New York Times: Exxon Mobil contributed quietly to climate science and loudly to raising doubts about it

The New York Times has published the results of a study conducted with the support of Harvard University and the Rockefeller Family Fund, which already promoted a research on the topic of the Columbia University, published by The Los Angeles Times. The object of the controversy is well known and still under investigation by prosecutors of New York and Massachussets. Some employees and shareholders have denounced the world oil giant for fraud. The company would have been aware of the problem of climate change since the 70s and the consequent need to reduce the consumption of petroleum products, but would have sponsored mass media information in the news channels in the opposite direction. The NYT study examines 187 company documents produced from 1977 to 2014, which would create a disconcerting scenario: roughly 80 percent of the company’s academic and internal papers acknowledged that climate change is real and human-caused. But 81 percent of their climate change advertorials in one way or another expressed doubt. It remains to be seen whether the judiciary front will confirm the picture emerging from this journalistic research