"Exxon: The Road Not Taken"

"Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming Decades Ago. Top executives were warned of possible catastrophe from greenhouse effect, then led efforts to block solutions."

"At a meeting in Exxon Corporation's headquarters, a senior company scientist named James F. Black addressed an audience of powerful oilmen. Speaking without a text as he flipped through detailed slides, Black delivered a sobering message: carbon dioxide from the world's use of fossil fuels would warm the planet and could eventually endanger humanity.

'In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels,' Black told Exxon's Management Committee, according to a written version he recorded later.

It was July 1977 when Exxon's leaders received this blunt assessment, well before most of the world had heard of the looming climate crisis."

Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song, and David Hasemyer report for InsideClimate News September 16, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

Timeline: "The Long Tale of Exxon and Climate Change" (InsideClimate News)

"Cast of Characters" (InsideClimate News)