information very similar to the tobacco companies. reporter: in this 1978 internal memorial, exxon scientist wrote present thinking holds that man has a window of 5 to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical. despite the warning, more than two decades later, exxon took out this full new york times ad called unsettled science which argued little is known about the effect of climate change, positive or negative. documents also show the energy industry heavily funded contrarian scientists, like willy soon and scientists like this. too much ice is really bad for polar bears. reporter: more recently, it was caught on secret recording admitting the company used shadow groups to fight early
of climate disinformation, they need to admit that. what is the ongoing disinformation they re engaged in. are they funding shadow groups? are they funding lobbyists to kill legislation? and finally we need on the record under oath for them to commit to stopping any . well, they will be under oath. they told the board of directors, they are for sustainable energy future. they said they are not killing any climate legislation. see if they make that legislation under oath, and explain why it that they have
biden s climate plans, and he admitted that exxonmobil fought against climate science to protect their bottom line. did we aggressively fight against some of the science? yeah. yes. did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts? yes, that s true. but it is nothing illegal about that. yeah. you know, we were looking out for our investments. we were looking out for our shareholders. nothing illegal about it. that story and those revelations from the big oil lobbyist reminded me what happened with big tobacco. the big seven tobacco companies, largest in the u.s., held incredible power and influence over american politics for many, many years, and they went essentially unregulated decade after decade, long after we
first, get the executives to admit that climate disinformation they ve had in the past. second, ask what the ongoing activities are in killing climate legislation or funding shadow groups. third, get them to commit to stop that and not run interference in the president s agenda. well, they re probably not going to do the third, right? well, look, i mean they ve told their own board of directors that they re for sustainability. i mean they re telling the american public, even in response to our letters, they re saying that they actually are for good climate policy. so they have the first amendment right to kill climate legislation, but what they don t have the first amendment right is to lie. they can t lie to the board of directors, they can t lie to their customers, so they need to come clean in what they re actually doing. yeah. i want to play this little bit again from this, that sort of interview with the lobbyist that was recorded by the greenpeace folks and then published b
things work. posing as recruiters in an elaborate sting operation, greenpeace uk and the outlet channel 4 news tricked one of the senior lobbyists into thinking he was interviewing for a position in another country. listen to him describe exxon s approach to climate science. did we aggressively fight against some of the science? yes. did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts, yes, that s true. exxon mobile insists its lobbying complies with all laws and this sting was a decades-long campaign for greenpeace to smear them. today that committee sent a letter to keith mccoy, the exxon