Oil Industry and Its Evils Revealed in New Documents

Two scientists from Stanford Research Institute authored a report for American Petroleum Institute, trade association for oil and natural gas in America, in 1968. In that report, they warned that "man is now engaged in a vast geophysical experiment with his environment, the earth" - one that "may be the cause of serious world-wide environmental changes."

The scientists went on: "If the Earth's temperature increases significantly, a number of events might be expected to occur including the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, a rise in sea levels, warming of the oceans and an increase in photosynthesis."

This 48-year-old report came to resurfaced again on Wednesday by Center for International Environmental Law. When combined with the documents assembled by organization, it revealed that the oil execs were already informed of the damage they were doing to climate and the risk associated with carbon dioxide emissions, much before than documented previously. These documents were covered up then.

Carroll Muffett, the center's president, told The Huffington Post that these documents not only expose Exxon Mobil (then Humble Oil) who was "clearly on notice" regarding the role of fossil fuels in CO2 emissions as early as 1957, but was "shaping science to shape public opinion" in 1940s.

"This story is older and it is bigger than I think has been appreciated before," Muffett said.

CIEL, a non profit legal organization, retraced the industry's cover-up all the way back to 1946 in Los Angeles by scouring through scientific articles, other documents and industry chronicles. It was in this meeting that the oil executives decided to form 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," revealed CIEL on a new website dedicated to these leaked documents.

That research, CIEL says, was used to "promote public skepticism of environmental science and environmental regulations the industry considered hasty, costly, and potentially unnecessary."

According to Muffett, she revealed 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."