and Development Company (now ExxonMobil), Pan American Petroleum Corporation (now BP), Gulf Oil Corporation, Texaco Inc., the CAGC Marine Region, and Chevron Oil Field Research Company.40 In addition to their research into hurricane formation, many of the major oil companies conducted research into paleoclimates and historical sea levels, to better predict where reserves of offshore oil may be found. Research into the historical temperature record was sponsored by API in 1950,41 and radiocarbon dating was being done at Humble Oil laboratories by 1957.42 In 1956, the Madera Daily News ran an article, “Carbon Dioxide May Contribute to Hurricanes,” which discussed Revelle’s ongoing work and explained the theory that accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere might be raising temperatures and contributing to an intensification of hurricanes.43 The same year, an article in Time Magazine noted Revelle’s work and warned that rising temperatures could “melt the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland, which would flood the earth’s coastal lands.”44 Finally, in 1961, API funded a study into the trends in sea level from 30,000 years before present to 7,000 years before present. The author discussed the relationship between the size of glaciers, global temperatures, and sea level, noting specifically that a rapid rise in sea level coincided with a warming of the climate. “Sea level, on the other hand, rises during warm periods and falls during cold periods[.]”45 It is clear that the purpose of the previously described research into hurricanes, sea level, and paleoclimate was not to investigate climate change, but to determine where offshore oil could be found and how best to obtain it. However, these research priorities armed the petroleum industry with cuttingedge knowledge about changes in sea levels and hurricanes, two natural phenomena implicated by climate change. The idea that accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could lead to increased hurricane formation and rising sea levels was being discussed openly in newspapers and magazines as early as 1956. While we cannot know for certain that the entire industry was aware of these theories, they had as much expertise in the field as any other industry, academia, or the government. Moreover, scientists hired by API explicitly connected temperatures, glaciers, and sea levels in research paid for by API. Given the advanced knowledge and expertise, it is fair to ask whether the major oil and gas companies, and the petroleum industry as a whole, should have known about the emerging science focused on the relationship between fossil fuel combustion, global temperatures, sea levels, and hurricanes. 40 Id. See HAROLD C. UREY, ET AL., THE MEASUREMENT OF PALEOTEMPERATURES; SCIENTIFIC REPORT TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, THE AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE, AND THE OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH (1950), available at https://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/4423471. 42 See H. R. Brannon, et al., Humble Oil Company Radiocarbon Dates II, 125 SCI. 919 (1957), available at http://science.sciencemag.org/content/125/3254/919. 43 See Carbon Dioxide May Contribute to Hurricanes, MADERA DAILY NEWS-TRIBUNE, Mar. 15, 1956. 44 See Lily Rothman, Scientists Have Known about Climate Change for a Lot Longer Than You May Think, TIME (Nov. 30, 2015), http://time.com/4122485/climate-change-history/. 45 Joseph Curray, Late Quaternary Sea Level: A Discussion, 72 GEOL. SOC. OF AMER. BULL. 1701-1712 (Nov. 1961), available at https://www.smokeandfumes.org/documents/11. 41 8