As big climate trial starts, Exxon buys Google ads to defend itself

Exxon began its trial — for allegedly deceiving its investors about the sizable financial risks posed by climate change — at the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The deep-pocketed oil behemoth, which has vast oil reserves in Brazil, Canada, Texas, Guyana, Malaysia, the Netherlands and beyond, is in legal trouble, according to environmental law experts. There's compelling evidence the Exxon Mobil Corporation defrauded its investors, and at minimum, the company will be exposed to deep public scrutiny as the trial develops. "We’re seeing the company for the first time confronted in open courts with the evidence of its climate deception," Carroll Muffett, the president of the Center for International Environmental Law, told Mashable on Monday.

To combat the terrible publicity associated with fraud allegations, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the company strategically purchased ads from Google for people searching for the climate trial. Exxon has specifically targeted keyword searches like "Exxon climate trial," "Exxon knew," and "Exxon climate change." (Mashable spotted the ads on Oct. 18 and the morning and afternoon of Oct. 22.)

Though the oil giant's scientists have understood the consequences of emitting prodigious amounts of carbon into the atmosphere since the 1950s, Exxon began to sow doubt about climate science in the 1980s. This latest Google ad campaign is a continuation of Exxon's decades-long efforts to influence the public's perception of climate change.

"You would totally expect them to do that," said John Cook, a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.

"It's striking that they're using the same tactics," added Cook, who on Monday released a new report about how fossil fuel companies have misled people, notably Americans, about the risks posed by climate change.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Google ads purchased by Exxon promote the link "ExxonMobil Don't be Misled | Understanding the Facts," which leads to a webpage, updated on Tuesday, Oct. 22, that first shows the viewer a pop-up box addressing the trial.

It's a message crafted by Exxon's PR team. Exxon recently sent the identical missive to Mashable, the Associated Press, and other media that inquired about the trial. "The New York Attorney General’s allegations are false," Exxon's message reads. "We tell investors through regular disclosures how the company accounts for risks associated with climate change. We are confident in the facts and look forward to seeing our company exonerated in court."

The opening note then leads to a detailed webpage that seeks to discredit reports, research, and media that found Exxon has actively mislead the public on the dangers posed by climate change, which the corporation lumps together as the "#exxonknew campaign." Atop the webpage, Exxon cites "flawed academic reports" have been used to "misrepresent" company research on climate change and other policy.

"When you scan this page, the bulk of it is attacking anyone who promotes the 'Exxon knew' narrative," noted Cook. But Exxon isn't telling the whole story.

"They gloss over the fact that they funded climate misinformation," said Cook.

For example, in 2004 Exxon paid for an ad in The New York Times entitled "Unsettled Science." Cook and other researchers have illustrated how Exxon's shrewdly-composed ad casts doubt on climate science and the scientific consensus that amassing carbon in the atmosphere is stoking global climate change. (Today, Exxon still pays for promotional ads in The New York Times that intend to green the company's image.)

There's been a strong consensus since the late 1990s that human activity has caused climate change, according to climate scientists. (Experts who aren't climate scientists will sometimes disagree, sometimes with profoundly silly arguments).

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Exxon may despise the greater #exxonknew campaign, which has blossomed not just on social media, but is a now a widely-used term used to describe a past that the oil company can't escape: Exxon's scientists did know, sometimes with astonishing accuracy, that burning fossil fuels would destabilize the climate. The climate has indeed begun to destabilize, though the consequences are expected to grow increasingly worse.

Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions are now skyrocketing. CO2 levels haven't been this high in at least 800,000 years — though more likely millions of years. What's more, carbon levels are now rising at rates that are unprecedented in both the geologic and historic record.

The planet's carbon emissions will likely keep rising for at least another decade, unless unprecedented efforts are made to dramatically and promptly slash carbon emissions globally. This would, however, mean significant financial losses and stranded assets for oil giants like Exxon.

So the company is now buying Google ads to defend its public perception, and business.

"Disinformation about climate change has a straightforward purpose — to block action on climate change," Cook's new report reads. "In America, it has largely succeeded, with policies to mitigate climate change stymied or delayed for decades."