Newly uncovered documents have revealed that the fossil fuel industry has been aware of and funded research showing that their products would cause climate crises and global warming for at least 70 years. The documents, published by DeSmog and uncovered by Climate Investigations Center research fellow Rebecca John, show that between 1954 and 1956, a coalition containing fossil fuel and automobile industry leaders funded research for environmental researcher Charles Keeling at the California Institute of Technology.
The research conducted by Keeling ultimately resulted in the development of the Keeling Curve, which is the now-famous graph showing the rise of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere as a result of fossil fuel use. The foundation that partially funded the research was called the Southern California Air Pollution Foundation, and it received contributions from fossil fuel trade associations like the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Western Oil and Gas Association, as well as automakers like Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.
These newly uncovered documents show that the fossil fuel industry has been aware of the impending climate crisis since at least 1954, decades earlier than previously thought. This means that for 70 years, the industry has known about the disastrous effects of their products and has deliberately chosen to obfuscate and lie about the existence of the crisis.
University of Miami climate accountability researcher and professor Geoffrey Supran commented on the documents, stating that they provide “smoking gun proof” that the fossil fuel industry has had knowledge of the potential for its products to disrupt the Earth’s climate for 70 years. He emphasized that these findings add fuel to the efforts to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their climate damages and deception.
The research conducted by Charles Keeling would not be fully developed until later, but the initial proposal for the research showed that researchers were looking for changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations due to the burning of fossil fuels. Keeling presented his findings from his observations at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1963, suggesting that the burning of fossil fuels was contributing to the rise of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
Previous research has also found that the fossil fuel industry has had detailed knowledge of the effects its products would have on the climate for decades. A study published last year revealed that Exxon’s internal climate studies had accurately predicted global warming, with predictions on par with what scientists have observed in modern years.
The denial and suppression of climate research by the fossil fuel industry are having devastating effects on animal and human populations across the globe. The climate crisis has already caused an estimated 4 million early deaths, a number that is expected to multiply drastically in the coming decades. The failure to eliminate fossil fuels and provide necessary resources for climate change adaptation is a policy failure for which high-income countries and ongoing systems of colonial extraction bear most of the blame.
In conclusion, these newly uncovered documents provide further evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s knowledge and deceit regarding the climate crisis. The industry has been aware of the potential consequences of its products for 70 years and has chosen to hide this information from the public. The revelations add weight to the calls for holding oil and gas companies accountable for their actions and the damages caused by their products.
