Climate science illegal in Florida

This video from the USA says about itself:

Florida Bans The Phrases ‘Climate Change’ And ‘Global Warming’

16 March 2015

“Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, discusses the move by Florida officials to ban the use of the term ‘climate change’.

Officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have been told that the words ‘climate change’ when used together has been banned, according to former and current employees including attorney for DEP’s Office of General Counsel Christopher Byrd. Byrd stated that along with climate change that the words ‘sustainability’ and ‘global warming’ were also banned.

Chief officials of the DEP refused to answer why. The policy went into effect after Florida Governor Rick Scott came to office.”

Decades ago, there was a lot in NATO countries’ media about people in the then Soviet Union who had been declared to be mentally ill. Political abuse of psychiatry, the media said. These people were not mentally ill; they just disagreed with the (Soviet) government. Such an outrage, of course, would never happen in the western ‘free world’ …

After the Soviet Union of decades ago … and after the censorship of science during George W Bush’s presidency in the USA … now, censorship of science in Florida, the state of George W’s little brother Jeb Bush, maybe Republican party candidate in the next US presidential election.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

Florida employee ‘punished for using phrase climate change‘

In a complaint against the state, worker says he was accused of violating policy and instructed to get a mental health evaluation after mentioning climate change

Katherine Krueger in New York

Thursday 19 March 2015 18.05 GMT

An employee of Florida’s environmental protection department was forced to take a leave of absence and seek a mental health evaluation for violating governor Rick Scott’s unwritten ban on using the phrases “climate change” or “global warming” under any circumstance, according to a complaint filed against the state.

‘Unwritten ban’; that reminds me of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, officially there is not any law banning women from driving cars. However, if Saudi women drive cars, then they get jail terms and whip lashes.

Longtime employee Barton Bibler reportedly included an explicit mention of climate change in his official notes from a Florida Coastal Managers Forum meeting in late February, during which climate change, rising sea levels and the possible environmental impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline were discussed.

On 9 March, Bibler received a formal reprimand for “misrepresenting that ‘the official meeting agenda included climate change’”, according to a statement from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a nationwide non-profit that champions public employees’ rights and providers resources and guidance to whistleblowers using its network of members across the country.

Bibler was instructed to stay away from the office for two days and told he could return to work only after a mental health evaluation from his doctor verified his “fitness for duty”, the complaint said. In the letter to Florida’s inspector general, Candie Fuller, the state’s Peer director calls for a full investigation to the matter.

Bibler told the Miami Herald that he “didn’t get the memo” about the gag order, so when he introduced himself by congratulating other officials on the call for the “exciting” work they were doing to address climate change, the “reaction was mostly shock”.

News of the governor’s ban on the phrases first surfaced in early March, when the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found that the ban came from the top after Scott took office and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr as DEP director.

Guardian requests for comment from Scott, the Florida inspector general and the environmental protection department were not immediately returned on Thursday, but Scott and representatives from his office have ardently denied such a policy exists.

Scott has also long dodged questions about climate change with a refrain of “I’m not a scientist” and consistently misrepresented the state’s preparedness for rising sea levels.

Florida is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as 80% of the state’s residents live or work near the coasts and damage from recent storms, including hurricane Wilma, has caused billions of dollars in damage since 2005.

Republicans’ new climate strategy: just ban the words ‘climate change’: here.