Climate News Polar bear expert barred from meeting over climate views, he says
| July 06 2009
A polar bear biologist formerly from Nunavut says he was barred from an international scientific meeting because his beliefs on climate change and its effects on the species do not match the group's opinion.
Mitch Taylor, who was a polar bear biologist with the Nunavut government until last year, said he was not invited to the Polar Bear Specialist Group's meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, this year.
The group of scientists meets periodically to discuss the status of polar bear populations around the world. Taylor said he had been attending the group's meetings since 1981.
But Taylor said he was told by then-chairman Andrew Derocher that his beliefs about climate change — that it is a natural cycle, not mainly driven by human-caused pollution — are not helpful to the group.
"He explained that it wasn't because my expertise and experience on polar bears was deficient," Taylor told CBC News. "It was because I wasn't accepting anthropogenic global warming, and they felt that it wouldn't be helpful for me to be at the meeting."
Taylor retired from Nunavut's Environment Department last year and moved to Ontario, but he said he is still involved in polar bear research.
In an email to CBC News, Derocher, a polar bear researcher from the University of Alberta, said involvement in the Polar Bear Specialist Group is limited to those who are active in polar bear research and management.
Taylor no longer fits those criteria, said Derocher, whose term as group chairman ended last week.
Taylor said he believes the Arctic has warmed, but said it's more related to natural cycles with just some impact from human-caused pollution such as greenhouse gases.
While he said polar bear populations in some areas, such as the western Hudson Bay region in Nunavut, have been adversely affected by the changing climate, he said predictions that polar bears will disappear because of climate change are overblown.
"Even though you might see a shrinking of the range of polar bears — maybe in some of the southern areas, maybe a reduction in numbers and productivity and in some, maybe all of the populations — you're not looking at something that would cause polar bears to go extinct," he said.
Derocher said he has no problem with dissenting views on the polar bears' survival, but he added that scientific reasoning and literature should support those beliefs.
Derocher said he and some other group members feel the view that climate change is not caused by people does not help polar bear conservation efforts.
"I feel actually disappointed, sad, because I don't think this is how science should work," Taylor said. "I don't think the credibility of the specialist group was served by this decision."
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