3 ms·
“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 cr
by lozenge 8y ago
“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."
Exxon's senior scientist, 1978.
"Victory will be achieved when: (a)Average citizens "understand" (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the "conventional wisdom" ... (e) Those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear out of touch with reality" (American Petroleum Institute memo, 1998)
“Doubt is our product, since it is the best means
of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public” (B&W tobacco company 1969).
https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/07/The-Climate-Deception-Dossiers.pdf https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/07/Th...
- benj111 8y agoWhat's a tobacco company quote got to do with anything? The parent was talking about the precautionary principle. Im not really old enough to remember the 1980s global warming debate, so not agreeing or disagreeing with the factuality of that statement. Yes your first quote is damning, are you saying the science was more settled?
- lozenge 8y agoYes the science was settled, well the direction we needed to go in (decarbonisation) was clear, just not the speed or extent - there were bigger error bars. As figure 1 in the link shows, things went the other way. The NYT published a good history of how settled the science was, but I'm going to link to a response to it: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/nyt-mag-nathaniel-rich-climate-change/566525/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/nyt-mag-...