Tag Archives: environmental impacts

2000 Economist article – “Big business bows to global warming”

An article marking a shift in the chemical and petroleum industry’s acknowledgement of global climate change and its relationship to carbon emissions. The article demonstrates the voluntary measures adopted by industry to mitigate losses on internal rates of return due to carbon-based expenses. Specifically, DuPont stated its intent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by 2010 compared […]

1996 Exxon’s Lee Raymond “Energy, The Economy, And The Environment: Moving Forward Together”

In 1996 Exxon Corporation’s Chairman Lee Raymond delivered a speech titled “Energy, The Economy, And The Environment: Moving Forward Together” to the Economic Club of Detroit. Raymond underscored the common bonds and past accomplishments of the petroleum and automotive industries in “fighting a battle against misinformation.” Outlining “the need for economic growth and energy development […]

1992 Imperial Oil Environmental Reference Manual

This 1992 document from Imperial Oil Ltd, the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon, is an “Environmental Reference Manual” to guide “environmental risk reduction strategies, options and methods.” This document is part of the ClimateFiles Imperial Oil document set, gleaned by DeSmog researchers from the Glenbow Imperial Oil Archive Collection. The document primarily focuses on challenges related […]

1990 Shell Selected Papers “The environmental challenge and the oil industry’s response”

This 1990 collection of papers, titled “The environmental challenge and the oil industry’s response,” outlines Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s (“Shell”) issues surrounding the environment, energy efficiency, inter-fuel substitution, and “Shell policy.” This document, a part of a larger collection discovered by Jelmer Mommers of De Correspondent in a trove of internal Shell documents, reckons with climate […]

1984 Imperial Oil Report on the Public’s Perception of Environmental Issues

This 1984 document from Imperial Oil Ltd, the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon, is a “Report on the Public’s Perception of Environmental Issues.” This document is part of the ClimateFiles Imperial Oil document set, gleaned by DeSmog researchers from the Glenbow Imperial Oil Archive Collection. The report, prepared for Imperial by Pat Delbridge Associates Inc., “focuses […]

1984 Speech on Mobil’s “Environmental Perspective”

This document is a speech regarding Mobil’s environmental commitment, given by employee J.P. McCullough on April 24, 1984. The speech begins by noting that Mobil is in its “4th” generation of commitment to the environment, and goes on to describe the causes that influenced that commitment. McCullough says Mobil began its commitment to the environment as early […]

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 Environmental Pollution Course

This ca. 1980 document from Imperial Oil Ltd., the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon, is a course on Environmental Pollution from Imperial’s Environmental Protection Department which was “originally prepared for, and presented to Imperial Oil personnel across Canada” in an effort to “add to their understanding of the environment and the effects of pollution on the […]

1979 Exxon Memo on Potential Impact of Fossil Fuel Combustion

October 16, 1979 memo from Exxon’s W.L. Ferral to Exxon’s R.L. Hirsch about a study conducted by an Exxon summer employee named Steve Knisely. The study was on the potential impact of fossil fuel combustion on CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Some of the conclusions in the study are: “present trends of fossil fuel combustion […]