{"id":7295,"date":"2015-04-14T06:20:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T11:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7295"},"modified":"2015-04-14T06:20:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T11:20:54","slug":"how-exxonmobils-pr-machine-impacted-the-climate-change-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7295","title":{"rendered":"How ExxonMobil’s PR Machine Impacted The Climate Change Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

How ExxonMobil’s PR Machine Impacted The Climate Change Debate<\/a><\/h3>\n

Our\u00a0<\/em>DeSmog\u00a0UK<\/span>\u00a0epic history series continues asExxonMobil<\/a>\u00a0uses its\u00a0PR<\/span>\u00a0power to change the public\u2019s mind on climate\u00a0change.<\/em><\/p>\n

The basic tenet of\u00a0ExxonMobil<\/a>\u2019s strategy was clear: it would use\u00a0PR<\/span>, not to change their image, but to change the public’s\u00a0mind.<\/p>\n

Exxon\u2019s longstanding senior environmental advisor was a large, bullish, but \u201cbrilliant\u201d, nuclear engineer, heroically named\u00a0Arthur G Randall\u00a0III<\/span><\/a>. He went by the name of\u00a0\u201cRandy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Though Randy was nearing the end of his career, he was a powerful force within ExxonMobil\u2019s Washington network.<\/p>\n

The Action\u00a0Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

In April 1998, four months after\u00a0BP<\/span>\u00a0boss Lord Browne praised the new Kyoto Protocol<\/a>\u00a0to limit emissions, the hardliners came together to create an \u201cAction Plan\u201d to combat America\u2019s growing fondness for fighting climate\u00a0change.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGlobal Climate Science Communications Team\u201d was led by the American Petroleum Institute (API<\/span>), an industry lobby group bankrolled by Exxon and increasingly used as a political cover for their\u00a0activities.<\/p>\n

Randy was one of just a few industry representatives present; apart from this, the group was dominated by think tank representatives from the Heartland Institute, the Marshall Institute, and Frontiers for\u00a0Freedom.<\/p>\n

The group had a singular clarity of vision. The problem was that the public was sympathetic to the Kyoto Protocol. But this was\u00a0alterable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Media\u00a0Outreach<\/strong><\/p>\n

The environmentalists’ Achilles heel was the public’s understanding of the science. By recruiting and training \u201ca team of five independent scientists to participate in media outreach\u201d, industry representatives would ensure that \u201ca majority of the American public\u201d recognise that significant uncertainties exist in climate\u00a0change.<\/p>\n

They would have a direct outreach programme to engage with colleges, the press and politicians \u201cabout uncertainties in climate\u00a0science.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

How ExxonMobil’s PR Machine Impacted The Climate Change Debate Our\u00a0DeSmog\u00a0UK\u00a0epic history series continues asExxonMobil\u00a0uses its\u00a0PR\u00a0power to change the public\u2019s mind on climate\u00a0change. The basic tenet of\u00a0ExxonMobil\u2019s strategy was clear: it would use\u00a0PR, not to change their image, but to change the public’s\u00a0mind. Exxon\u2019s longstanding senior environmental advisor was a large, bullish, but \u201cbrilliant\u201d, nuclear engineer, […]<\/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":[4,6],"tags":[141,992,1041,512,655],"class_list":["post-7295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-change-denial","tag-exxonmobil","tag-media","tag-propaganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295","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=7295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7296,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7295\/revisions\/7296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}