Shell knew: oil giant's 1991 film warned of climate change danger

[BeckyDem]

Public information film unseen for years shows Shell had clear grasp of global warming 26 years ago but has not acted accordingly since, say critics

Film warned of climate change ‘at rate faster than at any time since end of the ice age’
The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered.

However, since then the company has invested heavily in highly polluting oil reserves and helped lobby against climate action, leading to accusations that Shell knew the grave risks of global warming but did not act accordingly.

Shell’s 28-minute film, called Climate of Concern, was made for public viewing, particularly in schools and universities. It warned of extreme weather, floods, famines and climate refugees as fossil fuel burning warmed the world. The serious warning was “endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists in their report to the United Nations at the end of 1990”, the film noted.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/28/shell-knew-oil-giants-1991-film-warned-climate-change-danger

[Doodley]

1. This is the best argument against Climate Change deniers I have ever seen.

[SwissTony]

2. The film appears to be available on YouTube

[BeckyDem]

3. Thanks for posting it!

[joet67]

4. Thank you for this. I watched it a little earlier. nt

[BeckyDem]

5. My pleasure. Their agenda has been obvious for decades. They act as if there is another

planet to move to when they're done ruining this one.

[joet67]

9. They need to be the first ones to depart this planet. nt

[Hortensis]

6. 1965: President Johnson's wake-up letter to congress.

Of course they knew. Waaay back then was when business organized big time to fight the need for climate regulation.

[BeckyDem]

7. You're right, Hortensis and I'll add that for anyone who might not know.

A 50th anniversary few remember: LBJ's warning on carbon dioxide

By Marianne Lavelle
The Daily Climate

It is a key moment in climate change history that few remember: This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first presidential mention of the environmental risk of carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuels.

This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
- President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

President Lyndon Baines Johnson, in a February 8, 1965 special message to Congress warned about build-up of the invisible air pollutant that scientists recognize today as the primary contributor to global warming.

"Air pollution is no longer confined to isolated places," said Johnson less than three weeks after his 1965 inauguration. "This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/02/president-johnson-carbon-climate-warning

I wish we could sue them, similar to what happened with the tobacco industry. Lie after lie after lie, all for profits.

[Hortensis]

8. Yes, we should be able to sue them--at the very least.

Johnson's call to action was followed by another Democratic president's, Jimmy Carter's, but by then the antis had their big media guns all in a row and convinced the nation it was "fake news" and anyway scientists had no data to prove their claims. It was real but relatively soft. By the 1980s research had produced plenty of hard data, but, of course, by then the nation had swung right into a new conservative reaganism era.