We haven’t had much to say about this because it’s not at all clear what’s going on. Is Monnett being harassed or is it over pay-for-review? Certainly something is dodgy and the sooner all is revealed the better for all concerned.
Is BOEMRE Harrassing Polar Bear Biologist Charles Monnett?
by MARLO LEWIS
Last month, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) suspended wildlife biologist Charles Monnett, who is being investigated by the Department of Interior’s (DOI’s) inspector general (IG). Monnett is the lead author of a 2006 study linking loss of Arctic sea ice to the first documented finding of drowned polar bears. The paper helped galvanize support for DOI’s listing of the bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Al Gore touted the study in An Inconvenient Truth. (Cooler Heads)
Global Warming Link to Drowned Polar Bears Melts Under Searing Fed Probe
Audrey Hudson
Polar bears drowning in an Alaskan sea because the ice packs are melting—it’s the iconic image of the global warming debate.
But the validity of the science behind the image—presented as an ignoble testament to our environment in peril by Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth—is now part of a federal investigation that has the environmental community on edge. (Human Events)
Senator Inhofe Has Questions About Polar Bear Researcher Charles Monnett
Virginia Morell
“Polarbeargate,” the federal investigation into suspended wildlife biologist Charles Monnett over undisclosed allegations, took further strange turns yesterday. First, Monnett was interviewed a second time by investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement’s (BOEMRE’s) inspector general’s office.
Although the director of BOEMRE, Michael Bromwich, has stated that the investigation has “nothing to do with [Monnett's] scientific work, or anything relating to a 5-year-old journal article, as advocacy groups and the news media have incorrectly speculated,” yesterday’s 3-hour session focused exactly on those issues, says Jeff Ruch, the director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in Washington, D.C., who monitored the interview via teleconferencing. And Ruch isn’t the only one apparently who thinks that the investigation is indeed linked to the article and its conclusion that polar bears may experience higher death rates due to climate change: U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has now entered the fray, sending a letter to BOEMRE, asking for more information about the Monnett inquiry. (Science Insider)
Monnett may have sent $1m to Derocher for a review
As long-term TRF readers know, Andrew Derocher – a Canadian polar bear researcher – is an immoral jerk and one of the most aggressive members of the eco-Gestapo.
In October 2009, he wrote a letter to Mitchell Taylor in which he disinvited Taylor from a polar bear conference, openly saying that it was because Taylor’s knowledge about the climate wasn’t convenient for the organized global warming propaganda.
Before 2011, I didn’t know much about Charles Monnett (see the text about the recent investigation). However, the Science Magazine finally links these two men in a meaningful way and brings us something that looks like a “tangible” accusation:
Senator Inhofe Has Questions About Polar Bear Researcher Charles Monnett
One of the hypotheses they’re investigating is that Charles Monnett has directed $1 million to Andrew Derocher as a payment for a positive review of Monnett’s paper that Derocher wrote. (TRF)
