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Despite embracing other aspects of the report, API asked SRI to review its findings
on CO2 in a Supplemental Report, which was submitted in 1969. (Submitted for the
record as documentary annex for slides 29-31 of my testimony of May 23rd.) The
Supplement:
• Repeated and further substantiated most of the core conclusions of the 1968
report, including its recognition that: atmospheric concentrations of carbon
dioxide were steadily increasing; 90% of this increase could be attributed to
fossil fuel combustion; and continued use of fossil fuels would inevitably and
inexorably result in greater CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
• Found it unlikely that natural changes in the biosphere could be responsible
for rising CO2 levels
• Further concluded that natural sinks could not keep pace with the excess
emissions created by burning fossil fuels.
• Estimated that the projected growth in fossil fuel use would push atmospheric
CO2 to 370 ppm by the year 2000.
• Estimated (accurately) that an increase in CO2 to 370ppm would increase
global temperatures by 0.5 C (0.9 F) by the year 2000.
• Estimated that using all then recoverable fossil fuels would raise atmospheric
CO2 to 850 ppm, driving global temperatures still higher.
• Acknowledged that the melting of polar ice caps, if it occurred, “would
obviously result in inundation of coastal areas.”
• Repeated that “there seems to be no doubt that the potential damage to our
environment could be severe …[and that] the prospect for the future must be
of serious concern.”
On balance, therefore, the great majority of the evidence and analysis in the
Supplement reinforces and further extends the core conclusions of the original.
Despite this, there are striking differences between the two reports that cannot be
explained by the analysis itself.
In contrast to their earlier warnings about the risks and potential impacts of CO2—
warnings borne out by the evidence in the Supplement--the authors declared that
“with our present knowledge we are not justified in predicting future effects of
CO2 based on these correlations.” Similarly, they omitted several paragraphs from
the 1968 report that summarized the potential environmental and human impacts of
climate change. Finally, and notably, the Supplemental Report included two
paragraphs of “Summary and Conclusions” with respect to CO2. While the first of
these paragraphs briefly and accurately summarized the report’s findings, the
second paragraph downplayed the potential implications of rising CO2 for global
temperatures, sea levels, and the environment—focusing exclusively on the
uncertainties that made it impossible to draw any conclusions.
In 1969, the following Carbon Majors companies were API members directly, or
through their predecessors, subsidiaries or affiliates: Ashland Oil, Aramco,
Atlantic Richfield Company, British Petroleum, Chevron, Conoco Phillips,
ExxonMobil, Husky Energy, Marathon Oil, Murphy Oil, Petroleos de Venezuela,
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