector for its reluctance to properly acknowledge the climate damage of its product, and its meagre investment (said to be 1%) in clean energy. The OPEC Secretary General, Mr Haitham Al Ghais, in reply, argued for equality of opportunity among energy sources. Cigarette makers are now obliged to warn customers of the effects of smoking. Oil merchants need a similar calling to account. Exxon Oil, one of the companies still pushing back on renewable energy sources, was proved by Harvard researchers to have long known the effects of its product on global warming. In The Harvard Gazette of January 2023, correspondent Alice McCarthy announced their conclusions, “What we found is that between 1977 and 2003, excellent scientists within Exxon modelled and predicted global warming with, frankly, shocking skill and accuracy, only for the company to then spend the next couple of decades denying that very climate science”.

Reference to Exxon: Exxon scientists predicted global warming with ‘shocking skill and accuracy,’ Harvard researchers say Harvard Gazette 12 January 2023 https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/01/harvard-led-analysis-finds-exxonmobil-internal-research-accurately-predicted-climate-change/