In the late 1970s corporate leaders of the oil giant Exxon received a blunt assessment: there was scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels was releasing enough carbon to influence the global climate, and that high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere posed a risk to humanity. Exxon responded quickly, launching research projects to understand how fossil fuels were influencing the climate, but a month’s long investigation by the Pulitzer prize-winning news organisation InsideClimate News describes how the company shifted away from that groundbreaking research and began to argue that the science on climate change was “inconclusive.” David Hasemyer was part of a team of reporters who investigated the company. Their series is Exxon: The Road Not Taken.