Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

The narrator describes Ben Santer, “one of the world’s most distinguished scientists” (1), as someone who is unassuming and moderate in every aspect—politics, lifestyle, etc. For the past twenty years, Santer has worked to “fingerprint” changes in the atmosphere in order to prove global climate change: “Natural climate variation leaves different patterns and traces than warming caused by greenhouse gases” (1), and Santer works to locate these discrepancies. Because the troposphere—the layer of atmosphere closest to earth—is warming while the stratosphere—the atmospheric layer further away from earth—is cooling, Santer has concluded that greenhouse gases are responsible for global climate change, not the Sun as other scientists have postulated. In fact, the troposphere is actually becoming larger as a result of this warming, an idea which confuses many people who are not scientists and affects many aspects of American life, including laws. Santer’s conclusion is not popular, and he has been attacked for his scientific conclusions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988 “in response to early warnings about global warming” (2). As early as 1965, scientists warned lawmakers and politicians about the human impact on climate. In 1995, Ben Santer authored a report issued by the IPCC which detailed the anthropocentric climate changes underway.