From the Seattle Times – the end game of ‘polarbeargate’:
Scientist who saw drowned polar bears reprimanded
An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.
JUNEAU, Alaska —
An Alaska scientist whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been reprimanded for improper release of government documents.
An Interior Department official said emails released by Charles Monnett were cited by a federal appeals court in decisions to vacate approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of an oil and gas company’s Arctic exploration plan.
The official, Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of BOEM, said in a memo that an inspector general’s investigation contained findings that Monnett had improperly disclosed internal government documents, which he said were later used against the agency in court. He also said the investigation made other findings in regards to Monnett’s conduct, but he wasn’t taking action on those. He would not specify those findings.
Cruickshank called Monnett’s “misconduct very serious,” and said any future misconduct may lead to more severe discipline, including removal from federal service.
Monnett was briefly suspended last year during an inspector general’s investigation into a polar bear research contract he managed. The inspector general’s report, which was released Friday, said its investigation was set off by a complaint from an unidentified Interior Department employee who alleged that Monnett wrongfully released government records and that he and another scientist, Jeffrey Gleason, intentionally omitted or used false data in an article they wrote on polar bears. During that investigation, authorities also looked into the procurement issue.
full story here
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The entire transcript of the investigation can be read at: http://www.peer.org/docs/doi/7_28_11_Monnett-IG_interview_transcript.pdf
Latest Fish and Wildlife population count has polar bears at an all time high of 25 to 30,000, up from 5 – 10,000 during the 1950’s and 60’s. We’re up to our ears in polar bears. And those who claim absence of sea ice during the summers (if it ever happens) will doom the bears is obviously not aware that the bears have lived thru ice-free Arctic seas in the past. The fact that a simple
observation of some bears drowned in a storm has grown into a preposterous sequence of lies
and misinformation says a lot about the inability of our media to handle science news. They
do far more thorough vetting of philandering husband stories (unless they’re a political friend).. Scare stories about dying polar bears sell newspapers and air time, while stories that say everything is normal do not. Guess which story they’ll going to go with? It’s called Yellow Journalism, environmental style. Thank God for the Internet, flawed though it may be.
If one relied on NPR, they would not know of the reprimand: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/28/161987243/scientist-cleared-in-polar-bear-controversy
Craig Moore said:
“If one relied on NPR, they would not know of the reprimand”
One would if they read the article:
“…except for an official reprimand for an unrelated matter, the improper release of internal government documents back in 2007 and 2008.”
LazyTeenager says:
September 29, 2012 at 12:42 am
Gunga Din on September 29, 2012 at 12:06 am
Something Al Gore said was based on a lie!?!?
So are we or aren’t we all doomed?
———–
Since the polar bear reports were not based on a lie and since you are are insisting there was without any evidence what does that make you?
======================================================================
I stand corrected. It’s what he did with the reports that was the lie. Evidence of that lie? I would have thought you’d have “An Inconvienent Truth” memorized.
“I await the warmists claims that he was a whistleblower.”
If MMS hadn’t been riddled with corruption then this alarmist wouldn’t be thinking of Monnett as a whistleblower. Renaming MMS to BOEM was hardly a whimsical decision, more a purge and an attempt at a fresh start.
LazyTeenager says:
September 29, 2012 at 12:42 am
Gunga Din on September 29, 2012 at 12:06 am
Something Al Gore said was based on a lie!?!?
So are we or aren’t we all doomed?
———–
Since the polar bear reports were not based on a lie and since you are are insisting there was without any evidence what does that make you?
Tim says:
Sometimes it’s all in the name. Eh, Lazy.
Some people look beyond the apocalyptic news stories to find the truth. Polar bear populations increasing. Polar bears survived a time of much higher temperatures in the past.
I hope the fact you posted on here means you are considering not being lazy. Maybe you will look at the facts. I hope so.
Lack of understanding about polar bear physiology seems to constantly lead people to inaccurate anthropomorphic conclusions (remember the pathetically uninformed but trying-to-prove-a-point inventors of the life jacket for polar bears? – http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/14/network-poles). Polar bears, like ducks, witches, and very small rocks, float in water with no effort expended. The Seattle Times quoting the report: “while polar bears are considered strong swimmers, long-distance swims may exact a greater metabolic toll than standing or walking on ice in better weather” is the conclusion one might be expected to make if you have a lack of knowledge of basic polar bear biology. A truer conclusion might have been “while polar bears are considered strong swimmers, trying to maintain buoyancy while trapped in open water during an Arctic storm may exceed their abilities”. The only energy a polar bear has to expend when it’s in the water is to propel itself forward. If they stop swimming, they stop moving. But they don’t sink. How much energy do you expend sitting in a floating lounger in your swimming pool? Now let’s strap a life vest on you and set you adrift in open water during an Arctic storm. Even with the life vest, do you think you’ll survive (ignore the hypothermia aspect)? I think there’s a good chance you wouldn’t survive and that the cause of your death would be drowning. It seems that the 4 unfortunate bears cited were destined to give their lives so that a couple of pseudo-scientists could use their deaths as part of a political statement.
Amino,
That is a great read on Gore losing mucho money investing in green energy. Just hope alot of it was his, not just all the unions that invested with him. Just hope Al does not find out where Hoffa was buried.
Might make a great post here at WUWT.
Jack Simmons: I believe:the dead bodies were seen after a storm. He was flying over the area regularly for other research and saw some dead bears. He had not see dead bears on earlier flights. He asked around and no-one else could remember seeing dead polar bears. He got permission in writing from his local office to published this very minor factoid. On this slim basis a myth was born.
If you are reprimanded in 2012 for something in 2007 and 2008 or 2004, you have to ask why was there was no reprimand in 2009, or 2010. What has changed if it is not office politics.
Pointman, any references?
I found this: http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/polar-bears-long-distance-swimming-and-the-changing-arctic/
90 miles is still impressive, but quite a bit short of your claim of 687 km?
So just to be clear…….there was no rainforest found in the Mojave?
Did he actually see 4 bears same day? Or one bear 4 flights?
bikedude says:
September 29, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Pointman, any references?
I found this: http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/polar-bears-long-distance-swimming-and-the-changing-arctic/
90 miles is still impressive, but quite a bit short of your claim of 687 km?
—
Reported by the pro-AGW BBC no less:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9369000/9369317.stm
“This bear swam continuously for 232 hours and 687 km and through waters that were 2-6 degrees C,” says research zoologist George M. Durner.
Context
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/28/al-gores-drowned-polar-bear-ait-source-under-investigation/
Here you go.
I even recall a peer reviewed paper about polar cubs riding on its mother’s back in the sea. I’ll see if I can find that too.
Cheers guys, I’ll put those bookmarks to good use.
Further to my last reference here is the polar cub on mother’s back. Shall I go on? 😉
Polar bears are survivors. Don’t believe anyone who says otherwise. Check it for yourself.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.08.016
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFMPP11A0203F
Al Gore is just trying to scare the children. I don’t believe anything these nutty scaremongers have to say. I check it out myself.
“Observations of a wild polar bear (Ursus maritimus) successfully fishing Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and Fourhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus quadricornis)”
http://www.springerlink.com/content/2740177qk8425851/
“The early bear gets the goose: climate change, polar bears and lesser snow geese in western Hudson Bay”
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5g5756162w677hl4/
I feel sorry for human survival not Polar Bears. They are survivors. As for Al Gore he just can’t help telling fairy tales to the children.
“stacyglen says:
September 29, 2012 at 9:53 am
Jack Simmons: I believe:the dead bodies were seen after a storm. He was flying over the area regularly for other research and saw some dead bears. He had not see dead bears on earlier flights. He asked around and no-one else could remember seeing dead polar bears. He got permission in writing from his local office to published this very minor factoid. On this slim basis a myth was born.
If you are reprimanded in 2012 for something in 2007 and 2008 or 2004, you have to ask why was there was no reprimand in 2009, or 2010. What has changed if it is not office politics.”
Stacy, you didn’t read the report accurately. The reprimand has nothing to do with the polar bear report. The reprimand was for releasing government documents without authorization. That can be a serious offense. Attention was drawn to the polar bear report in connection to this because the observation flights where he saw polar bear bodies were connected to generating the documents that he released without authorization. The flights had a different purpose than looking for polar bears, an environmental impact study that dealt with oil exploration. Monett released the reports of that study to the exploration opponents without receiving permission first. That was what was investigated and what he was reprimanded for.
In the last 8 years the agw crowd has nothing to show but these same old four polar bears that died in the Beauifort Sea after a storm.
By now these bears must stink to high heaven.
Don’t they have any bears that died more recently? Is there a dead polar bear shortage?
/sarc
So basically the report was correct! And the polar bear did die, but because he released the truth he was found guilty. Hmm, it would seem to me that under different circumstances AGW sceptics would be crying, ‘cover up’. if the truth had not come out. Come on you guys, play fair!
REPLY: The issue is mostly with Gore’s ridiculous claims, AGW had noting to do with the dead polar bear and a dead polar bear does not a trend make. Monnet didn’t speak out when Gore took his observation and turned into into a bogus sympathy pitch -Anthony
Our govt is just all screwed up. He was flying a regular route counting whales to satisfy some reg to keep the Eskimos happy about the number of whales in the area. Imagine the money wasted for years doing this sort of nonsense whale counting, and then he saw some dead bears one day, hooked up with a climate alarmist, and the rest is history. He published his dead bear observation knowing full well how it would be spun by the alarmists. He is guilty of being party to a scientific fraud.
BTW, the best explanation is that the bears drowned during a storm. The interface between the ocean and the air in a storm is extremely foamy and not breathable. BTW, the number of dead bears seen that one year was never equalled, AFAIK.
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2012/9/27/polar-bear-science.html
Pangnirtung capitalizes on climate change
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/gerald-flood-feature-a11-sept-26-171306741.html
For some reason I can’t connect to the internet unless via expat shield.
I’m stuck with UK TV.
BBC 4
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzIOEP4fsmZ8d2J6Z3dDX3l6YUE