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ARCHIVE: WSJ: Scientist’s Findings Casts Doubts on Global Warming Theories (Dominionization),

WSJ: Scientist’s Findings Casts Doubts on Global Warming Theories

Exxon Mobil Uses Scientist's Data As Evidence of Natural Warming
By Thaddeus Herrick
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- For much of his 30-year career, oceanographer Lloyd
Keigwin yearned to publish something groundbreaking, a paper that would
win him the recognition of his fellow marine geologists.

His wish came true in 1996 with his pioneering research on ocean
temperatures and climate, which gave scientists a glimpse of natural
warming and cooling patterns in the recent past.

But his data made an even bigger splash with global-warming skeptics --
including oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. -- who cited his work on Web sites
and other venues as evidence that natural climate change, rather than
human activity, is causing the Earth to warm.

Exxon Mobil used Dr. Keigwin's research in an ad titled "Unsettled
Science," which appeared last spring in the New York Times and The Wall
Street Journal. Two months later, the company's chairman and chief
executive officer, Lee Raymond, referred to Dr. Keigwin's work at the
Exxon Mobil annual meeting in Dallas as evidence that the Earth is warming
for natural reasons.

"It's a shame," says Dr. Keigwin, a senior scientist at Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution here on Cape Cod, who believes humans may be
aggravating current warming trends. "The implication is that these data
show we don't need to worry about global warming."

A group of Exxon Mobil shareh olders agree. Made up of religious groups
including the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order in Milwaukee
and the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, N.J., the shareholders say Exxon
Mobil is deliberately using inaccurate statements to mislead stockholders
and the public about the impact of humans and fossil fuels on the Earth's
temperature.

At the Exxon Mobil annual meeting in May, the group will ask other
stockholders to approve a resolution that calls on the company to link
executive compensation to environmental progress and better handling of
Exxon Mobil's environmental liabilities. The oil concern has come under
fire for violations of the Clear Air Act and toxic discharges, as well as
the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

Exxon Mobil says it used Dr. Keigwin's research responsibly. "We thought
it useful in pointing out how unsettled the whole question is," says Frank
Sprow, vice president, environment and safety. The objective was "not to
use the data as a justification for inaction, but rather for the right
kind of action."

Dr. Keigwin, 54 years old, says he couldn't have imagined he would be at
the center of such a battle when he began his work in the North Atlantic
more than a decade ago.

Seeking to learn more about ocean temperatures and climate in recent
centuries, he focused on an underwater plateau in the Sargasso Sea known
as the Bermuda rise. The area turned out to be one of the few places on
the sea floor where sediment accumulates fast enough to allow
oceanographers a look at the past. By analyzing fossils in the sediment,
Dr. Keigwin was able to reconstruct sea-surface temperatures in the open
ocean for the past 3,000 years.

The data, which was published in the journal Science, showed that the
surface temperature of the Sargasso Sea has been much colder and much
warmer in previous centuries than today -- suggesting natural patterns of
warming and cooling. But Dr. Keigwin warns that the results aren't
representative of the Earth as a whole. He says the importance of his
research isn't in the data per se, but rather that marine geologists can
undertake such a study at all.

Still, references to his work have appeared in books and on Web sites of
global-warming skeptics, on the opinion pages of major newspapers and in
political cartoons lampooning global-warming activists.

Dr. Keigwin says he was annoyed by how the data were being used, but adds
that "I knew I was playing with fire." After Exxon Mobil ran its ad
without consulting him about his data, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution invited the company to visit to discuss the ocean and climate.
Exxon Mobil never responded. "It was one of those things on the to-do
list," says Brian Flannery, science, strategy and programs manager in
Exxon Mobil's safety, health and environment department and a climate
specialist.

Drs. Sprow and Flannery finally went to Woods Hole in February to give a
talk, but only after an environmental group working with the religious
Exxon Mobil shareholders had posted a fiery letter from Dr. Keigwin on its
Web site. In the letter, which he wrote in response to a query from the
group, Dr. Keigwin accused Exxon Mobil of exploiting his data for
political purposes.

Exxon Mobil acknowledges that global warming may pose long-term risks, but
urges a go-slow approach. The Irving, Texas, company opposes the Kyoto
Protocol, an international pact that calls for the U.S. to reduce
greenhouse-gas emissions by 7% from their 1990 level, beginning in 2008.
Instead, Exxon Mobil supports investment in low-emissions power technology
such as fuel cells.

Still, the company is increasingly isolated on the issue, not only from
the international scientific community but also from European competitors
BP Amoco PLC and Royal Dutch/Shell Group , both of which largely accept
the premise that the Earth is warming because of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases.

Dr. Keigwin maintains that Exxon Mobil's use of his data is inappropriate.
But he wants to put the issue behind him to focus on his new project:
trying to determine what's causing a substantial warming in the Atlantic
Ocean off Nova Scotia. Though he hasn't reached a conclusion, he gives a
nod to global-warming concerns, saying "I'd take a guess."

Sun Jul 22