10 Business
10 Business March 2 2023 | World and Press Exxon ‘predicted climate crisis but deceived public’ CLIMATE CHANGE Scientists at ExxonMobil accurately forecast that fossil fuels would lead to about 0.2C of global warming per decade. Waitrose cans mini wine bottles in carbon-cutting measure Anti-Exxon protesters outside the New York State Supreme Court in 2019. | Photo: Angela Weiss/ Getty Images By Rhys Blakely 1 SCIENTISTS at ExxonMobil predicted global warming with “startling accuracy” decades ago, only for the oil company’s executives to deny in public that fossil fuels were altering the climate, a study has suggested. 2 The research could prove difficult for ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil and gas businesses, as pressure groups allege that it and several of its industry peers engaged in “public deception campaigns” that went on for many years. The European Parliament and the US Congress have held hearings on the issue, while dozens of cities, counties, and states in the United States are suing oil and gas companies for allegedly spreading misinformation about the impact of fossil fuels. 3 Claims that Exxon has known about the threat of global warming since the seventies are not new. However, previous research focused on inconsistencies between its internal communications and external rhetoric on climate change. The new study, published yesterday, is the first to look in detail at predictions of how much and how quickly the climate would change, made by ExxonMobil staff between 1977 and 2003. 4 It concludes that they accurately forecast that fossil fuels would lead to about 0.2C of global warming per decade. They also predicted that the impacts would be detectable by 2000, which they were. 5 In public, however, the oil company insisted that climate change science was uncertain. In 2000, Lee Raymond, the Exxon- Mobil chief executive at that time, wrote in a report: “[We] do not now have a sufficient scientific understanding of climate change to make reasonable predictions and/or justify drastic measures.” By 2013, Raymond had been replaced as chief executive by Rex Tillerson, who said in that year that there were “uncertainties around the climate ... [about] what the principal drivers of climate change are”. 6 The new study was led by Geoffrey Supran, who was at Harvard when the work was done but has just moved to the University of Miami. He said: “Our analysis shows that ExxonMobil’s own data contradicted its public statements, which included exaggerating uncertainties, criticising climate models ... and feigning ignorance about when, or if, human-caused global warming would be measurable.” 7 The company also promoted the false idea that the scientific consensus in the seventies had been that the world was heading for a new Ice Age. The aim, Supran alleges, was to depict scientists as guilty of promoting flawed theories built on flimsy evidence. This meant the company also stayed silent on the risk of fossil fuel assets becoming “stranded” if the world were to shift towards greener forms of energy. 8 Supran’s Harvard study also found that ExxonMobil – which was known as Exxon before its merger with Mobil Oil Corp in 1999 – also “correctly rejected the prospect of a coming Ice Age ... and reasonably estimated the ‘carbon budget’ [how much carbon could be emitted] for holding warming below 2C. On each of these points, however, the company’s public statements about climate science contradicted its own scientific data.” 9 Supran and his co-authors add: “Our findings demonstrate that ExxonMobil didn’t just know ‘something’ about global warming decades ago, they knew as much as academic and government scientists knew. But whereas those scientists worked to communicate what they knew, ExxonMobil worked to deny it.” … © The Times, London/News Licensing This article originally appeared in The Times, London. | Photo: Tyler Nix/Unsplash RETAIL By Sarah Butler 1 WAITROSE is canning the mini wine bottle in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of takeaway drinks. The supermarket plans to switch all of its 187ml glass wine bottles – except those containing champagne, prosecco, cava, and rioja because of restrictions imposed by those particular appellations – to aluminium cans by next week. The cans will come in 187ml, 200ml, and 250ml sizes. 2 The move to “vin in a tin” is expected to save more than 300 tonnes of glass packaging and will halve the carbon footprint per drink because the recyclable cans require less energy to transport, as they are lighter and take up less space than bottles. The move comes after the popularisation of “gin in a tin” and other canned cocktails, particularly during the pandemic lockdowns, which prompted outdoor drinking and picnics. 3 Drinks makers have been seeking alternative packaging because the price of glass has almost tripled since the start of the pandemic amid increased demand for other material besides plastic packaging. The price of aluminium has also risen, but by about a third, according to data from letsrecycle.com. Waitrose said it would not necessarily make cost savings from the policy shift, as it cost more to fill a can. … 4 In the UK, about threequarters of aluminium cans and glass bottles are recycled, mostly through local authority kerbside collections, according to the government. While cans and bottles can be infinitely recyclable (with glass sorting plants now able to ensure the material can be used to make new bottles, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme), in the past a large proportion of glass waste was used for building aggregate. 5 Scotland and Wales plan to include glass bottles in deposit return schemes expected to launch this summer and next year respectively, but the UK government said this would not be so for the English and Northern Ireland versions, which will focus on plastic bottles. © 2023 Guardian News and Media Ltd 21./22. April 2023 CGM ARENA Koblenz Freitag, 09 bis 14 Uhr Samstag, 10 bis 15 Uhr www.azubitage.de EINTRITT FREI 0 – 1 TO DECEIVEtäuschen; s.w.u. deception Täuschung — startling erstaunlich — executives Führungsetage; s.w.u. chief executive Chef(in) — to alter verändern 2 pressure group Interessengruppe — to allege behaupten; s.w.u. allegedly angeblich — industry peer Wettbewerber — to engage in betreiben — hearing Anhörung — county (AE) Landkreis — to sue verklagen — misinformation falsche Information(en) 3 – 6 inconsistencies Widersprüche — to conclude zu dem Schluss kommen — detectable erkennbar — driver Ursache — to contradict widersprechen — to exaggerate übertreiben — to feign vortäuschen — ignorance Unwissenheit 7 – 9 to promote verbreiten — to depict darstellen — flawed fehlerhaft — flimsy schwach — assets Vermögenswerte — stranded wertlos — to shift to umstellen auf — merger Fusion — prospect Aussicht — to emit ausstoßen 0 – 2 TO CAN abschaffen; s.w.u. canned in Dosen — carbon-cutting measure Maßnahme zur CO 2 -Reduzierung — restriction Einschränkung — … imposed by bedingt durch … (to i. auferlegen) — appellation Bezeichnung; h.: Produkt — move Schritt — packaging Verpackung — to halve halbieren — popularisation Verbreitung — to prompt Anlass geben zu 3 – 5 to triple s. verdreifachen — amid angesichts — policy shift Umstellung — local authority kommunal — kerbside collection(s) Müllabfuhr — infinitely unendlich — glass sorting plant Glasrecyclingbetrieb — building aggregate Zuschlagstoff — deposit return scheme Pfandsystem
World and Press | March 2 2023 Business 11 Lying for the job – is it worth the risk? RÉSUMÉS A House representative is under investigation from prosecutors for fabricating large parts of his biography. mit Übungsmaterial By Laura Rodríguez Presa | Infographic: Statista 1 WHEN LIZETTE GARCIA was 17, she felt she had little choice but to lie on her résumé to get jobs that would provide enough money to support her son and help her mother. She would embellish it with false details about her education level and the time she had spent at previous jobs. But Garcia needed the money, and she was committed to learning the craft required wherever she landed, said the now-32- year-old mother. 2 Though it was stressful fearing she would get caught, she does not regret padding her résumé because, thanks to those jobs at retail stores and banks and in car sales, she was able to support her son and attend college. Now an independent insurance agent, Garcia, of Palatine, values education but strongly believes that some companies fail to recognize the person’s commitment and desire to work that could make them a good candidate for the positions offered. While Garcia is not exactly proud to have lied, “at least my job did not affect the lives of thousands of people,” she said. Never a political position, she laughed. 3 As U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos of New York faces wrath from the public and is under investigation from Long Island prosecutors for what’s arguably one of the most notorious cases of professional deception in House history, calls for him to step down grow as the depth of his lies gets deeper. However, the consequences for his deception remain uncertain. Despite the public pressure, Santos has not shown interest in leaving his newly elected position, and Republican leaders have remained silent on the controversy. 4 But for those working outside the political world, ramifications for résumé lies are often swift and absolute, labor experts say. Employees who get caught tend to U.S. Rep. George Santos, who famously lied on his résumé, observes the House vote for speaker. | Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images get terminated immediately, said Amy Moor Gaylord, a labor employment attorney in Chicago who has been practicing for 25 years. “Most companies have some type of policy that says falsification of documentation is grounds for termination,” she said. 5 According to a survey conducted by StandOut CV in the fall of 2022, more than 50% of Americans have fattened up their résumés at least once, with most lying about their previous work experience, skills, college degree, and personal details. The survey found that those in the manufacturing industry tend to lie more, followed by health care workers. And men tend to alter their résumés more often than women. 6 But Enrique Anguiano, a former recruiter from the Chicago area and now a professional résumé writer, said that falsehoods tend to be more embellishments than lies, such as adding the word “proficient” to a skill on a résumé when the job candidate is not. And the subtlety is the reason why many companies may fail to notice. “Typically, people don’t lie about where they went to school or what degree they completed – those are bigger than just a white lie – and they understand the liability behind that,” he said. 7 Gaylord puts it more bluntly. “It would surprise me that people would do it now because it is so easy to Google somebody or run a background check and find these things out,” Gaylord said. According to the investigation by ‘The New York Times,’ Santos’s alleged discrepancies include employers and colleges that have “no record” of him. There’s also no information about his nonprofit animal rescue, and more. … 8 Louise Kursmark, a nationally based master résumé writer and executive career consultant, said that though it’s rare when people feel the need to lie in their résumés, it is because they “don’t feel (like they’re) enough.” “The reason people are tempted to lie on their résumé is that they don’t think the genuine things that they have to offer are enough,” Kursmark said. 9 Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of political science with the University of Illinois in Springfield, said consequences for lying can be most severe for public officials during the campaign season. “If you get caught with a significant lie early in the campaign, it could kill your campaign,” Redfield said. “If you end up with significant embellishments but not fabrications, it may or may not have a consequence electorally.” But for someone who is already elected, Redfield said getting caught fibbing isn’t a clear-cut end. … 10 The consequences are different from those from the corporate world, he said. A manager or boss can find out about a discrepancy in an employee’s qualifications and can decide to fire that person, Redfield said, but human resources and unions could also come into play in the corporate world and potentially offer some sort of protection. 11 Anguiano, who worked as a recruiter for different companies for more than a decade, said that during granular interviews with some of the job seekers, he would find that some lied about their background and inflated the experience. “I had to be very diligent and dig into anything that looked ambiguous in a résumé because the liability on my end was too much to risk,” Anguiano said. © 2023 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Glossar Neu! Brexit glossary Lerne wichtige Vokabeln zum Thema Brexit. Damit du das Englisch abitur sicher in der Tasche hast! PDF Download je nur ¤ 2,50 www.sprachzeitungen.de 0 – 2 RÉSUMÉLebenslauf — prosecutors Staatsanwaltschaft — to fabricate erfinden; s.w.u. fabrication Lüge — to embellish ausschmücken; s.w.u. embellishment — committed entschlossen; s.w.u. commitment — craft (fig) Handwerk — to pad (fig) aufhübschen — retail store Einzelhandelsgeschäft — insurance agent Versicherungsvertreter(in) 3 – 4 ...-elect neu gewählte(r) — wrath Zorn — arguably wohl — notorious berüchtigt — deception Betrug — to step down zurücktreten — ramifications Folgen — swift schnell — labor Arbeits- — to terminate kündigen; s.w.u. termination — labor employment attorney Anwalt/Anwältin für Arbeitsrecht — falsification Fälschung — grounds Grund 5 – 6 fall (AE) Herbst — to fatten up (fig) aufmotzen — manufacturing industry verarbeitendes Gewerbe — falsehood Unwahrheit — proficient kompetent — subtlety Subtilität; Feinheit — white lie (fig) harmlose Lüge — liability Verantwortung 7 – 8 bluntly direkt — to run a background check jds. Angaben überprüfen — alleged mutmaßlich — discrepancy Unstimmigkeit — nonprofit gemeinnützig — executive career consultant Karriereberater(in) für Führungskräfte — genuine echt 9 – 10 public official Amtsträger(in) — campaign season Wahlkampf — electorally in Bezug auf die Wahlen — to fib (coll) schwindeln — clear-cut klar — corporate Unternehmens- — human resources Personalabteilung(en) — union Gewerkschaft 11 granular eingehend — to inflate (fig) übertreiben — diligent sorgfältig — to dig into (fig) überprüfen — ambiguous unklar
