QuoteFlorida banned state workers from using term 'climate change' – report
'Global warming' and 'sustainability' among phrases allegedly barred at state's Department of Environmental Protection, investigative report finds
Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the agency in charge of setting conservation policy and enforcing environmental laws in the state, issued directives in 2011 barring thousands of employees from using the phrases "climate change" and "global warming", according to a bombshell report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR).
The report ties the alleged policy, which is described as "unwritten", to the election of Republican governor Rick Scott and his appointment of a new department director that year. Scott, who was re-elected last November, has declined to say whether he believes in climate change caused by human activity.
"I'm not a scientist," he said in one appearance last May.
Scott's office did not comment on Sunday, when contacted by the Guardian. A spokesperson for the governor told the FCIR team: "There's no policy on this."
The FCIR report was based on statements by multiple named former employees who worked in different DEP offices around Florida. The instruction not to refer to "climate change" came from agency supervisors as well as lawyers, according to the report.
"We were told not to use the terms 'climate change', 'global warming' or 'sustainability'," the report quotes Christopher Byrd, who was an attorney with the DEP's Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, as saying. "That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel."
Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away
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"We were instructed by our regional administrator that we were no longer allowed to use the terms 'global warming' or 'climate change' or even 'sea-level rise'," said a second former DEP employee, Kristina Trotta. "Sea-level rise was to be referred to as 'nuisance flooding'."
According to the employees' accounts, the ban left damaging holes in everything from educational material published by the agency to training programs to annual reports on the environment that could be used to set energy and business policy.
The 2014 national climate assessment for the US found an "imminent threat of increased inland flooding" in Florida due to climate change and called the state "uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise".
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/08/florida-banned-terms-climate-change-global-warming (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/08/florida-banned-terms-climate-change-global-warming)
What's the definition of "hearsay evidence?" It seem to apply. I understand that this is The Guardian, but even it has to have some standards, no?
Quote from: grumbler on March 10, 2015, 09:38:56 PM
What's the definition of "hearsay evidence?" It seem to apply. I understand that this is The Guardian, but even it has to have some standards, no?
http://fcir.org/2015/03/08/in-florida-officials-ban-term-climate-change/
QuoteDEP officials have been ordered not to use the term "climate change" or "global warming" in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
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Looks like a little more than hearsay.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article12983720.html
Quote"We were told not to use the terms 'climate change,' 'global warming' or 'sustainability,'" said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP's Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. "That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel."
and this looks like direct testimony.
Most of Florida will sink. Good.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on March 10, 2015, 10:33:03 PM
Most of Florida will sink. Good.
Lots of Quebecers move there for the winter. If Florida sinks, we'll have to keep 'em here. Good for the economy, bad for our collective morale to keep whiners around. We'll have to rethink our strategy. Ship them to Arizona, maybe.
The great world city? WTF
Quote from: The Brain on March 10, 2015, 11:56:59 PM
The great world city? WTF
You know, like Copenhagen or Helsinki.