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'Time is Running Out,' American Petroleum Institute Chief Said in 1965 Speech on Climate Change
Kelly, Sharon
http://www.desmogblog.com/2018/11/20/american-petroleum-institute-1965-speech-climate-change-oil-gasDate Written: 2018-11-20 Publisher: DeSmog Year Published: 2018 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23382 In 1965 the president of the American Petroleum Institute discussed the effect of CO2 in the changing the atmosphere and the role specifically of the petroleum industry in causing climate change. More than 50 years later the science on this has become stronger but messaging from the industry has softened. Abstract: -- Excerpt: 1965, according to a letter by Stanford historian Benjamin Franta published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, was the year that President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee published a report titled "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment," whose findings Ikard described at that year’s annual API meeting. "One of the most important predictions of the report is that carbon dioxide is being added to the Earth's atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas at such a rate that by the year 2000 the heat balance will be so modified as possibly to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts," Ikard presciently added, according to excerpts from his speech published in Nature.... In his 1965 talk, the API's Ikard described the role of oil and gasoline specifically in causing climate change. "The report further states, and I quote: '… the pollution from internal combustion engines is so serious, and is growing so fast,'" he told the API conference, "'that an alternative nonpolluting means of powering automobiles, buses, and trucks is likely to become a national necessity.'" Three decades later, the API urged a different approach to climate science. "It's not known for sure whether (a) climate change actually is occurring, or (b) if it is, whether humans really have any influence on it," the API wrote in a 1998 draft memo titled "Global Climate Science Communications Plan," which was subsequently leaked. Subject Headings |