Benjamin D. Santer

Dr. Benjamin D. Santer (born June 3, 1955 in Washington, DC, United States) is a climate researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former researcher at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.^[1] He specializes mainly in statistical analysis of climate data sets, and detection/attribution of climate change forcings.

Honors

In 1998 Santer was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for research supporting the finding that human activity contributes to global warming. He has also received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and a Distinguished Scientist Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Norbert Gerbier/MUMM award from the World Meteorological Organization ^[2]. He ranks #12 amongst climate scientists in a 2002 assessment of most influential scientists.^[3]

1995 AR2 Chapter 8

Main article: Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change#Chapter_8

Santer was the convening Lead Author of Chapter 8 of 1995 IPCC Working Group I Report (AR2 WGI), which addressed the global warming issue.

Frederick Seitz, in a June 12, 1996 editorial-page piece in the Wall Street Journal complained that alterations made to Chapter 8 of the 1995 IPCC report were made to "deceive policy makers and the public into believing that the scientific evidence shows human activities are causing global warming." Similar charges were made by the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a consortium of industry interests.

Santer and 40 other scientists responded to the Wall Street Journal that all IPCC procedural rules were followed, and that IPCC procedures required changes to the draft in response to comments from governments, individual scientists, and non-governmental organizations. They stated that the pre- and post-Madrid versions of Chapter 8 were equally cautious in their statements; that roughly 20% of Chapter 8 is devoted to the discussion of uncertainties in estimates of natural climate variability and the expected signal due to human activities; and that both versions of the chapter reached the same conclusion: "Taken together, these results point towards a human influence on climate."^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Pearce, Fred, The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming, (2010) Guardian Books, ISBN: 978-0-85265-229-9, p. XI.
2. ^ Dr. Ben Santer
3. ^ Global Warming
4. ^ Special insert--An open letter to Ben Santer. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Retrieved on 2010-09-14.

References

• Santer, BD, Wigley, TML, Barnett TP, and Anyamba, E (1995). Detection of climate change and attribution of causes, in Houghton, JT et al.. Climate Change 1995, Cambridge Univ. Press.
• "Benjamin David Santer." Marquis Who's Who TM. Marquis Who's Who, 2009. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: K2017060303. Fee. Accessed 2009-10-22 via Fairfax County Public Library.

External links

• The Many Travails of Ben Santer, Paul D. Thacker, Environmental Science & Technology
• 2002 Interview
• Communication between Santer and others about Global Warming
• National Energy Research Science Computer Center article on Santer
• This is of his 2011 papers about the statistics of global temperature data

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Name	Santer, Benjamin
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Date of birth	June 3, 1955
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