The Silencing Power of Big Oil's Climate Lies

"By the 1970s, their own scientists were telling senior management that burning fossil fuels would threaten the survival of civilization. But the industry chose to hide the truth anyway, spending millions of dollars on advertising, phony research, and other forms of propaganda to convince the public, government officials, and the press there was no cause for alarm."

"The climate emergency has long posed a vexing PR problem for the fossil fuel industry. Burning oil, gas, and coal is the primary driver of global temperature rise and the heat waves, droughts, storms, and the rising seas that follow. It's only natural that people threatened by those impacts would resent the companies most responsible for causing them."

The fossil fuel industry has long faced a public relations crisis due to its role in driving climate change. Major companies like BP and ExxonMobil have historically employed deceptive strategies to deflect responsibility and public anger. For decades, despite internal scientific evidence confirming climate risks, these companies funded advertising and propaganda campaigns to deny climate concerns. As public awareness and concern about climate change have grown, the industry's messaging strategies have evolved beyond outright denial to more sophisticated approaches. A Clean Creatives report analyzing 1,859 public-facing messages reveals how fossil fuel companies continue adapting their PR tactics to maintain influence over media narratives and public perception.

Read at The Nation