Assessing early oil industry awareness of the impacts of fossil fuels on coral reefs using a novel AI agent

Journal article : Comment

Global warming threatens to eradicate Earth’s tropical corals. As legal interventions addressing climate change expand, fossil fuel companies’ historical awareness of their products’ damaging effects is increasingly important. We searched historical documents using a large-language-model-based agent, finding that carbon majors were aware by the 1980s of prospective impacts of fossil fuels on corals from ocean acidification, marine heatwaves, sea-level rise, and intensified storms and later funded efforts downplaying such impacts.

Authors: Franta, B; Patakota, M; Rutherford, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: npj Ocean Sustainability
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 32
• Publication date: 2026-06-17
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-26
• DOI: 10.1038/s44183-026-00215-z
• EISSN: 2731-426X
• ISSN: 2731-426X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Coral reef; Environmental issues with coral reefs; Coral bleaching; Reef; Coral reef protection; Aquaculture of coral; Resilience of coral reefs; Coral
• Subtype: Comment