NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS, OIL INDUSTRY LIED ABOUT EFFECTS OF FOSSIL FUELS

[LET ME STATE UP FRONT THAT WE ALL NEED TO GET POLITICS OUT OF THE WAY SO WE CAN SEE WHAT THIS IS DOING TO US, TO EACH OF US, TO YOUR KIDS, TO EVERYTHING THAT DRAWS BREATH.
FORGET THE PHRASE "CLIMATE CHANGE" AND CONCENTRATE ON OUR HEALTH, JUST THAT.
THE FACTS OF THIS ARE JUST LIKE THE FACTS OF ASBESTOS, LEAD, ARSENIC.
CONCENTRATE ON THAT.]

IT'S BEEN A 48-YEAR-LONG COVERUP...IN WHICH THE FOSSIL FUELS INDUSTRY USED CERTAIN SCIENTISTS TO SPIN THE DATA ON WHAT USE OF FOSSIL FUELS DOES TO HUMAN BEINGS, TO ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

The 48-year-old report, which accurately foreshadowed what’s now happening, is among a trove of public documents uncovered and released Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law. 
 
Taken together, documents that the organization has assembled show that oil executives were well aware of the serious risks associated with carbon dioxide emissions decades earlier than previously documented — and they covered it up.

JUST LIKE THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY COVERED-UP THEIR DATA AND KEPT SELLING CIGARETTES TO AN UNSUSPECTING PUBLIC.

JUST LIKE THE ASBESTOS COMPANIES HID THEIR DATA FROM ALL OF US UNTIL SO MANY WERE DYING FROM ASBESTOS THE HIDDEN DATA WAS REVEALED.

THE MEETING THAT STARTED THE COVER-UP   
 
There was a 1946 meeting in Los Angeles at which the oil executives decided to form a group — the Smoke and Fumes Committee — to “fund scientific research into smog and other air pollution issues and, significantly, use that research to inform and shape public opinion about environmental issues
That research was used to “promote public skepticism of environmental science and environmental regulations the industry considered hasty, costly, and potentially unnecessary.”

Carroll Muffett, president of the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law.said in a statement that the documents “add to the growing body of evidence that the oil industry worked to actively undermine public confidence in climate science and in the need for climate action even as its own knowledge of climate risks was growing.”

Last year, InsideClimate News revealed that top executives at Exxon knew about the role of fossil fuels in global warming as early as 1977, then lobbied against efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In January, the New York attorney general announced an investigation into ExxonMobil over allegations that it lied to the public and its investors about climate change.
A report that surfaced in February revealed the American Petroleum Institute knew about climate change in the early 1980s. 

The industry group did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Wednesday.

The new trove adds to a “robust body of evidence” available to the public showing what the industry knew, when, and what it did with that information.  

“Oil companies had an early opportunity to acknowledge climate science and climate risks, and to enable consumers to make informed choices,” Muffett said in a statement. “They chose a different path. The public deserves to know why.”

THE GUARDIAN, UK, ALSO REPORTED THIS.

"Exxon said on Wednesday that it now acknowledges the risk of climate change

Kenneth Kimmel, the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said ExxonMobil and the other companies profiled in its report had failed to take responsibility about the danger to the public of producing fossil fuels."

AS DID SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

"One thing is certain: in June 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen told a congressional hearing that the planet was already warming, Exxon remained publicly convinced that the science was still controversial.

Furthermore, experts agree that Exxon became a leader in campaigns of confusion.

By 1989 the company had helped create the Global Climate Coalition (disbanded in 2002) to question the scientific basis for concern about climate change.

It also helped to prevent the U.S. from signing the international treaty on climate known as the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 to control greenhouse gases.

“There’s even a quote in it (THE REPORT THAT'S BEEN RELEASED) that says something like ‘Victory will be achieved when the average person is uncertain about climate science.’ So it’s pretty stark.”

Exxon’s tactic not only worked on the U.S. but also stopped other countries, such as China and India, from signing the treaty.

[HANG THE DAMNED "TREATIES"! JUST STOP THE POISONS!]
Exxon has spent more than $30 million on think tanks that promote climate denial."

[DENY IT! WHO CARES? JUST FIX IT, YOU LYING BASTARDS! WE SEE WHAT YOU DID, NOW UNDO IT!]
In October, 2015, the Los Angeles Times, teaming with the Energy and Environmental Reporting Project at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, started publishing its own reporting on the topic, the result of a yearlong research project.
A New York Times reported on how a prominent climate change skeptic had accepted fossil fuel company funding, including from Exxon Mobil, to support his "scientific research".
A similar inquiry to all the above had been opened in California earlier this year.
US attorneys general are going to cooperate in order to investigate. New York, Massachusetts, California and the US Virgin Islands have started investigations already.
The multi-state effort has now been joined by attorneys general from Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and the US Virgin Islands along with another 11 states as a part of an unprecedented “AGs United for Clean Power” group.

“If there are companies, whether they’re utilities, whether they’re fossil fuel companies, committing fraud in an effort to maximize their short-term profits at the expense of the people we represent, we want to find out about it.

We want to expose it and want to pursue them to the fullest extent of the law,” the New York attorney general said.

ALL THOSE "SCIENTISTS" BOUGHT AND PAID FOR, LIKE SO MANY OTHERS.

MONEY TALKS, YES?

BUSTED, JUST AS BIG TOBACCO AND THE ASBESTOS COMPANIES WERE BUSTED.

AND US?

MOST WERE DUPED, YET AGAIN....

AFTER 48 YEARS, WE LEARN THE FACTS, SEE WHAT THEY'VE DONE.WHAT DO WE DO NOW, LET IT GO ON ANOTHER 48 YEARS?THAT IS PURELY SUICIDE!

IT WOLD BE A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF INSANITY AND 'DUMB' TO ALLOW THIS TO CONTINUE WHEN SO MUCH BETTER AND SO MUCH CLEANER AND SO MUCH CHEAPER IS ALREADY AVAILABLE.


PEOPLE ALLOW LEAKING, MURDEROUS RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AND CHOKING, FILTHY OIL AND COAL BUT FIGHT AGAINST SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY?

LUDICROUS IS TOO MILD A WORD FOR THAT.


IT'S LIKE HANDING A BOX OF MATCHES TO AN ARSONIST AND POINTING HIM TOWARD A SCHOOL.WE EITHER CARE ABOUT FUTURE GENERATIONS OR WE DON'T.
WE EITHER WANT THE BEST CHANCE AT A GOOD QUALITY OF LIFE...OR NOT.

WHEN MANY ISLAND NATIONS HAVE GONE COMPLETELY "OFF THE GRID", TRASHED OIL AND COAL, AND ALL OF OUR "EUROPEAN ALLIES" ARE MAKING THE MOVE TO SOLAR AND WIND, WHAT CAN WE IMAGINE PREVENTS US FROM DOING SO?

IF WE DIDN'T HAVE TO DEPEND ON THE VOLATILE MIDDLE EASTERN NATIONS FOR OIL ANYMORE, OR SEE AMERICAN COAL MINERS DIE OF 'BLACK LUNG' OR CAVE-INS, WHY WOULD WE JUST KEEP ON CLINGING TO FOSSIL FUELS?

LOGIC IS NOT FOUND IN ABUNDANCE IN AMERICA, BUT I THOUGHT COMMON SENSE MIGHT STILL BE AROUND.

MAYBE I'M WRONG...