Tag Archives: ExxonKnew Document

1995 Global Climate Coalition Draft Climate Change Science Primer

“Predicting Future Climate Change: A Primer” is a draft document from the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), dated December 1995. This document and others were submitted during discovery in Green Mtn. Chrysler Plymouth Dodge Jeep v. Crombie and Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep, Inc. v. Witherspoon. Covered in part by The New York Times in 2009, the full […]

1988 Exxon Memo on the Greenhouse Effect

This document, revealed through a Los Angeles Times investigation, features statements by Joseph M. Carlson, an Exxon spokesperson. In the document, Carlson states that the “greenhouse effect” may be one of the most significant environmental issues of the 1990’s and that the main greenhouse gases are by-products of fossil fuels. Carlson admits that the increase of […]

1985 Exxon Presentation on Greenhouse Effect Research and Budget

This is a presentation given by Exxon Research and Engineering Company’s Brian P. Flannery, who became one of Exxon’s primary climate researchers after joining the company in 1980. His initial research for Exxon on the relationship between CO2 and climate change confirmed the results that other scientists were finding at the time, predicting that doubling […]

1982 Exxon speech “Inventing the Future: Energy and the CO2 ‘Greenhouse’ Effect”

This is a speech to a 1982 gathering of climate scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Geophysical Observatory by Dr. E. E. David, Jr., president of the Exxon Research and Engineering Company, regarding the “greenhouse effect,” i.e. climate change, and the importance of scientific research in figuring out how to respond to it – how to “invent […]

1982 Letter Cutting Back Exxon CO2 Greenhouse Project

Letter from Roger W. Cohen, Director of Exxon’s Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences to Peter Kimon, Exxon International Tanker Division canceling work of the CO2 Greenhouse Project on tanker “s/s Esso Atlantic” dated July 14, 1982. Share this post on your feed Twitter Facebook Google+

1981 Exxon Memo on Possible Emission Consequences of Fossil Fuel Consumption

August 18, 1981 memo from Exxon’s Roger Cohen to Exxon’s Werner Glass with comments about Glass’ draft report on possible consequences of fossil fuel consumption out to 2030. Cohen writes that it is very likely “we will unambiguously recognize the threat by the year 2000 because of advances in climate modeling and the beginning of real […]

1981 Internal Exxon “CO2 Position Statement”

On May 15, 1981, Henry Shaw, a manager with Exxon Research & Engineering’s Technology Feasibility center, sent a “Preliminary Statement of Exxon’s Position on the Growth of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide” to Edward. E David Jr., president of the Exxon Research and Engineering Company. The inter-office correspondence outlined Exxon’s “current position on the CO2 Greenhouse effect” […]

1980 Imperial Oil Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979

A 1980 report, “Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979,” produced by Imperial Oil, Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary, again suggests that Exxon knew that CO2 was a harmful pollutant in the atmosphere in the 1970s. Lines in the document include: “It is assumed that the major contributors of CO2 are the burning of fossil fuels… There is no doubt […]