I feel nervous. I don’t know what the future holds. I am paying much too much for services I don’t use. I acknowledge that what I seek is seeking me and it is a team effort - and I can’t make it happen all on my own. I pray that I trust. I pray that your happiness finds you, your fulfillment, your strength.
Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation—an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking. Both industries were conscious that their products wouldn’t stay profitable once the world understood the risks, so much so that they used the same consultants to develop strategies on how to communicate with the public.
Experts, however, aren’t terribly surprised. “It’s never been remotely plausible that they did not understand the science,” says Naomi Oreskes, a history of science professor at Harvard University. But as it turns out, Exxon didn’t just understand the science, the company actively engaged with it. In the 1970s and 1980s it employed top scientists to look into the issue and launched its own ambitious research program that empirically sampled carbon dioxide and built rigorous climate models. Exxon even spent more than $1 million on a tanker project that would tackle how much CO2 is absorbed by the oceans. It was one of the biggest scientific questions of the time, meaning that Exxon was truly conducting unprecedented research.
Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation—an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking. Both industries were conscious that their products wouldn’t stay profitable once the world understood the risks, so much so that they used the same consultants to develop strategies on how to communicate with the public.
Experts, however, aren’t terribly surprised. “It’s never been remotely plausible that they did not understand the science,” says Naomi Oreskes, a history of science professor at Harvard University. But as it turns out, Exxon didn’t just understand the science, the company actively engaged with it. In the 1970s and 1980s it employed top scientists to look into the issue and launched its own ambitious research program that empirically sampled carbon dioxide and built rigorous climate models. Exxon even spent more than $1 million on a tanker project that would tackle how much CO2 is absorbed by the oceans. It was one of the biggest scientific questions of the time, meaning that Exxon was truly conducting unprecedented research.
In their eight-month-long investigation, reporters at InsideClimate News interviewed former Exxon employees, scientists and federal officials and analyzed hundreds of pages of internal documents. They found that the company’s knowledge of climate change dates back to July 1977, when its senior scientist James Black delivered a sobering message on the topic. “In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels,“ Black told Exxon’s management committee.
A year later he warned Exxon that doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees—a number that is consistent with the scientific consensus today. He continued to warn that “present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.” In other words, Exxon needed to act.
One thing is certain: in June 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen told a congressional hearing that the planet was already warming, Exxon remained publicly convinced that the science was still controversial. Furthermore, experts agree that Exxon became a leader in campaigns of confusion. By 1989 the company had helped create the Global Climate Coalition (disbanded in 2002) to question the scientific basis for concern about climate change. It also helped to prevent the U.S. from signing the international treaty on climate known as the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 to control greenhouse gases. Exxon’s tactic not only worked on the U.S. but also stopped other countries, such as China and India, from signing the treaty. At that point, “a lot of things unraveled,” Oreskes says.
To prove this, Bob Ward—who on behalf of the U.K.’s Royal Academy sent a letter to Exxon in 2006 claiming its science was “inaccurate and misleading”—thinks a thorough investigation is necessary. “Because frankly the episode with tobacco was probably the most disgraceful episode one could ever imagine,” Ward says. Kimmell agrees. These reasons “really highlight the responsibility that these companies have to come clean, acknowledge this, and work with everyone else to cut out emissions and pay for some of the cost we’re going to bear as soon as possible.”
I’ve always craved nostalgia - it’s familiar hug - but I now value the education and growth from similar comforts in new vehicles. Specifically inspired from Westworld, which featured Radiohead’s “exit music for a film” on a player piano. Then finding new radiohead albums.
Be good to yourself. Cultivate a genuine Love for Life, and for Being. Be genuinely thankful to the Infinite Creator every day, for bringing you into Being, and for his bountiful provision. You have “survived” this far, have you not? You may not have everything you want, but you have everything you need, in order to complete that which you incarnated here to do. Give thanks for that. Show acknowledgment and gratitude to the Infinite Creator, for all that It has done, and is doing for you. It has given you the gift of Life Experience, and offered you the Free Will to decide what you will Create with it. Guard your thoughts carefully, as they are more powerful than you may imagine. When you are coming from a place of Love for, and Service to your Creator, a life of Service to others will become a natural outflowing from that. Always look for ways that you can be of assistance to your fellow Beings. Being of encouragement to others. Build people up, and do not put people down. Be a beacon of light, in a dark world. Does that old lady need a hand with her shopping bags? How do you treat the homeless man who asks you for some spare change for the shelter? Ever heard about “Angels in disguise”? Look and see the Divine Spark in the Heart of all Beings. Treat them as you would like to be treated yourself, and as you would your Creator if he was speaking directly with you. “For even as you are doing it to the least of these, you are doing it unto me”. The Law of Radiation and Attraction. Your thoughts, words, and actions return to you. Ultimately, cultivate a spirit of humble Gratitude. You won’t go far wrong with that. Desire to Serve flows naturally from a grateful heart.
