Fossil fuel companies knowingly obscure climate science rather than believe their denial

Evidence

ExxonMobil and its corporate cousins in the fossil fuel industry have concrete interests to defend: they fear “stranded assets”—oil and gas in the ground that would be unmarketable or less valuable if limits were imposed on fossil fuel production. In service to profitability, they have tried to shape public policy by distorting the public’s understanding of the threat posed by climate change. They are engaged in an intentional misinformation campaign. They understand the scientific consensus but are trying to obscure it. They do not have a compromised relation to reality; they are corrupt. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 247

Categorization

• XREF: The stranded-assets motive ties to transition-risk literature in climate finance and to Rosenblum’s contrast between corruption and compromised reality. — connects to: ExxonMobil planned Arctic drilling to exploit the very melting its funded skeptics denied — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 73; Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71; Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Corporations manufacture doubt as a deliberate product to block climate action #corroborates (0.90) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 108
• Conspiracist climate denial rejects expertise itself, unlike corporate misinformation #expands (0.88) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 249
• Climate denial trades on manufactured doubt, not persuasion of scientists #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 927
• Corporate climate deniers are corrupt, not confused about reality #corroborates (0.85)
• The fossil fuel industry replicated the tobacco denial playbook #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 246
• Corporate climate misinformation differs categorically from conspiracist fabulation #expands (0.82) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 245
• The tobacco industry’s PR strategy manufactured doubt about EPA science #exemplifies (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1670
• Think tanks deliberately manufacture public doubt about settled science to shape policy #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 626
• Chemical industry figures consciously planned benefit-framing propaganda to defuse hazard concerns #exemplifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1779