- [first lines]
- Narratress: Powerful storms, heat-waves, rising sea-levels, declining ice-caps, and drought are now manifesting across the planet. These are the signs of Global Warming that so alarmed Michael Mann, one of the world's leading climate scientists, who works at Penn State University. Mann is most famous for a chart he once drew.
- Jane Meyer (Journalist): Basically it was an exercise in "shoot the messenger," and that's what they did with Michael Mann.
- Michael Mann (Climatologist, Penn State): They have polluted our public discourse. They have skewed media coverage of the science of Climate Change. They have paid off politicians.
- Michael Mann (Climatologist, Penn State): To me it's not only a crime against humanity, it's a crime against the planet.
- Kathy Mulvey (Union of Concerned Scientists): From what we understand, the oil industry was *aware* of climate impacts and climate science *decades ago*. Exxon Mobile in particular was actually conducting cutting-edge climate science research, decades ago.
- Narratress: Exxon's scientist warned the company that this warming was caused by burning fossil fuels and the consequences would be catastrophic. But Exxon, along with other oil companies, hid this information from the public.
- Narratress: The oil industry embarked on a campaign of deception and disinformation.
- Narratress: The oil industry's campaign grew more intense in 1988, after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created and began documenting the rise of temperatures and its impact.
- Narratress: The oil industry used the same methods and even the very same public relations firms that tobacco companies had employed to spread doubt about the dangers of smoking.
- Narratress: Today the Kochs' political apparatus spends hundreds of millions of Dollars during the elections and puts out tens of thousands of TV advertisements to get their chosen Republicans elected.
- Narratress: All told, Koch money has gone to more than half of all Senators and nearly 40% of all Congressmen.
- Narratress: The Koch brothers also hold conclaves twice a year, inviting fellow billionaires and holding them up for cash.
- Jane Meyer (Journalist): That club grew from just a few members in 2003 to 400 or 450 of the richest, most conservative business men and women in America. And it has attracted all kinds of dignitaries, too.
- Charlie Gray (Senior Researcher, Greenpeace USA): The Kochs have gotten over 170 members of the House to take a pledge that they will never support any legislation that puts a tax on carbon.
- [last lines]
- Narratress: In early October 2016, seven of the world's top climate scientists warned the planet is on track to pass the 3.6°F threshold for dangerous Global Warming by 2050, only 34 years away.