Exxon Knew Everything There Was to Know About Climate Change by the Mid-1980s—and Denied It

From the Nation:

Following separate lines of evidence and document trails, they’ve reached the same bombshell conclusion: ExxonMobil, the world’s largest and most powerful oil company, knew everything there was to know about climate change by the mid-1980s, and then spent the next few decades systematically funding climate denial and lying about the state of the science.

More here.

Global warming denial has been over the years an absolutely fascinating phenomenon to observe. Deniers are so absurd in their rejection of science that they make creationists seem somewhat reasonable--creationists, at least, have something playing the role of an epistemology, however problematic it may be; deniers have nothing, just a bunch of nyets and straw clutching. It's going to be really fun if this scandal takes off.

What will deniers do? Even the freaking oil companies know it's happening. They've known the entire time there's been any public discussion about it, which essentially closes the book on the whole thing. After all, to an enormous extent, this is all about the oil companies. Nonetheless, my best guess is that right-wingers will double down on their denial. That's what they always do. I mean, at this point, that's what they HAVE to do. Otherwise they're totally, utterly, irrevocably humiliated. The biggest chumps in history. Conned like the stupidest rubes at the county fair. That's unbearable to them. They will continue to deny.

Things will get pretty darned weird the further we go with this.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$