The major fossil fuel companies were likely aware of all
of these developments. Evidence shows that from as early as
1977 representatives of fossil fuel companies including BP,
Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and
Shell attended dozens of congressional hearings in which the
contribution of carbon emissions to the greenhouse effect
and other aspects of climate science were discussed (Davies
1990; Gifford 1990; Greenpeace 1990; Lashof1990; Beyaert
1989; Chafee 1989; Tucker 1988; Evans 1987; Walsh 1987; The
Wilderness Society 1987; MacDonald 1985; Schneider 1985;
Sharp 1985; Sherick 1984; Longenecker 1981; Oppenheimer
1981; Commoner 1977).

By 1983, the US. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
had begun assessing potential policy solutions to the risks
that climate change presented, based on the growing body of
science on climate change and its impacts (Seidel and Keyes
1983). In 1988, Richard F. Tucker, then president of Mobil
Oil, acknowledged in a speech to the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (a speech that was subsequently submit-
ted as testimony to Congress) that environmental protection

and pollution prevention, including action to address the
greenhouse effect, might require ?a dramatic reduction in our
dependence on fossil fuels? (Tucker 1988).

The year 1988 marked an important milestone for
scienti?c certainty concerning climate change. In that year
James Hansen, a leading climate scientist and director of the
Institute for Space Studies at the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), testi?ed before Congress that
scienti?c data had con?rmed humans? role in climate change
(Figure 2). It was also in 1988 that the United Nations formed
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and
the US. Congress introduced the National Energy Policy
Act of 1988 in an effort to reduce emissions of heat?trapping
gases. By that year, the well-established science of global
warming was making front-page headlines; the issue had
moved from the scienti?c community to the national stage. It
is di?cult to imagine that executives, lobbyists, and scientists
at the major fossil fuel companies were by this time unaware
of the robust scienti?c evidence of the risks associated with

the continued burning of their products.

 

I 2. Climate Change Widely Recognized by 1988

 

 

"All the News
That's Fit to Print"

 

 

 

@3119 New ?ak @imea

late Editlon
New York: Today. sunny. cool High
7449. Tonight. increasing clouds. Low
57-65. TomorrW. morning clouds, then
windy and warmer. High 79-86. Yester-
day. High 87. low 67. Details, page A18.

 

. . No. 47,546

The New V0131 11m

NEW YORK, FRIDAY, IUNE 24, 1988

Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate



 

 
 
  
  
   
    
  
  
 

 

 

 

1950-1989 Ava a; 

 

 

 

 

 

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Y??age?l?lb?l 
. saline scientists: 

 

   
  



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By 1988, climate change was a well-established scienti?c fact, and widely acknowledged in the public sphere, as exempli?ed by this front-page

 

Ton-nesuone 24.19?

Sharp Cut in Burning of

Fossil Fuels Is Urged to
Battle Shift in Climate

By PHILIP SHABECOFF
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 23 - The earth
has been warmer in the first five
months of this year than in any com-

parable period since measurements
 began 130 years ago. and the higher

temperatures can now be attributed to

a long-expected global warming trend

linked to pollution, a Space agency

 scientist reported today.

Until nowl scientists have been cauv
tious about attributing rising global

'3 temperatures of recent years to the
predicted global warming caus'ecl by

pollutants in the atmosphere, known as

i the "greenhouse effect." But today Dr.
3 James E. Hansen of the National Aero-

nautics and Space Administration told

3 a Congressional committee that it was
. 99 percent certain that the warming:
trend was not a natural variation but 

was caused by a buildup of carbon:
dioxide and other artificial gases in the 1

 

yatmosphere.

so cents sum 1: Mill-l from New 
?Demon magma-u.

30 CENTS

An Impact Lasting Centuries

Dr. Hansen, 3 leading expert on cli-
mate change, said in an interview that
there was no "magic number" that
showed when the greenhouse effect
was actually starting to cause changes
in climate and weather. But he added, 
"It is time to stop waffling so much and
say that the evidence is pretty strong
that the greenhouse effect is here." 

if Dr. Hansen and other scientists
are correct, then humans, by burning
of fossil fuels and other activities, have
altered the global climate in a manner
that will affect life on earth for cen-
turies to come.

Dr. Hansen. director of Insti-
tute for Space Studies in Manhattan,
testited before the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee.

Some Dispute Link

He and other scientists testifying be-
fore the Senate panel today said that
projections of the climate change that
is now apparently occurring mean that
the Southeastern and Midwestern sec-
tions of the United States will be sub-
ject to frequent episodes of very high
temperatures and drought in the next
decade and beyond. But they cautioned
that it was not possible to attribute a
specific heat wave to the greenhouse
effect, given the still limited state of

Continued on Page A14. Column 3

 

story in The New York Times reporting on Dr. James Hansen?s testimony before Congress.

 

UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS