Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Though Company Has Doubts, Study Finds

Starting in the 1970s, scientists working for the oil giant made remarkably accurate projections of how much fossil fuel would warm the planet.< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In the late 1970s, Exxon scientists outfitted one of the company's supertankers with state-of-the-art equipment to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. ocean and in the air, an early example of the oil giant's research into the science of climate change.

A new study published Thursday in the journal Science revealed that over the next few decades, Exxon scientists made remarkably accurate projections of just how much the burning of fossil fuels would warm the planet. Their projections were as accurate, and sometimes even more so, than those of independent academic and government models.

Exxon Projections

The global warming projections made or recorded by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003 are followed closely with observations of rising temperature.

+3°C rise in global temperatures since 1900

Warming projections

by Exxon scientists

+2°C

2020

+1.17°C

+1°C

Historically observed

temperature change

1900

1950

2000

2050

2100