Editing Benjamin D. Santer (section)

== 1995 AR2 Chapter 8 ==
{{main|IPCC Second Assessment Report#Chapter 8: Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes}}

Santer was the convening Lead Author of Chapter 8 of 1995 [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|IPCC]] Working Group I Report (AR2 WGI), which addressed the [[global warming]] issue.<ref name=Marketplace/>

In a June 12, 1996 editorial-page piece in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', [[Frederick Seitz]], chair of the [[George C. Marshall Institute]] and [[Science and Environmental Policy Project]], claimed 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; specifically, they accused Santer of "scientific cleansing."<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Gupta | first1 = S. | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1218254109 | title = QnAs with Benjamin D. Santer | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 110 | issue = 1 | page = 3 | year = 2012 | pmid =  23197826| pmc = 3538190| doi-access = free }}</ref>

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."<ref>[http://www.ucar.edu/communications/quarterly/summer96/insert.html Special insert--An open letter to Ben Santer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060626011156/http://www.ucar.edu/communications/quarterly/summer96/insert.html |date=2006-06-26 }}. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Retrieved on 2010-09-14.</ref>