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By the mid-1970s, the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon, was starting to wonder if climate change might finally be about to arrive on the political agenda and start messing with its business model.
到20世纪70年代中期，世界上最大的石油公司埃克森公司开始怀疑气候变化是否最终将被列入政治议程并开始扰乱其商业模式。
Maybe it was the reference in the Kissinger speech, or Schneider’s appearance on the Tonight Show.
也许是因为基辛格演讲中的提及，或者是施耐德在《今夜秀》中的出现。
Or maybe it was just that the year 2000 – the point after which scientists warned things were going to start to hurt – didn’t seem quite so far off.
或者也许只是因为2000年--科学家们警告说这一年负面影响将开始显现--看起来不再那么遥远了。
In the summer of 1977, James Black, one of the top science advisors at Exxon, made a presentation on the greenhouse effect to the company’s most senior staff.
1977年的夏天，埃克森公司的最高科学顾问之一詹姆斯-布莱克（James Black）向该公司的最高层员工做了一次关于温室效应的演讲。
This was a big deal: executives at that level would only want to know about science that would affect the bottom line.
这是一件大事：这个级别的高管只想了解会影响底线的科学。
The same year, the company hired Edward David Jr to head up their research labs.
同年，该公司聘请了小爱德华-大卫来领导他们的研究实验室。
He had learned about climate change while working as an advisor to Nixon.
他在担任尼克松的顾问时了解了气候变化的情况。
Under David, Exxon started to build a small research project on carbon dioxide.
在大卫的领导下，埃克森公司开始建立一个关于二氧化碳的小型研究项目。
Small, at least, by Exxon standards – at $1m a year, it was a good chunk of cash, just not much compared with the $300m a year the company spent on research at large.
至少，按照埃克森的标准是小型的--每年投入100万美元，这是一大笔现金，只是与该公司每年花在研究上的3亿美元相比，并不算多。
In December 1978, Henry Shaw, the scientist leading Exxon’s carbon dioxide research, wrote in a letter to David that Exxon “must develop a credible scientific team” one that can critically evaluate science that comes in on the topic, and “be able to carry bad news, if any, to the corporation”.
1978年12月，领导埃克森公司二氧化碳研究的科学家亨利-肖（Henry Shaw）在给大卫的信中写道，埃克森公司 "必须建立一个可靠的科学团队"，这个团队可以批判性地评估有关该主题的科学，并 "能够将坏消息（如果有的话）带到公司"。
Exxon fitted out one of its largest supertankers with custom-made instruments to do ocean research.
埃克森公司在其最大的一艘超级油轮上安装了定制的仪器来进行海洋研究。
Exxon wanted to be taken seriously as a credible player, so wanted leading scientists on board, and was willing to ensure they had scientific freedom.
埃克森公司希望被视为一个可靠的参与者，所以希望船上有一流的科学家，并愿意确保他们有科学自由。
Indeed, some of the work they undertook with oceanographer Taro Takahashi would be later used in a 2009 paper concluding that the oceans absorb only 20% of carbon dioxide emitted from human activities.
事实上，他们与海洋学家高桥太郎所做的一些工作后来被用于2009年发表的一篇论文中，结论是海洋只吸收了人类活动所排放的20%的二氧化碳。
This work earned Takahashi a Champion of the Earth prize from the UN.
这项工作为高桥赢得了联合国颁发的地球卫士奖。
In October 1982, David told a global warming conference financed by Exxon: “Few people doubt that the world has entered an energy transition, away from dependence upon fossil fuels and toward some mix of renewable resources that will not pose problems of CO2 accumulation.”
1982年10月，大卫在一个由埃克森公司资助的全球变暖会议上说：“很少有人怀疑，世界已经进入能源转型期，不再依赖化石燃料，而是转向某种不会造成二氧化碳积累问题的可再生资源组合。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
