Now that people are beginning to understand that climate change is real, they are looking for a convenient culprit to blame. 350.0rg is especially zealous in blaming Exxon-Mobile for the crisis; after all, goes the narrative, "they knew the science" and hid it from us.
Of course, anyone paying attention has known the science for three decades now, and scientists have known the science since 1896. James Hansen testified before Congress in 1988. But this narrative that the evil corporation hid the truth from us so they could reap huge profits serves a number of purposes.First, it deflects any blame or attention from being placed on the economic system in which we are all embedded, and to varying degrees, complicit. The blame falls on a cabal of individuals.
None of this is to say Exxon shouldn't be punished and expropriated and re-tooled into something beneficial. Richard Smith thinks they should be bought out in order to avoid a class war we can't win. Maybe.
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