Memorandum for the Petitioners | 63
the Charles Koch Foundation, ExxonMobil, and the Southern Company. The
investigation revealed that Dr. Soon was “giving back to the corporations” by
neglecting to report this financial support to the scientific journals.”260 Dr.
Soon has been documented as “prominent climate change skeptic.”261
r
r
5.117.A recent Harvard study by Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes
analyzed respondent ExxonMobil’s internal papers, public statements, and
campaigns between 1977 and 2014. It showed that the company misled the
public about what it knew about the risk of climate change. Expert witness
Dr. Geoffrey Supran of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology explained in his Statement262 and testimony before the Honorable
Commission that their peer-reviewed study 263 concluded that respondent
ExxonMobil emphasized doubts about the scientific evidence that blamed
fossil fuel burning for global warming when communicating with the
public, but acknowledged , at the same time, those scientific facts in its
internal communications . Dr. Supran explained that:
. . . available documents show a systematic,
quantifiable discrepancy between what ExxonMobil’s
scientists and executives discussed about climate change in
private and in academic circles, and what it presented to the
general public.264
5.118. As demonstrated by overwhelming evidence presented during
the National Inquiry, some of the respondent Carbon Majors contributed to,
and acknowledged, climate science in private and in academic journals read
only by a small number of academics. However, they created confusion and
doubt about science and solutions in advertisements and other
communications read by millions of consumers and key decision makers.
-
D.7. Even now, following the adoption of
the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the
IPCC’s 1.5°C Report in 2018,
respondent Carbon Majors’ actions
continue to demonstrate intent to put
profit over people and planet
5.119.In 2015, the nations of the world adopted the landmark Paris
Agreement It brings almost all nations into a common goal to undertake
,
Ibid.
DeSmog, Willie Soon, available at https://www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon ( last accessed on 12
September 2019).
262
See Exhibit “DDDDD” to ‘‘00000-22,” Profile and Statement of Geoffrey Supran, PAD, dated 02
August 2018 .
263
See Exhibit “ if Supran , G . and Oreskes, N. (23 August 2017), Assessing ExxonMobil's Climate Change
Communications ( 1977-2014).
264 Supran
, G ., supra note 262.
260
261
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