Exxon had their own state of the art climate science department. Way back in 1982 they accurately predicted that in 2020 co2 would be around 415ppm and there would be about 1C of warming.

At a time when the average person had never even heard of global warming Exxon had already confirmed their product was irreversibly damaging the planet and shortly thereafter shuttered their science program and began spending millions a year funding public influence campaigns to sew doubt misinformation, and turn the issue into a political wedge.

Of course the companies are vastly more culpable than the public. The average person is far too busy trying to keep their lives in order to educate themselves on a highly complicated scientific issue. Especially when much of the population lives within a subculture that would turn on them and ridicule them if they did look into the issue deeply because the fossil fuel PR machine managed to co-opt all of their political and cultural leaders.

The corporations had the information, the clarity, and the opportunity to do the right thing. Instead they chose to poison the discourse and stymie progress any way they could.

edit: Exxon accurately predicted 1C of warming by 2020 not 2C