Charles Monnett - Reported Drowned Polar Bears - Gets $100K Whistleblower Settlement
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The settlement ends a controversial saga that began back in 2004, when Monnett saw drowned polar bears while flying over the Arctic during a routine aerial survey of whales. He reported on the dead bears in a scientific journal, and Al Gore mentioned them in the movie An Inconvenient Truth. The dead polar bears became a potent symbol of the threat of melting ice.
But in 2010, the Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General received allegations of scientific misconduct from a federal employee. Investigators repeatedly interrogated Monnett and a colleague about their report of dead polar bears.
Monnett believes this was an effort to silence scientific efforts that might interfere with oil and gas development in the Arctic. He says his wife and son were harassed — "by people who didn't like my politics, whatever they perceived them to be."
Last year, the investigation ended. And Monnett's employer, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said it did not look like he had engaged in any scientific misconduct. But the agency did officially reprimand Monnett for an unrelated matter, leaking internal government documents. "I thought that was silly," Monnett says. "It seemed desperate, on the part of the agency. They stick this letter in my file and end it, and tell me to just forget about everything and let's just move on. ... It just seemed like a desperate attempt to justify a hole that the department had dug itself into."
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http://www.npr.org/2013/12/04/248674546/polar-bear-researcher-gets-100-000-in-settlement-with-feds
