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Scientific American
Exxon Mobil’s Messaging Shifted Blame for Warming to Consumers
An analysis of the fossil fuel company’s documents also found it tried to downplay the dangers of climate change
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Exxon Mobil Corp. has used language to systematically shift blame for climate change from fossil fuel companies onto consumers, according to a new paper by Harvard University researchers.
The paper, published yesterday in the journal
One Earth, could bolster efforts to hold the oil giant accountable in court for its alleged deception about global warming. This is the first computational assessment of how Exxon Mobil has used language in subtle yet systematic ways to shape the way the public talks about and thinks about climate change, Geoffrey Supran, a research fellow at Harvard and co-author of the paper, said in an interview with E&E News.
For decades, ExxonMobil has deployed Big Tobacco-like propaganda to downplay the gravity of the climate crisis, shift blame onto consumers and protect its own interests, according to a Harvard University study published Thursday.
Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert and Peter Gill Case launched their fund Thursday
They are great-great-grandchildren of John D. Rockefeller, who died in 1937
John D. Rockefeller opened his first oil refinery in Cleveland in 1863
Within decades Standard Oil controlled 90% of U.S. petroleum production
The Supreme Court split up Standard Oil in 1911 and the family control ended
Yet when John D. Rockefeller died he was the richest man in the world
Since 2003 his heirs have been challenging Standard Oil s offshoots, like Exxon
Some of the 270-odd descendants disagree with taking on fossil fuels