This presentation entitled “Potential Enhanced Greenhouse Gas Effects: Status and Outlook” was made by Duane Levine, Exxon’s manager of science and strategy development, to Exxon’s Board of Directors on February 22, 1989. The presentation evidences Exxon’s shift from a leader in climate change research to an advocate against the dissemination of climate change information in the early 1990’s. Levine shares Exxon’s position that the greenhouse effect is surrounded by too much scientific uncertainty to be considered credible. Levine discusses the atmospheric systems at work in climate change in great detail, attempting to show that the greenhouse effect is caused by natural influences. However, he then goes on to discredit the scientific models used to predict the future impacts of climate change. Levine concludes by conceding that fossil fuels are the cause of the majority of C02 emissions, but also states that global temperatures have only risen slightly, “not enough to confirm” the greenhouse effect.

Levine also notes all of the current “players” in the greenhouse effect discussion, including U.S. Congress, the EPA, the Department of Energy and the United Nations.