Stephan Lewandowsky: "Something Does Not Add Up" [BOEMRE unethical investigation should be exposed for what it is -- an agenda-driven smear on Charles Monnett in order to speed up the Arctic drilling permits for Shell Oil who has no spill cleanup plan]

Something Does Not Add Up

by Stephan Lewandowsky, (Winthrop Professor and Australian Professorial Fellow, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia), Shaping Tomorrow's World, August 2, 2011

Something does not add up.


About two weeks ago, a scientist working for the “US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Enforcement and Regulation” (BOEMRE), Dr Charles Monnett,  was placed on administrative leave.


In effect, he was banned from his place of work and was formally placed under investigation.
For what?


This is where things get murky, especially because Dr Monnett apparently has not been informed of the charges against him.


What is known, however, is that Dr Monnett published a paper in 2006 that reported the discovery of several floating bodies of polar bears, presumed drowned while trying to swim across long ice-free distances in the Arctic ocean. This article attracted a lot of attention at the time and helped put the fate of Arctic animals, and the effects of climate change onto the Arctic, onto the political agenda.


It is not entirely surprising, therefore, that Dr Monnett’s suspension was greeted with glee and delight by those who deny the fact that the Earth is warming due to human greenhouse gas emissions. Their conclusion, as obvious to them as it was unwarranted by the available information, was that Dr Monnett’s scientific work was under investigation and hence should not be trusted. The polar bear, the Arctic, and the planet are just fine now, and CO2 emissions nothing to worry about, because one biologist has been placed on administrative leave.


BOEMRE later issued a statement that Dr Monnett’s suspension had nothing to do with his scientific work in general or the polar-bear study in particular. BOEMRE said that Dr Monnett was being investigated for administrative matters, involving “collateral duties involving contracts.” The investigation, it was said, had “nothing to do with scientific integrity, [or] his 2006 journal article."


But why, then, did the same internal investigator who is about to interview Dr Monnett again on 9 August about those contractual matters, quiz Dr Monnett about his polar bear work at great length in February 2011?


And why did this same investigator, a certain Eric May who very evidently has no scientific training or knowledge, interview another scientist on the same issue of polar bear research in January of 2011?


(The two transcripts linked in the preceding paragraphs are worthy of study, especially if you are a fan of Franz Kafka.)  [Readers, I strongly suggest that you read both transcripts, starting the Dr. Gleason's.  I did, and I was aghast.  This thing is so unethical it amazes even little ol' jaded me.  This is the reason for my constant posting of articles about this. The interrogators have no clue what they are doing.  They think they got Monnett on "false" numbers.  Finally, after interrogating Monnett, they realize they did not have an easy slam-dunk to hang him with, cuz they were completely wrong about the numbers (since they can't do fifth-grade math like ratios and percentages). So, in order to save their butts, they dug through his emails and papers looking for any tiny thing.  And, wow! they have an email to Derocher that uses the words "global warming" -- oh my we are truly not in Kansas anymore!  These BOEMRE jerks have an agenda and that is to permit Shell Oil to drill in the Arctic with no spill cleanup plan and no spill cleanup equipment or technology of any kind.  If a spill occurs during the winter months when the sea is covered by ice, Shell's spill plan calls for the oil to "be left in place" until they can get to it in the summer -- I am not kidding!  The head of BOEMRE, Michael Bromwich, should be investigated, not Dr. Monnett, whose work Bromwich suppressed.  Work our tax dollars paid for! ]


By the way, BOEMRE’s website clarifies that it “is the federal agency responsible for overseeing the safe and environmentally responsible development of energy and mineral resources on the outer continental shelf.” Accordingly, “BOEMRE is leading the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history.”


Last month, President Obama issued an order to speed up Arctic drilling permits.


Something does not add up.


Or does it?


http://www.shapingtomorrowsworld.org/lewandowskyPolar.html