Fossil fuel companies have been lying to you!

Fossil fuel companies have been lying to us. They’ve known about climate change for decades, and have buried the science in an effort to continue business as usual.

In this episode, we dive into the decades of denial by @exxonmobil and other nefarious fossil fuel companies.

By investing millions into concealing the science and spreading misinformation, these companies worked to confuse the public and seed doubt.

This episode features Naomi Oreskes, Professor at Harvard University and author of ‘Merchants of Doubt’; Author of ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, David Wallace-Wells and Writer and Podcast Host @maryheglar.

THE BREAKDOWN is a five-part film series on climate change: exploring how we got here, where we're headed, and what we can ALL do to make a difference.⁠
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This is an Earthrise production. To learn more about our work and how to take action on the climate crisis check out our Instagram and website below:

A huge thank-you to our creative partners at Studio 11 who helped bring this series to life:

Did you enjoy this episode, does it leave you with any questions? I'd really love to know your thoughts in the comments below. 👇🏼

[warrenpeece]

What they've been lying about is the fact that oil is abiotic, a product of the earth's magma, and far more plentiful than they say. This allows them to keep prices high and keep that moving target of peak oil condition the public to accept them!

[OldScientist]

There is no climate crisis. Globally the ACE index (accumulated cyclone energy) 1980-2021 shows no increasing trend. Global Hurricane Landfalls 1970-2021 (updated from Weinkle et al, 2012) shows no trend. Satellite data since 1980 shows a slight downward global trend for total hurricaine numbers with 2021 being a record low year. The IPCC reports in AR6, chapter 11, "The total global frequency of TC [tropical cyclone] formation will decrease or remain unchanged with increasing global warming (medium confidence)." Multidecadal variability in Atlantic hurricaines is most probably related to the AMO (Vecchi et al, 2021). NOAA data 1851-2021 shows no trend in number of hurricaine landfalls with the record high being 1886. What the data from NOAA SPC shows about tornados: EF1-EF5 (1954-2022) no trend; EF3-EF5 (most destructive) (1954-2022) 50% decline. No EF5s in US since 2013 (a record absence).
The Global Land Precipitation Anomaly from AR5 will disappoint with deviations from the average increasing by 0.2% per decade, but if you look at the actual data, it's just very variable over the decades.
Drought appears to be decreasing (Watts et al, 2018) measured by SPI 1901-2017.
Deaths from natural disasters are about 0.6% of what they were a century ago.
What else? Oh, deserts like the Sahara have shrunk considerably and the Earth has greened by 15% or more in a human lifetime (NASA).
On extinction the rate is very low: 900 known lost species for 2.1 million known species in 500 years. At that frequency it will take nearly 190, 000 years to reach 15% extinction i.e. a mass extinction.
There is no climate crisis.

[nxgrs]

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

—Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996) .

[magnuspeacock]

I feel like you can go even further back in time here.

The first scientific paper suggesting that CO2 could raise the temperature was all the way back in the 1890s, and "climate change" as a term dates back to the 1950s.

[nixelpixel]

Really great video! But could you please explain what *exactly* we can do? What are the exact strategies and actions that can be done? I have been thinking about this a lot and I simply don't understand how we can actually influence these companies and all these CEOs. Protests? Greta started so many but it seems that they just don't do anything. I dunno I just feel hopeless because it seems like all we’re doing is having a conversation but not really doing anything else. I would be really grateful if you shared your thoughts about this.

[shpresasulo]

Back in the 70s my dad and his friend used to live close to NYC. They used to try to build magnetically propelled cars instead of ones powered with fossil fuels. They ran out of money with their prototype and went to Ford offices to ask them about funding them and having Ford potentially manufacture the car. After they left the meeting, they decided to stop testing out their car. They were afraid they were going to be killed. Too many people in NYC were making money off of fossil fuels and their reputation meant that people knew they wouldn’t let anyone get in their way especially in NYC in the 70s-80s.

[mrjamescosgrove]

As a professional meteorologist, I must say that this series is fantastic. The story, visuals, and production quality are second to none. I was a part of your "What Do You Believe In?" video six years ago (I can't believe it's been that long) and spoke about climate change. It's great to see you continuing to use your platforms to highlight this issue and what we all can do to help.

[EinChris]

I am surprised to see the unit "meters" in a report of an US company of the 80ies. I was expecting someone like hand, feed, barleycorns or schorpeldorpels.

[bananeboum]

Incredible how this still isn't common knowledge

[sweetshayyshayy]

it's so prevalent and everyone ignores this THANK YOU FOR SHEDING LIGHT ON THIS MATTER!!! Wonderfully executed Jack, as always. much love xx

[SMITHNWOKOCHA]

Sad😭 We need to constantly engage and advocate against the end of fossil fuel.... before it destroys our planet. We have only one planet. No planet B

[tevapena]

If we honestly don't wake up and do something about this we'll regret it REALLY soon.

[graziaszczerbanov]

You all did it again!! Great work and thank you for continuing the much needed conversation (in a digestible and modern way) ! As someone who grew up on an island in the middle of the pacific, the relationship between humans and nature (although we believe nature is us and we are nature), is an important idea and way of life, that was pushed through out, and implemented into our primary and secondary education. So the conversation surrounding the conservation of our earth and all of its inhabitants, is not an unfamiliar concept to me. But what seemed like everything I watched, read and heard coming form the outside world (beyond our shoreline really), was as though the health of our oceans, our lands, our skies, and our living inhabitants, was unheard of, moreover non-existent. So for an “influencer”, and I use that word heavily (in every sense of the word), to use their platform to bring awareness- and not in the way of slapping a few facts and percentages in front of the untrained or inexperienced eye- is incredible. I know there are many channels on YouTube or other ‘social media’ venues that speak out against the destruction of our home and elongated genocide we commit against ourselves. And I know there are many that don’t make it so histrionic as that. But what you and your team do is so eloquently balance the role of truth-teller, without being a scaremonger (although it is fear for our future that often drives ones mind into change), and without sugar coating reality. It’s not just the production value, the editing, the writing, the story, the videography, the score even. It’s all of it, collectively triggering the truth, enlightening those who simply didn’t learn, inspiring those who knew not what to do, reinvigorating folks who lost their firebrand in the wake of our present day chaos and death, and waking up the rest of us. I’m not always so melodramatic about a YouTube video, but then again, it’s more than that! Thank you earthrise studio!

[javi]

I think that this video has a big flaw: you tell us to stop pointing at each other and start pointing to the big companies. Why not both? While the system is completely broken, we would need a radical change in (1) our diet habits (2) our consumerism (3) our daily lives. Lets suppose that we take action against these huge companies. We would cut a big chunk of the greenhouse effect emissions. However, there's still a decent part caused by our diets and our daily lives. Would everyone be ok with riding by bike to work? With travelling less since planes emit LOTS of gases? With eating meat a couple times per month instead of a couple times per week? With buying JUST what they need and not because they want to? I highly doubt that (and it saddens me quite a lot)

[MichaelTracyCA]

Realistically fossil fuel makes modern life possible. It supports a population closing in on 8 billion people. Without it we go back to the dark ages along with the plagues and the sickness and famine and the death and the 30 year life span. I think we can find win win solutions to address climate change. I think we could come up with ways to use less fossil fuels and limit their impact. What about replanting the Sahara? That area was green at one time. Do a better job of recycling. Create better more efficient mass transit systems. Use more local products. Accept longer shipping times if it is more efficient. We could all do some things that will help out individually. Walk more often? Shop less often? We could change our lives to live a little more simply and it could save us money and may improve our health too. We need win win solutions so that people want to do them. So that countries want to do them. Hopefully we can find ways to care for and take care of each other and our planet at the same time. A win for us, a win for nature/our planet too.

[havenmist]

No, they lied about Abiogenic oil. We have a limitless supply, thankfully.

[BorderOllie]

Thank you for all you do, Jack. You easily could have chosen to just be a regular ol' filmmaker or even a YouTuber, but you chose to fight for the planet. Thank you.

[lalaolive]

It blows my mind that there are still people out there that don’t believe in climate change… 😳

[ladyselenafelicitywhite]

Exxon (ExxonMobil) and the other top 100 companies have a lot to answer for. We need to put pressure on corporations and governments to take action.
Joining an environmental organisations, writing to your elected representatives, and signing petitions are all actions we can take.

[ChiefCabioch]

"Just hop in the Box it's for your own good....