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Wednesday 27 July 2022
Climate disinformation leaves lasting mark as world heats

By DAVID KLEPPER entific consensus that pol-
Associated Press lution from humans is driv-
In 1998, as nations around ing climate change, down
the world agreed to cut from 52% in 2003.
carbon emissions through By comparison, the per-
the Kyoto Protocol, Amer- centage of self-identified
ica's fossil fuel companies Democrats that say they
plotted their response, in- accept that human activi-
cluding an aggressive strat- ties are leading to climate
egy to inject doubt into the change increased from 68
public debate. to 88 over the same time
"Victory," according to period.
the American Petroleum Fossil fuel companies deny
Institute's memo, "will be any intent to mislead the
achieved when average American public and point
citizens 'understand' (rec- to investments in renew-
ognize) uncertainties in cli- able energy as evidence
mate science... Unless 'cli- that they take climate
mate change' becomes a change seriously.
non-issue... there may be ExxonMobil CEO Darren
no moment when we can Woods told members of
declare victory." Congress last fall that his
The memo, later leaked to company "has long ac-
The New York Times that knowledged the real-
year, went on to outline Homes are flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. Wild- ity and risks of climate
how fossil fuel companies fires, floods and soaring temperatures have made climate change real to many Americans. Yet change, and it has de-
a sizeable number continue to dismiss the scientific consensus that human activity is to blame.
could manipulate journal- That's in part because of a decades-long campaign by fossil fuel companies to muddy the facts voted significant resources
ists and the broader pub- and promote fringe explanations. to addressing those risks."
lic by muddying the evi- Associated Press ExxonMobil's public claims
dence, by playing up "both about climate change, he
sides" of the debate and by rian of science at Harvard reflected by doubts about to improve energy efficien- said, "are and have always
portraying those seeking to University who has written vaccines or pandemic-era cy or offset carbon emis- been truthful, fact-based ...
reduce emissions as "out of about the history of climate public health measures like sions. and consistent" with main-
touch with reality." change disinformation. masks and quarantines. Aggressive approaches to stream science.
Nearly 25 years later, the "They've been persuaded "It was the opening of a address climate change Asked about its role in
reality of a changing cli- by decades of disinforma- Pandora's Box of disinfor- are now dismissed not on spreading climate misin-
mate is now clear to most tion. The denial is really, re- mation that has proven scientific grounds but on formation, a spokesman
Americans, as heatwaves ally deep." hard to control," said Dave economic ones. Fossil fuel for the Southern Company
and wildfires, rising sea lev- And persistent. Just last Anderson of the Energy companies talk about lost pointed to recent expan-
els and extreme storms be- month, even with record and Policy Institute, an or- jobs or higher energy pric- sions in renewable energy
come more common. heat in London, raging ganization that has criti- es — without mentioning and initiatives meant to off-
Last week, President Joe wildfires in Alaska and his- cized oil and coal compa- the cost of doing nothing, set carbon emissions.
Biden announced moves toric flooding in Australia, nies for withholding what said Ben Franta, an attor- The American Petroleum
intended to expand off- the Science and Environ- they knew about the risks ney, author and Stanford Institute did not respond
shore wind, though he mental Policy Project, a of climate change. University researcher who to messages seeking com-
stopped short of declaring pro-fossil fuel thank tank, Starting in the 1980s and tracks fossil fuel disinforma- ment for this story. The trade
a national climate emer- said all the scientists had it 1990s, as public aware- tion. "We are living within group was behind the 1998
gency. A Supreme Court wrong. ness of climate change an extended multi-decade "victory memo" that laid out
ruling last month limited the "There is no climate crisis," grew, fossil fuel companies campaign executed by the industry's strategy to re-
federal government's abil- the group wrote in its news- poured millions of dollars the fossil fuel industry," Fran- spond to concerns about
ity to regulate carbon emis- letter. into public relations cam- ta said. "The debate (over climate change.
sions from power plants, Years before COVID-19 set paigns denouncing the ac- climate change) was man- That memo is one of sev-
meaning it will be up to a off a wave of misinforma- cumulating evidence sup- ufactured by the fossil fuel eral documents cited by
divided Congress to pass tion, or former President porting the idea of climate industry in the 1990s, and climate activists and some
any meaningful limits on Donald Trump's lies about change. They funded sup- we are living with that his- Democratic lawmakers
emissions. the 2020 election helped posedly independent think tory right now." who say they could be
Even as surveys show the spur an insurrection at the tanks that cherrypicked The impact of that history is used to hold them legally
public generally has be- U.S. Capitol, fossil fuel com- the science and promoted reflected in public opinion responsible for misleading
come more concerned panies spent big in an ef- fringe views designed to surveys that show a grow- ratepayers, investors or the
about climate change, a fort to undermine support make it look like there were ing gap between Republi- general public.
sizeable number of Ameri- for emissions reductions. two legitimate sides to the cans and other Americans "It's time for these compa-
cans have become even Now, even as those same dispute. when it comes to views on nies to answer for the harm
more distrustful of the sci- companies promote in- Since then, the approach climate change. they have caused," said
entific consensus. vestments in renewable has softened as the impact While the percentage of Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Califor-
"The tragedy of this is that energy, the legacy of all of climate change has overall Americans who say nia.
all over social media, you that climate disinformation become more apparent. they're concerned about Republicans, however,
can see tens of millions of remains. Now, fossil fuel companies climate change has risen, have said Democrats want
Americans who think scien- It's also contributed to a are more likely to play up Republicans are increas- to focus on climate misin-
tists are lying, even about broader skepticism of sci- their supposedly pro-envi- ingly skeptical. Last year, formation to distract from
things that have been entists, scientific institu- ronmental record, touting Gallup found that 32% of failed environmental poli-
proven for decades," said tions and the media that renewables like solar and self-identified Republicans cies that are driving up gas
Naomi Oreskes, a histo- report on them, a distrust wind or initiatives designed said they accepted the sci- and energy costs.q