User:Viriditas/Chapter 8 controversy

The Chapter 8 controversy is part of the global warming conspiracy discourse and is used by climate skeptics to challenge the veracity of anthropogenic climate change. The controversy originally took place in the media, not in the scientific literature. It began in June 1996, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relesed their Second Assessment Report (1995). Chapter 8 of the report was concerned with the science of climate change. According to science historian Naomi Oreskes, when the IPCC released their report, the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a coalition of American business interests that oppose climate change mitigation, alleged that the lead author of Chapter 8, Benjamin D. Santer, made "unauthorized" changes that eliminated the uncertainty of global warming.

Shortly after the GCC released their IPCC critique and just weeks before COP 2, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Geneva, Switzerland‎, physicist Frederick Seitz of the George C. Marshall Institute wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal decrying the accuracy of the science in the IPCC report. Santer, an atmospheric scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and John Houghton, co-chair of the IPCC, dismissed the allegations as unfounded. According to Santer, the efforts of the GCC and other critics appeared to be a "skillful campaign to discredit the IPCC, me and my reputation as a scientist."

Background
In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their first report, noting uncertainty with regards to the role and importance of anthropogenic climate change. The second IPCC report, developed in 1995 and released in 1996, changed this conclusion, saying that while natural variability could explain observed temperature changes, "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". As a result, leaders around the world began discussing plans to control the use of fossil fuels and to replace them with cleaner energy sources like renewable energy.

Campaign
In the wake of the controversy, a letter writing campaign targeted the United States Congress and the United States Department of Energy, asking Congress to start an investigation into the incident and requesting that the Energy Department stop funding the LLNL, Santer's workplace.

Analysis
Oreskes concludes that Santer did not make any unauthorized changes to the IPCC report, and that Santer's modifications were made "in response to peer review". "He was doing what every scientist is expected to do - and what IPCC rules required him to do - accepting criticism and using it to make the science clearer".

Use
The Chapter 8 controversy is commonly used by climate skeptics to challenge the accuracy of the IPCC report and the basis of anthropogenic climate change.