Oil Industry Knew Of Climate Change Dangers For Decades, Documents Reveal

The science of climate change has been around for more than a century. Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius helped develop the field of fossil fuel combustion in 1886. Ten years later in 1896, he was first to hypothesize that the then newly developing oil industry's activities might in fact result in climate change.

It was not the prevailing theory, however, during the first half of the twentieth century. Then, in 1957, a landmark paper by Roger Revelle and Hans Suess of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography became the first to challenge the then-prevailing theory that excess CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion would be absorbed by the oceans. Two months after their paper was published, the oil industry, represented by scientists employed by Humble Oil -- now known as ExxonMobil -- published its own paper on CO2 levels and the risk of climate change, casting doubt on the theory. That report by Brannon, et al is the first concrete evidence that the oil industry was aware of climate change risks.

In 1968, scientists at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) led by meteorologist Elmer Robinson were performing research for the American Petroleum Institute (API) into air pollution as it related to the oil industry. Among other pollutants, they looked into the role of carbon dioxide or CO2. Their work linked the burning of fossil fuels with rising CO2 levels and the researchers warned of the risks of climate change with an overall increase in global temperatures. Their climate change warnings for the oil industry included rising sea levels and melting polar ice caps.

The 1968 report warned that research was urgently needed into the kinds of technologies that could work to bring rising CO2 emissions under control. CIEL has published excerpts from the 1968 report online. Robinson and his team analyzed and cite research that existed at the time, including the 1957 Revelle report.

"In summary, Revelle makes the point that man is now engaged in a vast geophysical experiment with his environment, the earth. Significant temperature changes are almost certain to occur by the year 2000 and these could bring about climatic changes."

The timing of climate change knowledge and the oil industry's alleged role in working to cast suspicion on the underlying science is significant for a number of reasons. Gretchen Goldman, the lead analyst for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists spoke to Vice News.

"Constantly, the public is persuaded that climate change is a new issue, some new theory that is just being tested, just being proved."

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