Over the retiring few decades , oil company have for the most part shift away from clime self-renunciation . Now , you canseetheenergygiantsopenly acknowledge that mood change is happening , but theirnew messagingtends to impart a bad gustatory modality in my lip . A new , first - of - its - kindstudyby Harvard researchers Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes explains why : The new language makes it seem like climate change is our defect , not theirs .
“ It ’s a really pernicious variety of gaslighting , ” say Supran .
The authors , who published their work One Earth on Thursday , used machine erudition to examine 212 public and internal Exxon documents from 1972 and 2019 , including all in public uncommitted intimate company memos , all advertorials the company devote for in the New York Times , and all of the firm ’s flagship clime modification reports . For the painstaking research , they utilise three unlike class of computational philology to locate the differences in how Exxon verbalise about mood change in world versus in individual . The discrepancy were stark .
Exxon, our fossil fuel savior.Photo: Logan Cyrus (Getty Images)
For illustration , in internal treatment about clime change , Exxon frequently uses term like “ dodo fuel , ” “ fossil fuel , ” and “ fogey fuel burning . ” likewise , when talking about the force of using its own product , Exxon ’s interior treatment are full of terms like “ fogey fuel emissions ” and “ fossil fuel CO2 . ”
But you ’ll hardly ever see it use those terms in populace . or else , it sound out “ demand , ” “ energy need , ” and “ consumers ” come with a climate “ hazard , ” suggesting that individual choices are the problem , and that the fuels we use are a potential scourge to safety machine rather than the fundament of a crisis that ’s already well underway . And alternatively of tell those activity make “ fossil fuel emission , ” it opt to employ the term “ greenhouse gas discharge , ” handily omitting information about what products produce that pollution . The company also publicly focuses on the need to increase “ energy efficiency ” as a solution rather than , you know , ending theproduction of fossil fuels .
“ In private , they name the eye of the problem , which is their product , but in public their public communication theory were biased towards individualist frame , ” Supran articulate .
The same is dead on target of Exxon ’s give-and-take of correct the mood crisis . publically , it not only fails to mention its own role in get the clime crisis but also often promotes itself as part of the solvent . Its outward - facing grandiloquence isfull of referencesto the “ hope ” of its technological “ solution , ” drawing focus to how it is “ develop ” and “ innovating ” new technologies . The authors call this a narrative of “ fossil fuel saviorism ” compound with “ technical optimism , ” which eschew any discussions of phasing out fossil fuel origin .
“ There ’s such an imbalance in the way the job and its solutions are represented , ” said Supran . “ The function of this is to promote the company as essentially a trusted groundbreaker whose fogy fuel - based result we should look to bank on to get us out of this trouble that ostensibly we , the consumer , stimulate . ”
Though the subject field only count at Exxon , these patterns reflect the rhetorical choices of the fossil fuel diligence at prominent . It wasthe oil troupe BPthat vulgarise the enjoyment of the term “ atomic number 6 step ” to lurch stress on incarnate obligation to consumer . In aninterview this weekShell ’s chief executive officer spoke about how his company ’s technical artistry is “ utterly needed ” to push the climate crisis . Last year , Shellalso got wrecked on Twitterwhen it asked consumers what we would be “ unforced to commute to facilitate reduce discharge . ”
The fingerprints of these public relations strategies can even be found in external climate insurance policy . As the study notes , the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement — which dodo fuel lobbyists wereinvolved in negociate — doesn’t mention the term “ fossil fuel ” at all .
If this all create you mad , you ’re sure enough not alone — and there are way to fight back . Supran pointed to the increase popularity ofgreentrollingand climate - focalise drollery video as signs that people are ready to call the dodo fuel industry out on its bullshit .
On a bigger spirit level , right now , energy colossus including Exxon arefacinghundredsof globallawsuitsthat allege they ’ve curbed clime action at law by pushing misinformation on the public . Activists and lawyersaroundtheworldare also contend to ban fogy fuel publicizing , or at least get it to come with warnings about the danger of their products . And theClean Creatives campaignis also attempting to push public involvement firms to cut tie with the oil industry . ( Even law students areputting pressure level on top firmsto stop doing Big Oil ’s dirty oeuvre . )
All of these action can serve as an important counterweight to the fossil fuel manufacture ’s insidious attempt to “ prepare us to see ourselves as consumer first and citizen seconds , ” Supran said .
“ It ’s very hard to point to one headline in isolation where the party may say something like , ‘ technology is promising , ’ and take that that ’s problematic , ” he said . “ But when you take a gradation back , you see how it ’s retrace all of these overarching narratives . ”
In reply to the report , Exxon hasdropped the “ bombshell”that Supran ’s co - author , esteemed Harvard historiographer Naomi Oreskes , has a relationship with a effectual firm that ’s been filing climate suit , which I opine it want us to happen bedamn or something . But it ’s not . “ Sher Edling playact no purpose in the paper we put out today , nor in any other academic work we have done , ” the authors write in an e-mail .
Exxon alsoput out a statementsaying it “ is working to reduce party emission and helping customer reduce their emissions while work on on Modern lower - emission technologies and recommend for effective policy . ” But then , of course it did .
“ ExxonMobil is now misleading the public about its history of misguide the public , ” the author say .
Update 2025-05-06 , 1:24 p.m. ET : This news report has been updated to include entropy about Exxon ’s response to the survey .
ExxonExxonMobilFossil fuelPhysical sciencesShell
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