And The Guardian reports a newly surfaced email shows oil giant ExxonMobil knew about climate change seven years before it became a public issue, but still spent millions of dollars to fund climate change denial for nearly 30 years. The email from Lenny Bernstein, Exxon’s former in-house climate expert, says the company first “got interested” in climate change in 1981. According to Greenpeace, Exxon spent more than $30 million on think tanks and researchers promoting climate change denial.