Shareholder activism can be a lonely struggle.

Waged for the most part by corporate outsiders—Roman Catholic nuns, state and union pension funds, or maverick lawyers—campaigns about executive pay or labor conditions abroad are often met with indifference from the public and derision or condescension from corporate executives.

The Rockefellers are rich, of course, and the rich are different. So their shareholder campaign attracted a lot of attention when they launched it today in the bright penthouse of Le Parker Meridien hotel in New York.

There, before a bevy of reporters and cameras and a table laden with fruits, coffee, pastries, and croissants, two descendants of John D. Rockefeller laid out in patrician accents their case for changes at Exxon Mobil in its current incarnation.

A majority of Rockefeller family members support four resolutions on global climate change and corporate governance that will go before Exxon Mobil shareholders at their annual meeting in Dallas next month.

It is not just the Rockefeller name that is attracting interest but the back-to-the-future aspect of the campaign. Exxon Mobil is a descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the first modern multinational, founded in 1870.

"We almost define the term long-term investor," said Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, a great-granddaughter of the company's founder and daughter of David Rockefeller, the former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank.

The name of John D. is being invoked to press Exxon Mobil to devote more resources to finding energy alternatives to oil and natural gas, for the long-term benefit of the company and shareholders, as well as for the environment.

Goodwin, who is co-director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, noted that John D. Rockefeller's genius was in recognizing kerosene as the "alternative energy" of the 19th century, replacing whale oil.

Exxon, she said, needs to "get back to its strong historical roots." (Although presumably that does not include fixing prices with railroads or shooting at striking workers.)

"Exxon Mobil is profiting in the short term from investments and decisions made many years ago and by focusing on a narrow path that ignores the rapidly shifting energy landscape around the world, including developing nations," she said.