Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science Union of Concerned Scientists January 2007 © 2007 Union of Concerned Scientists All rights reserved The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices. Union of Concerned Scientists Two Brattle Square Cambridge, MA 02238-9105 Phone: 617-547-5552 Fax: 617-864-9405 Email: [email protected] Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Background: The Facts about ExxonMobil 4 The Origins of a Strategy 6 ExxonMobil’s Disinformation Campaign 9 Putting the Brakes on ExxonMobil’s Disinformation Campaign 25 Appendices A. The Scientific Consensus on Global Warming 29 B. Groups and Individuals Associated with ExxonMobil’s Disinformation Campaign 31 C. Key Internal Documents 37 • 1998 "Global Climate Science Team" memo 38 • APCO memo to Philip Morris regarding the creation of TASCC 44 • Dobriansky talking points 49 • Randy Randol's February 6, 2001, fax to the Bush team calling for Watson's dismissal 51 • Sample mark up of Draft Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program by Philip Cooney 56 • Email from Mryon Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute, to Phil Cooney 57 Endnotes 58 Acknowledgments Seth Shulman was the lead investigator and primary author of this report. Kate Abend and Alden Meyer contributed the final chapter. Kate Abend, Brenda Ekwurzel, Monica La, Katherine Moxhet, Suzanne Shaw, and Anita Spiess assisted with research, fact checking, and editing. UCS would like to thank Kert Davies, Research Director for ExxonSecrets.org, for pointing the author to original source material, Annie Petsonk for providing input during initial scoping of the project, and the Natural Resources Defense Council for sharing FOIA documents. UCS is thankful to the individuals and organizations cited in this report who have explored various aspects of ExxonMobil's funding of climate contrarians and the tobacco and climate link. UCS would also like to thank the following individuals for their helpful comments on various aspects of the report: Naomi Oreskes, Rick Piltz, James McCarthy, Don Wuebbles, Erik Conway, Kevin Knobloch, Alden Meyer, and Peter Frumhoff. We would also like to acknowledge the invaluable resource that has been created by the court ordered public disclosure of tobacco industry documents. The findings and opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the reviewers who provided comment on its content. Both the opinions and the information contained herein are the sole responsibility of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Smoke, Mirrors, and Hot Air l Executive Summary n an effort to deceive the public about the real- • Used its extraordinary access to the Bush Iity of global warming, ExxonMobil has under- administration to block federal policies and written the most sophisticated and most successful shape government communications on global disinformation campaign since the tobacco indus- warming. try misled the public about the scientific evidence The eportr documents that, despite the scien- linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease. tific consensus about the fundamental under- As this report documents, the two disinformation standing that global warming is caused by carbon campaigns are strikingly similar. ExxonMobil has dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions, Exxon- drawn upon the tactics and even some of the Mobil has funneled about $16 million between organizations and actors involved in the callous 1998 and 2005 to a network of ideological and disinformation campaign the tobacco industry advocacy organizations that manufacture uncer- waged for 40 years. Like the tobacco industry, tainty on the issue. Many of these organizations ExxonMobil has: have an overlapping—sometimes identical— • Manufactured uncertainty by raising doubts collection of spokespeople serving as staff, board about even the most indisputable scientific members, and scientific advisors. By publishing evidence. and republishing the non-peer-reviewed works of a small group of scientific spokespeople, Exxon- • Adopted a strategy of information laundering Mobil-funded organizations have propped up by using seemingly independent front organi- and amplified work that has been discredited zations to publicly further its desired message by reputable climate scientists. and thereby confuse the public. ExxonMobil’s funding of established research • Promoted scientific spokespeople who mis- institutions that seek to better understand science, represent peer-reviewed scientific findings or policies, and technologies to address global warm- cherry-pick facts in their attempts to persuade ing has given the corporation “cover,” while its fund- the media and the public that there is still ing of ideological and advocacy organizations to serious debate among scientists that burning conduct a disinformation campaign works to con- fossil fuels has contributed to global warming fuse that understanding. This seemingly inconsis- and that human-caused warming will have tent activity makes sense when looked at through serious consequences. a broader lens. Like the tobacco companies in previous decades, this strategy provides a positive • Attempted to shift the focus away from mean- “pro-science” public stance for ExxonMobil that ingful action on global warming with mislead- masks their activity to delay meaningful action on ing charges about the need for “sound science.” global warming and helps keep the public debate l Union of Concerned Scientists stalled on the science rather than focused on the corporation to work behind the scenes to gain policy options to address the problem. access to key decision makers. In some cases, the In addition, like Big Tobacco before it, company’s proxies have directly shaped the global ExxonMobil has been enormously successful at warming message put forth by federal agencies. influencing the current administration and key Finally, this report provides a set of steps elected members of Congress. Documents highlighted officials, investors, and citizens can take to neu- in this report, coupled with subsequent events, tralize ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign provide evidence of ExxonMobil’s cozy relation- and remove this roadblock to sensible action for ship with government officials, which enables reducing global warming emissions. Smoke, Mirrors, and Hot Air l Introduction xxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded the tobacco industry’s 40-year disinformation Ecorporation, doesn’t want you to know the facts campaign. about global warming. The company vehemently This eportr documents ExxonMobil’s central opposes any governmental regulation that would role in the current disinformation campaign require significantly expanded investments in clean about climate science, identifying the campaign’s energy technologies or reductions in global warm- rationale, who’s behind it, and how it has been ing emissions. That is what the public and policy- able—so far—to successfully mislead the public, makers are likely to demand when they know the influence government policies, and forestall fed- truth about climate science. Consequently, the eral action to reduce global warming emissions. corporation has spent millions of dollars to deceive ExxonMobil’s cynical strategy is built around the public about global warming. In so doing, the notion that public opinion can be easily ExxonMobil has underwritten the most sophis- manipulated because climate science is complex, ticated and successful disinformation campaign because people tend not to notice where their since Big Tobacco misled the public about the information comes from, and because the effects incontrovertible scientific evidence linking smok- of global warming are just beginning to become ing to lung cancer and heart disease. In fact, as visible. But ExxonMobil may well have underesti- this report shows, many of the tactics, and even mated the public. The company’s strategy quickly some of the same organizations and actors used unravels when people understand it for what it by ExxonMobil to mislead the public, draw upon is: an active campaign of disinformation. l Union of Concerned Scientists Background The Facts About ExxonMobil xxonMobil is a powerful player on the world company reporting.5 In 2005, the end use com- Estage. It is the world’s largest publicly traded bustion of ExxonMobil’s products—gasoline, company: at $339 billion,1 its 2005 revenues ex- heating oil, kerosene, diesel products, aviation ceeded the gross domestic products of most of the fuels, and heavy fuels—resulted in 1,047 million world’s nations.2 It is the most profitable corpora- metric tons of carbon dioxide–equivalent emis- tion in history. In 2005, the company netted $36 sions.6 If it was a country, ExxonMobil would billion3—nearly $100 million in profit each day. rank sixth in emissions. As the biggest player in the world’s gas and oil While some oil companies like BP, Occidental business, ExxonMobil is also one of the world’s Petroleum, and Shell have begun to invest in largest producers of global warming pollution. clean energy technologies and publicly committed Company operations alone pumped the equiva- to reduce their heat-trapping emissions, Exxon- lent of 138 million metric