The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report entitled The Climate Deception Dossiers.
For nearly three decades, many of the world's largest fossil fuel companies have knowingly worked to deceive the public about the realities and risks of climate change.
Their deceptive tactics are now highlighted in this set of seven "deception dossiers"—collections of internal company and trade association documents that have either been leaked to the public, come to light through lawsuits, or been disclosed through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests.
So now we have some idea of "What fossil fuel companies knew and when they knew it". Full report available here [pdf].
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 10 2015, @01:21AM
This is more evidence of the criminal cheating, lying, stupidity, psychopathology, and anti-social behavior and actions that big, powerful companies do, no matter what industry they're in. Big Tobacco denied that nicotine was addictive, Big Oil denies that there is Climate Change or that it's a problem, and Wall Street periodically collapses when it plays a fools game of cheating and lying and Ponzi schemes to reap short term profits by making the market rise beyond what is sustainable. Last time it was Too Big to Fail, the housing bubble and the Great Recession, the previous time it was the Dot-Com bubble, and before that there was the S&L crisis of the 1980s, and of course the Great Depression. And CEOs and upper management are still massively overpaid.
I've been wondering for some time now what it takes to rein in these excesses, and get people to focus on the very serious, real problems our civilization has now. I'm not talking about Greece, which is at most a symptom of the greed and foolishness that is threatening us all. Greece is nothing next to what Climate Change will do to us. Can't count on the law, not with the bribery these particular kinds of criminals can wield to corrupt officials. The public is kept preoccupied with small petty struggles, and will do little to nothing until they can't make ends meet. What can a person do?
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Friday July 10 2015, @05:00AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves