New Delhi: A study found that ExxonMobil publicly downplayed climate change even though its own scientists predicted global warming as far back as in the 1970s, AFP reported. According to Geoffrey Supran, a coauthor of the study that was published on Thursday in the journal Science stated that the scientists "modelled and predicted global warming with shocking accuracy and skill".
"They modelled and predicted global warming with shocking accuracy and skill, only for the company to spend the next couple of decades denying that very climate science," Supran told AFP.
After a merger between Exxon and Mobil in 1999, ExxonMobil was formed. It has faced accusations over the years that, it knew about the threat of global warming decades ago. In 2015, Inside Climate News and Los Angeles Times first revealed that ExxonMobil knew that climate change was real and that it had known for a long time that it was the result of human activity.
An activist campaign #ExxonKnew started with the allegation that the company deliberately misled the public by spreading doubts and misinformation about the existence of climate change. According to the website exxonknew.org, ‘the company has contributed millions of dollars to think tanks and politicians that have done their best to spread doubt and misinformation — first on the existence of climate change, then the extent of the problem, and now its cause.’ The campaign calls for an investigation of the company.
"We've gone from a qualitative understanding of what they knew to a quantitative statistically precise one. "Our analysis truly seals the deal on what Exxon knew and literally puts a number on it.
"They didn't just vaguely know something about global warming decades ago. They knew as much as independent, academic and government scientists did, and arguably, they knew what they needed to know to begin to take action and warn the public,” said Supran in the report.