The fossil fuel companies knew their product was harmful years before the words global warming were even part of the zeitgeist. They could have begun planning for the future in a responsible way. Instead they spent millions of dollars every year spreading lies, misinformation, doubt, and turning it into a political wedge issue.

Probably 40% of Americans now live inside of a subculture that would ridicule them if they did decide to accept the science and take it seriously and that is a direct consequence of decades and hundreds of millions of dollars of concerted effort on the part of the industry.