Exile for Non-Believers: Polar Bear Expert Told to Stay Home
Posted by jennifer, September 26th, 2009 - under News, Opinion.
Tags: Climate & Climate Change, Polar Bears
“MITCHELL Taylor is a Polar Bear researcher who has caught more polar bears and worked on more polar bear groups than any other, but he was effectively ostracized from the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) specifically because he has publicly expressed doubts that there is a crisis due to carbon dioxide emissions.
“Dr Andy Derocher, the outgoing chairman of the PSBG and Professor at the University of Alberta, wrote to inform Taylor that he was not welcome at the 2009 meeting of the PBSG.
“Keep in mind as you read his comments (below) that Taylor had arranged funding to attend the meeting in Copenhagen, and has been at every meeting of this group since 1981. With 30 years of experience in polar bear research, it goes without saying that he has something to contribute to any discussion about polar bear conservation. This is the original email from Derocher to Taylor explaining why he was not invited:
Hi Mitch,
The world is a political place and for polar bears, more so now than ever before. I have no problem with dissenting views as long as they are supportable by logic, scientific reasoning, and the literature.
I do believe, as do many Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) members, that for the sake of polar bear conservation, views that run counter to human induced climate change are extremely unhelpful. In this vein, your positions and statements in the Manhattan Declaration, the Frontier Institute, and the Science and Public Policy Institute are inconsistent with positions taken by the PBSG.
I too was not surprised by the members not endorsing an invitation.
Nothing I heard had to do with your science on harvesting or your research on polar bears – it was the positions you’ve taken on global warming that brought opposition.
Time will tell who is correct but the scientific literature is not on the side of those arguing against human induced climate change.
I look forward to having someone else chair the PBSG.
Best regards,
Andy (Derocher) …
Keep reading here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/exile_for_non-believers.html
Pdf here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/Nova-Exile_for_non_believers.pdf
‘Exile for Non-Believers’, by Joanne Nova, published by the Science and Public Policy Institute, September 2009
Photo Credit: Susanne Miller, United States Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2008/polarbear012308/polarbearphotos.html
They know we all know the population is growing in robust numbers. – Henry Chance
Really Henry? Can you please provide us with peer-reviewed literature from each of the polar bear populations? I look forward to seeing these figures from polar bear researchers that apparently support your argument. In the meantime, please refrain from using the royal “all” in your flawed debate.
My take on this: expect Polar Bear populations to decrease. Soon. They will be “made” to decrease to support the theory. Case closed and the “science” is settled.
Glad I didn’t get a degree from U of A.
Katrina,
Whether you like it or not, Polar Bears are not endangered. They are designated as “Threatened” in the US and “A species of concern” in Russia.
How many polar bears are there?
Scientists estimate that there are between 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears.
This number should be compared to the number in the 1960’s when the worldwide population was about estimated at 1600. So they have not done badly considering all the global warming that has been happening. Maybe they llike it a bit warmer.
ref: http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/faq/#q2
And a quote:
“Scientists predict that, if current warming trends continue in the Arctic, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by 2050.”
So somewhere in the region of 6000-8000 will still be alive even if we do nothing about global warming. Not so alarmist now is it? The number does not even reduce to 1960’s levels.
Katrina,
Can you please provide us with figures indicating past and present polar bear populations?
Hide the Decline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEiLgbBGKVk&feature=player_embedded
If you believe this than there is no hope for you as a human being with a brain. Jennifer is right on.
Climate Gate propaganda. Incredible!!! Speaks for itself:
Polar bears eating young due to shrinking sea ice: Scientists
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/731873–polar-bears-eating-young-due-to-shrinking-sea-ice-scientists
[...] taken on global warming that brought opposition”. You can read the rest of the letter here: Jennifer Marohasy: Exile for non-believers. So, by their own admission, the Polar Bear Specialist Group can find nothing wrong with Mitchell [...]