A wildlife biologist who claimed that polar bears were drowning in Arctic waters has been suspended by the US government while his report is investigated.
Apparent sightings of polar bears drowning due to melting ice caps became a focal point of the global warming movement.
The Arctic scientist argued that the increased incidence of storms caused by global warming and the loss of ice would lead to the death of more polar bears.
Now the scientist Charles Monnett’s “integrity” is being questioned.
However, Monnett has previously been quoted as saying he believes the agency are unwilling to acknowledge anything which could stand in the way if its plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.
“They don’t want any impediment to, you know, what they view as their mission, which is to, you know, drill wells up there” and “put areas into production,” Monnett said in an interview, according to the New York Times.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement notified biologist, Charles Monnett, that he had been suspended pending an internal investigation into “integrity issues,” according to a copy of a letter posted online by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
A 2006 report that Monnett co-wrote on deaths among polar bears swimming in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic is being investigated.
The paper claimed that four dead polar bears were spotted during an aerial survey of.
As some of global warming’s most charismatic victims, stories of the drowning polar bears became a rallying cry for environmental activists.
