大象传媒

Climate scientist Dr Ben Santer proved global warming was due to CO2 back in 1995. The true story of how he was vilified to prevent the world reducing emissions, starring Shaun Evans

Ben Santer is American, but was educated in a British Army school on the Rhine and his ground breaking work "fingerprinting" global warming began at University of East Anglia in the mid 80s, (with US funding). He then worked with 2021 Nobel Prize Winner Klaus Hasselmann at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, before moving back to the States. A mountaineer and Anglophile, he became a pawn in a bigger game of climate change denial.

Based on original documentation and testimony, and featuring Dr Santer as himself.

Ben had to fight to try to salvage his reputation as the misinformation spread even among his peers. A quiet and measured scientist, an expert in the computer code of climate models, he became the subject of major articles in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and TV and radio across America. Ben says now, 鈥淵ou spend years defending the 'discernible human influence' conclusion. You encounter valid scientific criticism. You also encounter non-scientific criticism from powerful forces of unreason.鈥�

Ben Santer was the Convening Lead Author of Chapter 8 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1996. In its conclusion he wrote, 鈥淭he balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.鈥� That one sentence changed his life. He became the hate figure of the energy industry and they came after him through their attack dogs of lobbyists, politicians and the media.

When the report was published, powerful forces led by Cold War hawks Fred Singer and Fred Seitz, set out to discredit Santer. His attackers were backed by the oil and gas industry and had contacts right at the top of government. The impact of their campaign changed the debate not just in America but across the world.

Singer and Seitz used the same tactics they had pioneered in other science based issues that threatened the industrial status quo. They had fought against bans on smoking in public places, and against stopping ozone depleting CFC emissions.

Before the attacks on Santer and the IPCC report, President Clinton鈥檚 State Department were briefing that climate change was man made and had been minded to put significant resources into a low carbon future. Seitz and Singer helped stop that, and decades were lost in the fight to stop climate change.

Writer/ Producer, David Morley is a Sony Gold winner and recent Aria award winner, who The Stage described as "unrivalled in turning true events into radio dramas".
As a writer, he specialises in contemporary stories, often based on primary research. These include the Civil Rights struggle in the Deep South of the USA, the shooting down of flight MH17, the creation of Tony Blair鈥檚 Iraq WMD Dossier, and how Boris Johnson and Michael Gove fell out after winning the 2016 Referendum.
The Independent on Sunday described him as "a perceptive journalist and a fine writer" in their review of his book "Gorgeous George: The life and adventures of George Galloway".

Cast
Dr Tom Wigley: Nicholas Boulton
Sir John Houghton: Philip Franks
Donald Pearlman: William Hope
Jennifer Santer: Laurel Lefkow
Young Ben Santer: James Morley
Al-Saban: Nayef Rashad
Ned Crabbe and the German Delegate: Wilf Scolding
Fred Singer: Kerry Shale
The Kenyan Delegate: Nathaniel Christian

Writer and Director: David Morley
Sound Design: Tom Maggs
Original Music: Chris O'Shaughnessy

A Perfectly Normal production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

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