NEW YORK - In the late 1970s, scientists at Exxon fitted one of the company’s supertankers with state-of-the-art equipment to measure carbon dioxide in the ocean and in the air, an early example of substantial research the oil giant conducted into the science of climate change.
Global warming projections “are based on completely unproven climate models, or, more often, on sheer speculation”, Mr Lee Raymond, chief executive of the newly merged ExxonMobil Corp, said at a company meeting in 1999. “ExxonMobil has a culture of disciplined analysis, planning, accounting and reporting,” the company added, quoting a judge in a favorable verdict in New York three years ago, albeit for a case that addressed the company’s accounting practices, not climate science.