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A Conservative MP has been peddling what researchers describe as “bogus” information on polar bears and citing U.S. climate skeptics as experts on the iconic creatures.

In a letter that shocked scientists, Yukon MP Ryan Leef said: “The global polar bear population has quadrupled over the last 40 years.”

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The letter, which Leef wrote to a constituent in February, said many “pessimistic studies” about the bears have been judged “unscientific and inconsequential to decision makers” by U.S. researchers. The researchers he refers to are well-known climate skeptics.

Ian Stirling, a world authority on the bears at the University of Alberta, said he was shocked by Leef’s letter.

“I am absolutely appalled that a Canadian MP would circulate this kind of stuff to a constituent asking in good faith about the conservation of polar bears in Canada,” said Stirling.

Steven Amstrup, chief scientist at Polar Bears International, a conservation group, was also taken aback. He said Leef’s claim that the population has quadrupled is “completely bogus.”