Friday, March 03, 2017

Before they started spending millions to refute the science Shell Oil company made a little film about the catastrophic dangers of global warming.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered. 

However, since then the company has invested heavily in highly polluting oil reserves and helped lobby against climate action, leading to accusations that Shell knew the grave risks of global warming but did not act accordingly. 

Shell’s 28-minute film, called Climate of Concern, was made for public viewing, particularly in schools and universities. It warned of extreme weather, floods, famines and climate refugees as fossil fuel burning warmed the world. The serious warning was “endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists in their report to the United Nations at the end of 1990”, the film noted. 

“If the weather machine were to be wound up to such new levels of energy, no country would remain unaffected,” it says. “Global warming is not yet certain, but many think that to wait for final proof would be irresponsible. Action now is seen as the only safe insurance.” 

A separate 1986 report, marked “confidential” and also seen by the Guardian, notes the large uncertainties in climate science at the time but nonetheless states: “The changes may be the greatest in recorded history.” 

The predictions in the 1991 film for temperature and sea level rises and their impacts were remarkably accurate, according to scientists, and Shell was one of the first major oil companies to accept the reality and dangers of climate change.

Of course after this very accurate film was produced for public consumption Shell then apparently had a change of heart and spent millions essentially fighting back against the facts shared in the video, undermining renewable energy policies, and spending billions to conduct tar sand drilling.

It should also be noted that uncovered emails, going back as far as 1981, demonstrated that oil giant Exxon was also well aware that Climate Change was a real danger and that it was man made.

Essentially this just demonstrates that these oil companies have known for decades that Climate Change is caused by their own activities as fossil fuel companies and that they have aggressively worked to keep that knowledge out of the hands of the public while continuing to negatively impact our environment.

13 comments:

  1. Unreal! I really had no idea about this...like Philip Morris. I'll never understand that level of greed and how so many people could have it. What were they so deprived of in their lives that they need more? At the cost of others' lives and even the plant?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:57 AM

    geez, that's as nostalgic as Peak Oil.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:00 AM

    Follow the Money ... The Big Oil Money, that is

    What would you do, to secure your share of a Half-Trillion dollar Deal of the Century?

    Probably a LOT — if your were Donald Trump and a former CEO of Exxon

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/3/1639744/-Follow-the-Money-The-Big-Oil-Money-that-is

    The Sessions/Russia timeline is astounding. So much smoke there must be fire.

    This twitter thread by @RVAwonk stitches together events in the days surrounding Sessions’ chat with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak into a narrative that sounds like something from a spy novel.

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/3/1639742/-The-Sessions-Russia-timeline-is-astounding-So-much-smoke-there-must-be-fire

    BREAKING Carter Page Reverses Story, Says He Met Russian Ambassador. And CNN Says Kushner Did Too.

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/3/1639720/-BREAKING-Carter-Page-Met-Russian-Ambassador-Also-Kushner-Sessions-Flynn-Why

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:18 AM

      Also big money in Ping An-Oscar Health-NuSkin connection to donnie's filthy lucre.
      It's an international money laundering scheme.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:44 PM

      @7:18
      http://reverbpress.com/politics/exclusive-murky-chinese-money-trail-links-house-oversight-chairman-to-trumps/

      Delete
  4. Anonymous6:10 AM

    President Trump Baits the Hook (don't take the bait)

    ...Donald Trump is all bait. It is the essence of his existence, his governing principle. Herds of stray cats follow him around because he smells like a bag of musty tuna. He is one of those creepy deep-sea monster fish, all eyes and teeth and dangled glowing lure. Every tweet is a ladle of chum tossed into the water. It takes a special kind of self-control to lay off, but you have to if you want to keep everyone's eyes fixed on what matters, and not on whatever is scrolling across the careening Times Square ticker-tape screen that passes for his mind.

    http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39673-president-trump-baits-the-hook

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6:12 AM

    Trump can't shake Russia scandal

    Poor Donald Trump! He thought he could have a day of decent news coverage following his reading off a teleprompter, but his Russia scandal snatched it away from him.

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/3/1639723/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Trump-can-t-shake-Russia-scandal

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous6:14 AM

    How much longer can Republicans defend Trump over Russia?

    ...So imagine you're a Republican member of Congress. You already had to make a whole bunch of moral compromises to get behind this president. But you decided it was worth it, both because there are so many conservative initiatives you'd like to see a Republican president sign, and because you despised Hillary Clinton so deeply.

    But now every day, you have to decide anew: How far am I willing to go to protect this president and this administration? The answer for any politician is: only as far as it remains to my advantage, both in terms of the policies I want and my own political survival.

    http://theweek.com/articles/683374/how-much-longer-republicans-defend-trump-over-russia

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6:24 AM

    The temperature rise in Alaska is caused by Sarah being such a hot mamma.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leland8:59 AM

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      Thanks, 6:24! I needed a good laugh! That ...thing couldn't melt ICE CREAM!

      Delete
  8. WA Skeptic6:49 AM




    The Big Oil guys hire the best chemists in the world. They knew almost immediately what the effects of their big chemistry plants would be.

    Stoichiometry is the part of chemistry that studies amounts of substances that are involved in reactions. You might be looking at the amounts of substances before the reaction. You might be looking at the amount of material that is produced by the reaction. Stoichiometry is all about the numbers.

    As a matter of fact, Shell Oil had a president of the company that was an early advocate of Climate Change and efforts to at least slow it down.

    Keep in mind: Big Oil is All About The Money.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous12:42 PM

    OT:"God isn’t finished with us yet"
    http://lnr.politicususa.com/2186-2186/

    ReplyDelete

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