Big oil the evil mastermind behind climate change denial

From the startling revelation of ExxonMobil's accurate climate change predictions in the 1970s, and subsequent denial, to the appointment of an oil company chief to head up Cop28, it is stretching belief that global players are serious about reducing emissions

'ExxonMobil didn’t just know something about global warming decades ago — they knew as much as academic and government scientists knew,' researchers said. Picture: AP/Richard Drew

It is like the well-worn action or thriller movie plot where the seeming good guy turns on his friend halfway through, revealing he was the evil mastermind all along — only this environmental disaster show is no movie, but 50 years in the making.

Quelle surprise, oil industry figures, specifically those in ExxonMobil, knew exactly of the implications of fossil fuel dependence on the future state of the environment in the 1970s, with their own scientists warning of the consequences, but instead of taking evasive action, they decided to hide the truth in the pursuit of money.