Climate crisis – How oil companies hushed up research results | DW Documentary

Climate crisis – How oil companies hushed up research results | DW Documentary

[Music]
I feel
like there’s always a connection with my
ancestors here I know that every piece
of the bark here every strip of it every
layer that’s inside every ring of the
tree there’s a part of their DNA there a
part of their energy here because they
were here when this tree stood where
grass and things were around it instead
of now where it’s holding on to it looks
like it’s final
days just a few years ago a maritime
Forest stood here in the US state of
South Carolina saltwater has killed the
trees queen quet as she’s known is the
elected leader of the gulag gichi people
and African-American community in the
coastal Southeast they’ve lived on this
land for centuries
you need only get to the Shoreline
anywhere here to see how climate impacts
us we have seen the sea levels Rising we
have experienced more intense hurricanes
than we’ve ever experienced in my entire
life and so for years we were saying to
people to politicians come look at
what’s happening there is something
wrong
here rapidly rising sea levels are one
of the most visible consequences of
global
[Music]
warming gas and oil companies have known
for more than 40 years that fossil fuels
are linked to climate
change but they didn’t change
course quite the opposite in fact
[Music]
the most shocking thing we’ve learned in
the last five or six years is that these
companies the oil companies the biggest
companies in the world had their own
science programs inside the company they
had a very deep understanding of the
climate crisis before the rest of us did
really this is from the early
1990s this PR film from the oil giant
shell shows scientist taking gases from
the atmosphere and measuring ocean
temperatures to research climate
[Music]
change the multinational was researching
how its products affected the atmosphere
its business rivals were doing the same
total BP Chevron and above all the oil
giant Exxon
we’re on our way to Florida to meet a
former member of exxon’s research
Department it’s an unusually rainy day
in the sunshine state which is a magnet
for
retirees Martin hawford now spends his
time making model
aircraft as a professor of physics at
New York University he studied changes
in the Earth’s
atmosphere in the late 1970s he was one
of the first scientists to predict
Rising
temperatures I had enough evidence that
I thought the greenhouse effect would
begin to warm the atmosphere sometime in
the late 1980s in the 1990s we would
start to see the effect uh based on our
calculations the first line on the graph
shows the increasing amounts of
atmospheric Co 2 in parts per million or
PPM for short the second shows the
expected rise in global temperatures in
degrees
C the graph is part of an internal
research report from 1982 that was
revealed by the US press in 2018 the
Trove of documents show that Exxon
already knew of the risks of burning
fossil fuels at the time we’re on our
way to Switzerland to meet climate
researcher Sonia
senat she will show us the current
concentration of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere she’s one of the world’s
leading climate
scientists the graph from 1982 predicts
a concentration of 420 parts per million
for the year
2020 that was almost exactly the
concentration that was actually reached
in 2020
419 parts per
million the publication of the documents
triggered a political earthquake in the
united states Democratic Congressional
lawmakers called for a hearing in the
House of Representatives about the oil
industry’s efforts to suppress the truth
about climate change that was in
2019 do you swear or confirm that the
testimony you’re about to give is the
truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth so help you gotten Dr hord
you’re
first a chief witness was Professor
Martin hofford with his calculations
from the year
1982 Dr Hoffer your work with Exxon was
focused on the carbon cycle and climate
modeling I have a slide up here so in
1982 7 years before I was even born Exon
accurately predicted that by this year
2019 the Earth would hit a carbon
dioxide concentration of 415 parts per
million and a temperature increase of 1°
C Dr hofford is that correct we were
excellent
scientists yes you were yes you
were so they knew they knew and I I
presume they knew what some of the
consequences of that one degree Celsius
change would be some of them not all
absolutely I would like to have an
opportunity to discuss that if someone
asks
me hofford said that his findings had
been passed on to top Exxon
Executives he quit in 1987 6 years after
starting his consultancy work for Exxon
because he realized that his research
was not prompting any change in company
strategy I was there because I thought
that I could I mean this was very naive
of me I thought that I could influence
them to change their business plan but
you must understand that Exxon was
producing quarterly earnings of tens of
billions of dollars the stockholders
were making a lot of money so if you put
yourself in that position I have a
company where I’m very profitable my
stockhold isn’t making a lot of money
however we’re destroying the planet the
people would say well I won’t be here in
20 or 30 years I will have a nice golden
parachute where they give me a lot
stock and I’ll be doing
fine we can only speculate why the
managers of Exxon and other oil
multinationals did not listen to the
scientists research by Kurt Davies from
the climate investigation Center in
Washington has shown that the companies
even launched a massive counter campaign
to call the science into
question dozens of documents reveal
their strategy to Foster doubt about
climate change and its causes
it was a war against science exactly
they they were fighting the trend that
people were starting to look at the
health impacts of climate change they
were very upset that people were talking
about weather extremes connecting it to
climate change anything that anything
that raised the public awareness or
raised political energy around this
issue they tried to kill
it the first seeds of Doubt were sown in
1988
in this internal Exxon memo a company
spokesperson recommended downplaying
climate science
findings emphasize the uncertainty in
scientific conclusions regarding the
potential enhanced greenhouse
effect Ro the petroleum industry for
many years the oil industry has pursued
precisely this strategy then chair of
Exxon the world’s biggest oil company
put it this way in his speech to oil
industry representatives in
1996 proponents of the global warming
Theory say that higher levels of
greenhouse gases especially
CO2 are causing World temperatures to
rise and that burning fossil fuels is
the
reason but scientific evidence remains
inconclusive as to whether human
activities affect the global climate
so there’s simply no reason to take
drastic action
now in December 1997 the oil Giants
found themselves under increased
pressure in Kyoto 192 States including
the US signed a historic agreement in
which they called for a reduction of
greenhouse gas
emissions the situation is serious
climate change could be catastrophic for
our children and grandchildren s
fa the Kyoto Protocol represented a
threat to business for the US oil
companies lower emissions would mean
less demand for their products and
ultimately endanger their business model
that prompted them to renew efforts to
call climate change into question that
was the goal of this communication plan
issued by the American petroleum
Institute the leading industry trade
Association in 1998
[Music]
its chief aim the manipulation of public
and media
opinion Victory will be achieved when
average citizens understand or recognize
uncertainties in climate
science recognition of uncertainties
becomes part of the conventional
wisdom media understands or recognizes
uncertainties in climate science within
this campaign aign they target
politicians of course but they’re also
targeting uh every everyone all of us
they’re targeting the media media
Outlets trying to influence the way the
issue is covered and in some of these
documents they’re even targeting School
teachers they put out their own lesson
plans to try to get balance into the
school systems so they know that the
concern about climate change starts very
young and they want to manipulate
children they want teachers thinking
about it they want people debating
whether this is a problem or
not hundreds of millions of dollars were
spent on lobbying and
advertising climate activist Richard WS
has seen just how well this strategy has
worked over the past
decades they succeeded with money right
I mean the number of ads that they run
is just mindblowing they started in the
late 80s early 90s and have continued
for the past 30 years bombarding the
public with either uh the notion that
climate change CH is uncertain that it
may not happen now it won’t be that bad
uh we can’t survive without oil and gas
if we don’t have oil and gas you won’t
be able to drive a car you won’t be able
to heat your home both of which are
patently untrue obviously um but you
know with enough money and enough
advertising you can convince people of
just about anything and that’s what
they’ve done why did they do that do you
think probably the worst thing is that
they were deliberately manipulating
facts to protect their profits and they
did not want to be blamed they did not
want to be regulated they did not want
to be
controlled we asked the American
petroleum Institute the API to respond
to these allegations in an interview
dozens of our emails went
unanswered then we received this
statement the record of the past two
decades demonstrates that the industry
has achieved its goal of providing
affordable reliable American Energy to
us consumers while substantially
reducing emissions and our environmental
footprint any suggestion to the contrary
is
false the oil industry paid thousands of
lobbyists to obstruct or delay any kind
of climate action and environmental
regulation that is common knowledge but
few lobbyists have been caught bragging
about their methods
[Music]
in May 2021 undercover investigators
working for the environmental NGO
Greenpeace filmed Exxon mobile’s top
lobbyist Keith
McCoy Exxon is the
fisherman when you have an opportunity
to talk to a member of Congress you know
the the the the you know it’s it’s I I I
like it it’s efficient right you you you
know you have bait you throw that bait
out just to kind of reel them in because
they’re a captive audience they know
they need you and I need them it was a
revelation for a lot of people that you
know they they know what they’re doing
they know how they’re manipulating the
the political system here in the United
States did we aggressively fight against
um uh some of the
science uh yes Did We join some of these
shadow groups uh to work
against uh some of the early efforts yes
that’s true but there’s nothing there’s
nothing illegal about that um you know
we were looking out for our investments
we were looking out for our our in uh uh
our
shareholders Democratic representative
Ro canah from California was
particularly upset by the video
Kaa is a member of the House committee
on oversight and accountability which
organized a hearing to probe the
companies about the disinformation
campaign that was the Catalyst I mean
Keith McCoy basically was on tape
bragging about his role in killing
climate legislation bragging that uh he
gave the rhetoric the company gives the
rhetoric about caring about climate but
behind the scenes they’re killing legis
ation to tackle the climate and I said
we’ve got to get them in to explain this
and people said you can’t get the CEOs
they will never come and so I said we’ll
subpoena them the company Executives had
no choice but to take part it was
October 28th
2021 the oversight committee chair
opened the
session the committee will come to order
this is a historic hearing for the first
time top fossil fuel EX executives are
testifying together before Congress
under oath about the industry’s role in
causing climate change and their efforts
to cover it up you can either come clean
admit your misrepresentations and
ongoing
inconsistencies and stop supporting
climate
disinformation or you can sit there in
front of the American public and lie
under oath
the top Executives stuck to their
strategy in their online appearances at
the hearing which took place during the
covid pandemic they stress their
concerns about the environment and their
efforts to reduce the use of fossil
fuels thank you for the opportunity to
be here today to discuss the urgent need
for action on climate change and Shell’s
effort to advance society’s transition
to a lower carbon future exom mobile
provides an essential component of
modern society affordable reliable and
abundant energy exom mobile has long
recognize that climate change is real
and poses serious risks while our views
on climate change have developed over
time any suggestion that Chevron is
engaged in an effort to spread
disinformation and mislead the public on
these complex issues is simply wrong in
closing API supports climate action
governments Industries and consumers
must accelerate policy and Technology
Solutions together they promis now they
the hearing that day lasted for several
hours with little to show for it none of
the executives was prepared to be truly
pinned down are any of you today
prepared to make any statement saying
we’re going to take accountability on
something so important and stop funding
groups that are actively engaged in any
form of climate disinformation okay I I
take that uh you don’t want to take the
pledge all
right the investigation was continued I
hope that more hearings followed
nearly rnah wanted to replicate the
success of the 1994 tobacco industry
hearing back then the chairs of the
seven biggest tobacco companies lied to
the same
committee yes or no do you believe
nicotine is not addictive I believe
nicotine is is not addictive yes Mr
Johnson I believe nicotine is not
addictive I believe that nicotine is not
addictive well the big tobacco hearings
captured the American imagination and
people said it is wrong that these
tobacco Executives know that cigarettes
are addictive and yet they’re denying
that and that led to a lot of change in
this country I KN know when I was
growing up if you went to a a bar or
sporting event you would come back
filled smelling of smoke that’s no
longer the case there was a cultural
change in America uh we need a similar
cultural change when it comes to the
Embrace of alternative energy when it
comes to the Embrace of Renewables when
it comes to the Embrace of electric
vehicles and the hope is that these
hearings can be a galvanizing moment uh
and and break through in the cultural uh
conversation in this
country the facts were denied for 40
years 40 Lost Years in which more
decisive action could have been taken to
curb climate change nowadays the impact
of global warming is evident
worldwide back on the Southeast coast of
the US it is coastal regions like this
one that are feeling the impact of
climate change first all around the
world Katie luchano is a geologist in
the South Carolina Department of Natural
Resources so here uh this is one of our
erosion transacts and I’m measuring from
the forest to the Sea and getting a a
better idea of how the shoreline is
transitioning as it moves and erods
backwards we’ve had uh episodes of
hurricanes uh a lot of very high tides
and the erosion rate has has basically
doubled from its historic erosion rate
of 7 and 1/2 m per
year in the past few years 13 to 16 M of
Beach have been lost more than ever
before you can look back here and you
can see we are right in the forest here
so you can see all the vegetation and
the beach is actively eroding onto this
island the entire east coast of the
United States is at risk from rising sea
levels Charleston in South Carolina is
one of the hardest hit cities it’s a
popular tourist destination
the historic district is situated on a
peninsula only barely above sea
level climate change is a major
challenge for the
city and we’re distant so if you don’t
mind I will tell us first how has
climate change affected Charleston
um let me think of a
word
um dramatically
uh we are on the front line of climate
change from sea level rise and from The
increased impacts of extreme weather we
have seen the direct impacts year after
the year for a decade now every year
flooding tied like when I was a boy
maybe five Tides a year now it’s 90
Tides a year that impact our streets
the city is regularly hit by
hurricanes in 2017 Irma caused
widespread
damage taking protective measures has
become a priority since
then in the last 6 years several million
dollars have been invested to raise the
prominade by a
meter it’s not pretty nice looking no
okay so now you’re providing protection
for all of these houses in this area
from high tides but Charleston also
faces um surge events if you have a
major hurricane Irma was not a major
hurricane if you get a major hurricane
and it comes in it could push a wall of
water 10 12 14 ft high and if you would
get that that would over top this this
would all be
flooded the then mayor of Charleston
filed a lawsuit against the people who
he blames for the extreme weather events
wreaking destruction in the
city he wants the city to be repaid for
what it has spent on repairing the
damage and on climate adaptation
measures the City of Charleston is suing
24 big oil companies over damages to the
city and their contributions to climate
change the law suit announced today by
Charleston Mayor John
[Music]
tanberg I feel it’s not fair to the
citizens in Charleston to have to bear
the burden the total cost of these
improvements that are needed because of
sea level
rise the City of Charleston is directly
suing oil companies such as Exxon Mobile
shell Chevron and BP in particular
because of their misinformation
campaign instead of warning of the known
consequences following from the use of
their products and working to minimize
the damage the defendants concealed the
dangers promoted false and misleading
information and sought to undermine
public support for greenhouse gas
regulation it was a misinformation
campaign it’s very similar to what the
tobacco companies did with the cigarette
smoking and the impacts of cigarettes
right it’s very similar story very
similar story to what we’ve seen here
recently from the pharmaceutical company
ianes and the opioids they they they
pushed the product out they push the
product out oh everything’s fine you
know and
um they they know that there were
problems but they kept bringing the
product
forward Charleston is not alone some 30
other cities and US states are also
suing the oil companies including
Baltimore New York City Washington DC
Massachusetts and Minnesota
the plaintiffs are getting support from
Richard ws and his environmental Action
Group these cases are very winnable and
that’s why the oil industry is terrified
of these cases right they’re they’re far
more fearful of these cases than they
are of anything the Congress might do uh
or anything that any state legislature
might do uh because you know they’ve got
a lot of power in the Congress they
pretty much own the Republican party
right um they money in politics is a
huge problem in this country but they
are afraid of these cases because they
have the potential to stick them with uh
the damages that they have
caused the companies want to avoid at
all costs being forced to open their
archives in case more compromising
records are
Unearthed if those documents come out
the reputational damage to these
companies will be enormous right these
are the things they fear that is is a
recipe for disaster for these companies
and they’ll do anything they can to
avoid
it while we have been hoping for
fundamental change 40 years have been
lost the disinformation campaign has
influenced everyone’s
thinking scientists are still fighting
to be heard and it’s not easy to face up
to the
reality the speed of transition to
renewable energy is sluggish
and we will all pay the
price if the oil companies had listened
to their own scientists 40 years ago and
gone down a different path how would the
world look
today we would be in a completely
different situation climate change
wouldn’t really be a big problem in the
world because a large amount of the
greenhouse gas emissions have been
produced since the 1990s so after the
ipcc’s first report that is the shocking
thing by then everyone could clearly
tell that we would run into problems if
we carried on as
before is there a word to qualify this
disinformation campaign
evil I mean it’s just pure evil I don’t
know what to say other than that at this
point I mean the science is so clear and
yet these companies continue to mislead
and deceive the public about it um
everybody’s life on the plan planet is
at stake uh these companies are just
[Music]
despicable if the Big Oil hadn’t lied 40
years ago what would the world be like
today if big oil companies hadn’t lied
40 years ago we probably wouldn’t be
standing so close to this water right
now we probably would be way back there
in the distance amongst all the trees
that are standing up hearing the birds
chirping seeing the seagull come begging
us for a snack so let’s don’t make 40
more years of mistakes let’s tell the
truth now
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]

Climate change is not news to big oil companies. They’ve known about it for more than 40 years, even burying their own research results on the links between carbon emissions and global warming.

In the 1970s, oil conglomerates commissioned research into climate change. It predicted the global warming that we’re facing today. But US oil companies hushed up these findings rather than accepting responsibility. Just like the tobacco industry before it, the industry spent millions on a disinformation campaign. This campaign aimed to discredit the results, sowing doubts about human-induced climate change, so the companies could stave off tougher climate policies and continue drilling for oil and gas unhindered. Now they are facing dozens of lawsuits.

In the US, for example, the city of Charleston on the southeastern Atlantic coast is suing Big Oil for climate adaptation costs. The city says the companies are to blame for the increased flooding it is facing. The legal dispute could make history. The municipality alleges that climate change could have been effectively tackled decades ago had it not been for the oil industry’s ‘multi-decade campaign of deception.’ Oil companies have denied the allegations.

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