1
would create an equivalent sea temperature increase that could impact fisheries.47 President
2
Johnson announced in a special message to Congress that “[t]his generation has altered the
3
composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through . . . a steady increase in carbon dioxide
4
from the burning of fossil fuels.”48
78.
5
These statements from the Johnson Administration, at a minimum, put Defendants
6
on notice of the potentially substantial dangers to people, communities, and the planet associated
7
with unabated use of their fossil fuel products. Moreover, Defendants had amassed a considerable
8
body of knowledge on the subject through their own independent efforts.
79.
9
A 1963 Conservation Foundation report on a conference of scientists referenced in
10
the 1966 World Book Encyclopedia, as well as in presidential panel reports and other sources
11
around that time, described many specific consequences of rising greenhouse gas pollution in the
12
atmosphere. It warned that
a continuing rise in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide is likely to be
accompanied by a significant warming of the surface of the earth which by melting
the polar ice caps would raise sea level and by warming the oceans would change
considerably the distributions of marine species including commercial fisheries.
13
14
15
16
It warned of the possibility of “wiping out the world’s present commercial fisheries.” The report,
17
in fact, noted that “the changes in marine life in the North Atlantic which accompanied the
18
temperature change have been very noticeable.”49
19
80.
In 1968, a Stanford Research Institute (SRI) report commissioned by the American
20
Petroleum Institute (“API”) and made available to all of its members, concluded, among other
21
things:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
SHER
EDLING LLP
President’s Science Advisory Committee, Restoring the Quality of Our Environment: Report of the Environmental
Pollution Panel, at 9, 123–24 (Nov. 1965), https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4315678.
48
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty
(Feb. 8, 1965), http://acsc.lib.udel.edu/items/show/292.
49
The Conservation Foundation, Implications of Rising Carbon Dioxide Content of the Atmosphere: A statement of
trends and implications of carbon dioxide research reviewed at a conference of scientists (Mar. 1963),
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004619030;view=1up;seq=5.
47
COMPLAINT
37
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