this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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168
Big oil firms knew of dire effects of fossil fuels as early as 1950s, memos show (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Newly unearthed documents contain warning from head of Air Pollution Foundation, founded in 1953 by oil interests

Major oil companies, including Shell and precursors to energy giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP, were alerted about the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents show.

The warning, from the head of an industry-created group known as the Air Pollution Foundation, was revealed by Climate Investigations Center and published Tuesday by the climate website DeSmog. It represents what may be the earliest instance of big oil being informed of the potentially dire consequences of its products.

"Every time there's a push for climate action, [we see] fossil fuel companies downplay and deny the harms of burning fossil fuels," said Rebecca John, a researcher at the Climate Investigations Center who uncovered the historic memos. "Now we have evidence they were doing this way back in the 50s during these really early attempts to crack down on sources of pollution."

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[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Of course they knew.

Scientists like Svante Arrhenius in the late 1800s first proposed the idea that increased carbon dioxide from human activities could cause warming through the greenhouse effect.

In 1958, Charles Keeling began recording continuous CO2 measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, creating the "Keeling Curve" which provided definitive proof of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

https://www.discover.ukri.org/a-brief-history-of-climate-change-discoveries/index.html

[–] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In the 1990s, we all knew. And we had enough time and the technology to stop it.

That technology was nuclear, since solar and wind just weren't developed enough back then.

But we collectively decided that nuclear power was too risky, so now we are here today.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

We didn't collectively decide anything lol. Hilarious you think thats how our society works.

[–] Traister101@lemmy.today 4 points 3 days ago

Go around and ask people their thoughts on nuclear. The vast majority of people bought the anti nuclear propaganda and believe it to be extremely dangerous and expensive

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This doesn’t surprise me.. but it does make me wonder what kind of person would ignore that sort of data just for money..

I mean.. really, who in their right mind says “well this is going to be catastrophic, and we could shift gears now to prevent it and release all the data and be absolute heroes among men, but nah, we’d rather it burn.”?

Money is great and all (I guess), but when the global economy collapses due to the catastrophic climate change, it’s not going to be worth a whole lot..

[–] wanderingmagus@lemm.ee 11 points 3 days ago

what kind of person

A billionaire. Especially an old billionaire, who doesn't give a shit about what happens to the planet because he won't see the consequences. A psychopath narcissist who doesn't care about anything except money - but I repeat myself.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Corporations always get in the mindset of, "Rake in the profits now and well deal with the consequences later." When the consequences are decades away, it never really becomes later to them. They just focus on the profits.