{"id":13990,"date":"2015-10-31T07:31:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T12:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13990"},"modified":"2015-10-31T07:31:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T12:31:48","slug":"imagine-if-exxon-had-told-the-truth-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13990","title":{"rendered":"Imagine If Exxon Had Told the Truth on Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine If Exxon Had Told the Truth on Climate Change<\/a><\/h3>\n

L<\/span>ike all proper scandals, the\u00a0#Exxonknew\u00a0<\/a>revelations have begun to spin off new dramas and lines of inquiry. Presidential candidates have\u00a0begun to call<\/a>\u00a0for Department of Justice investigations, and company spokesmen have begun to dig themselves deeper into the inevitable holes as they try to excuse the inexcusable.<\/p>\n

(Worst idea:\u00a0attack Pulitzer prize-winning reporters<\/a>\u00a0as \u201canti-oil and gas activists<\/a>\u201d)<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0latest expose installment<\/a>\u00a0from those hopeless radicals at the Los Angeles Times clearly shows,\u00a0Exxon<\/a>\u00a0made a conscious decision to adopt what a company public affairs officer called \u201cthe Exxon position.\u201d It was simple: \u201cEmphasize the uncertainty.\u201d Even though they knew there was none.<\/p>\n

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View image on Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
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\"View<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
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\u00a0Follow<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/span>Mike Hudema<\/span>\u00a0@MikeHudema<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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#<\/span>Exxon<\/span><\/a> Sowed Doubt about #<\/span>ClimateScience<\/span><\/a> for Decades: http:\/\/<\/span>insideclimatenews.org\/news\/22102015\/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty\u00a0<\/span>\u2026<\/a>#<\/span>climate<\/span><\/a>#<\/span>energy<\/span><\/a>#<\/span>divest<\/span><\/a>#<\/span>actonclimate<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

11:22 AM – 23 Oct 2015<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Someone else will have to decide if that deceit was technically illegal. Perhaps the rich and powerful have been drafting the laws for so long that Exxon will skate; I confess my confidence that the richest company in American history can be brought to justice is slight.<\/p>\n

But quite aside from those questions about the future, let\u2019s take a moment and just think about the past. About what might have happened differently if, in August of 1988, the \u201cExxon position\u201d had been \u201ctell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a few months after Nasa scientist James Hansen had\u00a0told Congress the planet was heating<\/a>\u00a0and humans were the cause; it was amid the hottest American summer recorded to that point, with the Mississippi running so low that barges were stranded and the heat so bad that corn was withering in the fields. Imagine, amid all that, Exxon scientists had simply said: \u201cEverything we know says Hansen is right; the planet\u2019s in serious trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine If Exxon Had Told the Truth on Climate Change Like all proper scandals, the\u00a0#Exxonknew\u00a0revelations have begun to spin off new dramas and lines of inquiry. Presidential candidates have\u00a0begun to call\u00a0for Department of Justice investigations, and company spokesmen have begun to dig themselves deeper into the inevitable holes as they try to excuse the inexcusable. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7013,113,141,1004,3448,8375,4390,328,6955,10366,3335,1796],"class_list":["post-13990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-bill-mckibben","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-doubt","tag-ecowatch","tag-exxon","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-james-hansen","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-uncertainty","tag-us-congress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13991,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990\/revisions\/13991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}