Investigate ExxonMobil for Fraud
Investigate ExxonMobil for Fraud
The Issue
Polar bears stranded and starving on melting ice floes. Family farms abandoned due to California’s mega-drought. Once-splendid coral reefs bleached and dead in our oceans.
We have all seen these images, and most scientists believe they are caused by climate change. It’s no surprise that fossil fuel companies, which profit from the very activities that cause climate change, have pushed back on the scientific consensus that climate change is a problem we must address. But a recent investigation by Columbia University, the LA Times, and InsideClimate News has uncovered just how far one of the largest of these companies was willing to go to sweep climate concerns under the rug, and it is shocking [1].
It turns out that ExxonMobil has quietly been at the forefront of climate change research, dating as far back as 1977, when top executives were briefed by leading climate scientists on the catastrophic effects of expanded burning of fossil fuels [1][2]. Since then, Exxon has funded its own internal science as well as research from outside experts at Columbia University and MIT [1]. And it has taken its findings to heart, closely studying how to adapt the company’s operations to a warming planet and incorporating its findings into the company’s planning.
But without the recent investigation, we wouldn’t have known this. Because instead of bringing news of this looming catastrophe to the public, Exxon organized and funded groups that spread deliberate misinformation and denial about climate change [3].
The New York attorney general has just announced that he will be launching his own investigation to determine whether Exxon Mobil lied to the public about the risks of climate change. But this issue is bigger than any one state, so I am calling on the U.S. Justice Department to do the same.
Exxon also lied to its investors. Back in 1990, as the debate over climate change was just heating up, a shareholder petitioned the company’s board to develop a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its operations.The board responded by saying that Exxon had studied the science of global warming, and concluded it was too murky to warrant action [1][2][3]. Meanwhile, it was shaping whole operations plans around the very findings it was publicly discrediting.
Exxon poured millions, if not billions, of dollars into misleading the public on climate change, and it must be held accountable. They released full-page ads in major newspapers, attempting to discredit even NASA scientists. Exxon did this to protect its profits, but it cost us 40 crucial years that could have been spent addressing the problem. We can’t get those 40 years back, and our planet is already showing the disastrous effects of that fact.
Climate change poses a risk to billions of humans and countless other species on this planet - but there is still time to act. Please join me in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a federal investigation into Exxon Mobil’s deliberate misleading of the public on climate change.
Sources:
The Issue
Polar bears stranded and starving on melting ice floes. Family farms abandoned due to California’s mega-drought. Once-splendid coral reefs bleached and dead in our oceans.
We have all seen these images, and most scientists believe they are caused by climate change. It’s no surprise that fossil fuel companies, which profit from the very activities that cause climate change, have pushed back on the scientific consensus that climate change is a problem we must address. But a recent investigation by Columbia University, the LA Times, and InsideClimate News has uncovered just how far one of the largest of these companies was willing to go to sweep climate concerns under the rug, and it is shocking [1].
It turns out that ExxonMobil has quietly been at the forefront of climate change research, dating as far back as 1977, when top executives were briefed by leading climate scientists on the catastrophic effects of expanded burning of fossil fuels [1][2]. Since then, Exxon has funded its own internal science as well as research from outside experts at Columbia University and MIT [1]. And it has taken its findings to heart, closely studying how to adapt the company’s operations to a warming planet and incorporating its findings into the company’s planning.
But without the recent investigation, we wouldn’t have known this. Because instead of bringing news of this looming catastrophe to the public, Exxon organized and funded groups that spread deliberate misinformation and denial about climate change [3].
The New York attorney general has just announced that he will be launching his own investigation to determine whether Exxon Mobil lied to the public about the risks of climate change. But this issue is bigger than any one state, so I am calling on the U.S. Justice Department to do the same.
Exxon also lied to its investors. Back in 1990, as the debate over climate change was just heating up, a shareholder petitioned the company’s board to develop a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its operations.The board responded by saying that Exxon had studied the science of global warming, and concluded it was too murky to warrant action [1][2][3]. Meanwhile, it was shaping whole operations plans around the very findings it was publicly discrediting.
Exxon poured millions, if not billions, of dollars into misleading the public on climate change, and it must be held accountable. They released full-page ads in major newspapers, attempting to discredit even NASA scientists. Exxon did this to protect its profits, but it cost us 40 crucial years that could have been spent addressing the problem. We can’t get those 40 years back, and our planet is already showing the disastrous effects of that fact.
Climate change poses a risk to billions of humans and countless other species on this planet - but there is still time to act. Please join me in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a federal investigation into Exxon Mobil’s deliberate misleading of the public on climate change.
Sources:
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Petition created on October 29, 2015