8
(b)
We found that there is a discrepancy between what different
ExxonMobil document categories say, and particularly what they
emphasize, about climate change science and its implications.
i.
On climate change as real and human-caused, serious, and
solvable, we observed that the more publicly accessible
documents were, the more they tended to communicate doubt.
That is, 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.
This discrepancy is most pronounced between advertorials and
all other documents. For example, accounting for expressions of
reasonable doubt, 83% of peer-reviewed papers and 80% of
internal documents acknowledge that climate change is real and
human-caused, yet only 12% of advertorials do so, with 81%
instead expressing doubt.
ii.
On the risks of stranded fossil fuel assets, we found this topic
discussed and sometimes quantified in 24 documents of various
types, but absent from advertorials.
(c)
We found an imbalance in impact of different document
categories: ExxonMobil contributed to and acknowledged climate
science in private and in academic journals read only by a small
number of academics; whereas ExxonMobil promoted doubt
about that science in advertorials in The New York Times read by
millions of people.
(d)
We found ExxonMobil’s advertorials (and other more public
communications) to include several instances of explicit factual
misrepresentation.
Based on these findings, our key conclusion is that ExxonMobil misled
non-scientific audiences about the state of climate science and its
implications. The company contributed to advancing climate science – by
way of its private research and its scientists’ academic publications – but
promoted doubt about it in advertorials and other direct and indirect public
communications. This overwhelming emphasis on uncertainties, promoting a
narrative inconsistent with the views of most climate scientists, including
ExxonMobil’s own, is characteristic of what Freudenberg et al. term the
Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method (SCAM) – a tactic for
undermining public understanding of scientific knowledge [13,14]. We are
not in a position to judge whether ExxonMobil violated any laws.
Q13: Can you please elaborate on these findings and conclusions by specifically
giving examples?
A13: Below I provide examples pertaining to the findings outlined in A12: