Just as objective science knew about the impact of greenhouse gasses 50 years ago, its not clear that the energy industry also knew the impact that the industry would have on the biosphere in their future (our present). This article from Inside Climate News demonstrates what Exxon knew, and its all the basics we know today — CO2 warms the atmosphere, melts polar ice and changes the pH of the oceans.
This memo from June 9, 1980, indicates that carbon dioxide research was not a project that Exxon’s board simply greenlighted. It was an issue so important that at least one senior vice president was paying close attention to the science, and he was interested and versed enough to argue its arcana.
