Excluding pollution from market calculations is quite profitable. The Fortune Global 500 lists five oil companies and four automobile manufacturers under the top ten. With profits of $36,130,000,000 ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) is the most profitable and by revenue the largest company in the world.
ExxonMobil has the highest market value of any publicly traded company in the world and makes a revenue per employee of more than $4mill, where for example Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) averages at $640,000.
Founded 1660 the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge is Britain’s top scientific institution. The History of the society is linked with popular scientists like Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, James Watson and Stephen Hawking.
The world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence sees empirical evidence as the basis of knowledge about the natural world.
September 4th, 2006: Senior Manager Bob Ward of the Royal Society writes an open letter to Director Nick Thomas of Esso UK about a misleading passage in the Corporate Citizenship Report:
While assessments such as those of the IPCC have expressed growing confidence that recent warming can be attributed to increases in greenhouse gases, these conclusions rely on expert judgment rather than objective, reproducible statistical methods.
Taken together, gaps in the scientific basis for theoretical climate models and the interplay of significant natural variability make it very difficult to determine objectively the extent to which recent climate changes might be the result of human actions. These gaps also make it difficult to predict the timing, extent, and consequences of future climate change.
Bob Wards then concludes:
These statements are not consistent with the scientific literature. It is very difficult to reconcile the misrepresentations of climate change science in these documents with ExxonMobil’s claim to be an industry leader.
At our meeting in July, I also told you of my concerns about the support that ExxonMobil has been giving to organisations that have been misforming the public about the science of climate change. You indicated that ExxonMobil would not be providing any further funding to these organisations. I would be grateful if you could let me know when ExxonMobil plans to carry out this pledge.
September 25, 2006, Vice President Kenneth P. Cohen, ExxonMobil, answers to Lord Rees of Lodlow the President of The Royal Society. He starts:
Recent actions and public statements by one or more representatives of the Royal Society have incorrectly and unfairly described our company and our approach to climate change.
The issues relating to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and climate change are complex and varying points of view exist on how to address the difficult, long-term technological and policy challenges.
Later then he highlights the $225 million ‘Global Climate Energy Project at Stanford University’ (GCEP) as the “largest privately founded long term research program of its type in the world” launched by ExxonMobil, Toyota, General Electric and Schlumberger in December 2002 and declares:
Our own objective, as it relates to climate change, is to seek solutions that protect the environment but do not threaten the aspirations of the billions of people who desire and deserve a better quality of life.
Some thoughts at the end:
ExxonMobil invested $100 million into GCEP, so over the last 4 years that equals to the earnings per year of around 6 employees the company engages. This fact is wether impressive nor convincing.
Are there solutions to climate change which threat aspirations of people?
Shouldn’t the sustainment of our environment rather considered as a constant challenge?
What would convince ExxonMobil to behave as a part of the solution and not of the problem?
Should scientists learn public relation to communicate the complexity of our nature and its tackling?
Why do climate researchers need fundings from the oil industry?
See also:
royalsoc.ac.uk: Guide to facts and fictions about climate change, pdf 17 pages
exxonmobil.com: Climate Change - our view, pdf 3 pages
Full letter to ExxonMobil (pdf), letter to Royal Society (pdf).
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