Suspending the scientist in the Arctic that exposed climate threat to polar bears

Charles Monnett co-paper about the dangers of polar bears drowned due to the melting of Arctic sea ice galvanized activists concerned about climate change. Photography: Subhankar Banerjee/AP

It was seen as one of the most painful effects of the climate registered: polar bears die of exhaustion after being stranded between patches of melting of sea ice in the Arctic.

But now the scientist of the Government that first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming of the Arctic has been suspended and their work placed under formal investigation for possible scientific misconduct.

Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work of the Agency of the Government, which has been considering drilling in the Arctic. It managed about $ 50 million (￡ 30. 5 m) in research projects.

Some question by what Monnett, employed by the US Office of ocean energy, regulation and enforcement, management has been suspended at this time. The Obama administration has been accused of sniff the scientist, so it can open the fragile region of drilling by Shell and other big oil companies.

"" It must be asked: is the uncle of the science in the Arctic and is being suspended now as an arm of the Department of interior is preparing its decision on drilling costa out in the Arctic seas, "said Jeff Ruch, Chairman of the public employees for environmental responsibility.""This is a precaution with a deeply chilling message for any federal scientist who dares to publish a research pioneer on conditions in the Arctic".

The Group submitted an official complaint on behalf of the Monnett Thursday, accusing the Government pursue the scientific (PDF) and interfere with his work. He seeks reinstatement and a public apology.

Monnett was on a flight of monitoring whale research, in 2004, when he and his colleagues saw four dead polar bears floating in the water after a storm. Scientists completed the bears, though normally strong swimmers, grew exhausted and drowning due to the long distance between patches of solid ice. It was the first time scientists had established a link between melting of sea ice in the Arctic and a threat to the survival of the bears.

Two years later, Monnett and a colleague published an article in the magazine scientific Polar biology, writing: "Drowning deaths of polar bears may increase in future if it continues the observed trend of regression of ice or over open water sessions."

Quickly, the ledger public concern about the polar bear. Al Gore, citing the document, used footage of polar bears in his film inconvenient truth. Activists focused on the bears to push George Bush to act on climate change, and in 2008, the Government appointed the animal an endangered species.

It was the first animal to be classified as a victim of climate change.

In 2010, the administration of Obama began an investigation on his work. The scientist was suspended with pay on July 18. It is said that under a gag order and banned from communicating with his colleagues. The employee group complaint alleges that research is a barely veiled attempt to disrupt the scientific work in the Arctic.

Oil companies, who want to deepen in the pristine environment of the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea, have been complaining about delays caused by environmental effects. This month Obama issued an order to expedite the Arctic drilling permits.

A spokesman for the Office of energy ocean management of regulation and compliance (Boemre) said that the Government will continue to carry out research on the potential impacts of drilling in the Arctic, despite the suspension of the Monnett.

"All science contracts previously managed by Mr Monnett are managed by highly skilled Boemre, scientists" Melissa Schwartz said in an e-mail. He pointed out that research was being monitored by the inspector-general, which is independent, and carried out in accordance with the new guidelines on scientific integrity in the Administration Obama.

However, Peer argues that exercise intended to discredit the brief article of Monnett on the polar bear.

Other organizations also accused the Government agency of a long history of meddling in science. A report of 2009 by the Government Accountability Office found huge gaps in the research of the Boemre on the impact of drilling in the Arctic. And the natural areas of Alaska League declared: "Alaska Boemre has continued to ignore the science and traditional knowledge in decision-making on development of oil and gas".

Documents on the Web site of the League include a transcript of a conversation between researchers and Jeffrey Gleason, another Government Scientist in the trip of 2004. Gleason, who works for the Government, in the Gulf of Mexico, said that does not necessarily share the conclusions of Monnett polar bears were killed as a result of climate change. "It is something along the lines of the changing environment in the Arctic," he was quoted as saying.

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Scientist of the Arctic suspended on "integrity matters"

The official offshore oil tax in Alaska, he said that a scientist in the upper Arctic was suspended due to "problems of integrity" outside of his work in polar bears.

Charles Monnett, a biologist at wildlife of U.S. Government that first exposed to the threat of polar bears that raises the melting ice of the sea, he was suspended on 18 July.

His team's defense, which was not informed of the specific charges against Monnett - said that suspension may be linked to an investigation of months of possible scientific misconduct in his work of polar bears.

But Michael Bromwich, who heads the Government agency where she works Monnett, told staff in an e-mail that the suspension was due to totally different integrity issues that came to light during the course of the investigation.

Earlier, an official of the Bureau of ocean energy management implementation and regulation of the Bromwich told The Guardian, in an e-mail: "Agency placed Mr Monnett administrative leave for reasons that have nothing to do with scientific integrity". The Agency said the suspension of the Monnett had nothing to do with his work on polar bears.

Also denied suggestions that Monnett, which managed about $ 50 million (￡ 30. 5 m) in research projects of the Government in the Arctic, was being marginalized to speed up the way for offshore oil drilling.

Suspension of the Monnett has produced very different reactions. Fox television commentators cite the incident to try to discredit the science on climate change.

The Monnett defenders say he is subject to a smear campaign.

Jeff Ruch of public employees for environmental responsibility, which is to serve the legal team of the Monnett, suggested the work of the Monnett placed under a microscope at the behest of the oil companies to drill in the Arctic.

Ruch, "I think it is an excuse to close the store of science", said on Friday.

Documents suggest the investigators are reviewing Monnett research methods, as well as the importance it attaches to its discovery of polar bears in the Arctic channels in 2004.

But the investigators of the Office of the inspector general in the Department of the interior of United States, said during a formal interview last February, that they were impacting its methodology, displays a transcript of the session. "Basically wrong numbers, calculation errors," said one of the researchers, Eric may, Monnett during the formal interview.Monnett protested. "It is not scientific misconduct." If "nothing is sloppy, the transcript quotes him as saying.Scientific misconduct suggests that we did something deliberately to deceive or change it. We are sure that I do not see any indication of that in what you are asking me about. "

Monnett was on a flight from research whale monitoring in 2004 when he and a colleague, Jeff Gleason, saw four dead polar bears floating in the water after a storm. It was that first scientists of the Government time had recorded deaths by drowning polar bears, Monnett told investigators.

He and Gleason published his observations in 2006 in the journal Polar biology. The paper used the number of corpses seen polar bears on the flight to suggest 25% of the bears had drowned swimming between solid sheets of ice. They wrote: "Drowning deaths of polar bears may increase in future if it continues the observed trend of regression of ice or over open water sessions."

Monnett told investigators that he was cautious in his framing of the polar bear event: in view of the prevailing views of the then administration of George Bush.

"We are working for an agency that, above all, very hostile to the concept of climate change, which is hostile to the idea that had effects in all that we do nothing," is quoted as saying. Elsewhere in the interview transcripts, researchers ask Monnett how he was able to clearly identify the dead polar bears from the air, how their calculations are carried out and how it could be some of those deaths did not occur on a regular basis.

In his interview with Gleason, carried out in January, the researchers were methods for identifying and registering animals. They pointed out that the scientists took photos of only one of the dead polar bears. Monnett told investigators that he had spoken to a colleague who had overseen the whale survey flights from 1987 to 2003. The colleague allegedly told Monnett that he did not remember see polar bears killed on these trips. Gleason, in his interview, said researchers who had consulted a database that they did not show any records of drowning polar bears 30 years.

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