Harvard scientists took Exxon’s challenge; found it using the tobacco playbook | Dana Nuccitelli

A new study finds a stark contrast between Exxon’s research and what the company told the public

Read all of these documents and make up your own mind.

That was the challenge ExxonMobil issued when investigative journalism by Inside Climate News revealed that while it was at the forefront of climate science research in the 1970s and 1980s, Exxon engaged in a campaign to misinform the public.

Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public

Nations are being urged to cut emissions without knowing either the severity of the problem – that is, will Earth’s temperature increase over the next 50–100 years? – or the efficacy of the solution – will cutting CO2 emissions reduce the problem?

these still-unanswered questions (1) Has human activity already begun to change temperature and the climate, and (2) How significant will future change be?