Warned of ‘massive’ climate-led extinction, a US energy firm funded crisis denial ads

Southern Company spent $62.1m over the years to deny the impact of fossil fuel combustion on climate crisis

In 1980, a report circulated to a division of one of the biggest coal-burning utilities in the US warned that fossil fuel combustion" was rapidly warming the atmosphere and could cause a massive extinction of plant and animal species" along with a 5 to 6-meter rise in sea level" across the world.

Several years later an official at the utility co-chaired a conference where scientific researchers fretted that as we continue to exploit the vast deposits of fossil fuels" it could cause disruptive climate changes".