Rockefeller: Controlling the game

Why have the founders of Exxon influenced climate research since the 1950s and helped shape climate policy since the 1980s?

Today my book Rockefeller: Controlling the Game is released internationally by Skyhorse Publishing.

Order the book here: www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510780217/rockefeller/

It has been a long journey. Almost exactly 15 years ago, as a PhD Candidate in Technology and Social Change at Linköping University, I started researching the politics behind climate change.

In the summer of 2008 I had decided to scrutinise the allegations against skeptical scientists, that they were paid by oil companies to discredit AGW (the theory of anthropological global warming). I found that these allegations were mostly unfounded, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. the Global Climate Coalition). I saw mainly a number of scientists who actually stood up for a genuinely scientific approach; who would not let themselves be bought by political trends and fat research grants. All skeptical scientists were not even critical of the AGW theory but only contended the degree of the human influence on climate, or the efficacy and wisdom of proposed mitigation policies. 

Upon further digging I instead, much to my surprise, found that oil companies were actually pumping money into projects which embraced Al Gore's doomsday message! And had done so since early 1960s! 

I asked myself where the threat of climate change really came from. When did it start? Alas, I found no answer. No one at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research (to which I was affiliated at the time) knew. There were many who did research on climate-related issues without having the faintest idea about the origin of their mission. But if the UN had declared that it is a crucial issue for humanity it must be true, seemed to be their reasoning; “everyone thinks so”. There were always references to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The debate was over.

I wanted answers. When no one else could provide me with those answers I realised I had to research the matter myself. I found documentation in a book published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where the development of the climate change issue was briefly described. A few key events were listed, which I used as a starting point: the International Geophysical Year 1957-58; a climate conference organised by the Conservation Foundation in 1963; the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972; and the Conferences in Villach, Austria in the first half of the 1980s. 

I found out which actors were involved, what documents they used, who financed them, and what policy suggestions they came up with to solve the alleged problem of climate change. 

I had initially planned on writing five pages but it landed on close to 50. The result was surprising and somewhat shocking. A clear pattern emerged. I knew it would be controversial to communicate these findings. They contradicted the views preached by the believers. Especially concerning the fact that a number of U.S. oil billionaires had gotten involved at an early stage. This was especially the case with most prominent oil family of them all. The founders of Standard Oil/Exxon. The Rockefellers.

I included the chapter in my doctoral thesis, which struck down like a bomb upon its publishing in December 2012.

In early 2016 I decided to do a more thorough investigation. It resulted in the first Swedish edition of Rockefeller, which was released on Easter Monday 22 April 2019. I asked a number of questions:

Why had the Rockefeller family funded and influenced climate research since the 1950s and helped shape climate policy since the 1980s? And why did Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2014 announce that they would divest from all of their fossil energy holdings? Why attack the very industry on which their immense wealth was founded? What was their motive in their own words – and how did it all begin?

The answers can be found in the book. Published one day after Easter Monday 2024, and available as hardback, ebook (kindle) and audiobook.