Florida Officials Ban the Term ‘Climate Change’

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection is tasked with protecting the state’s “air, water and land.”  But there’s one environmental threat you won’t hear DEP officials talking about.

Officials at Florida’s DEP have banned the words “climate change” and “global warming” from all official communications, including reports and emails, according to an investigation published Sunday by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR).

Four former DEP employees told FCIR that they had been instructed not to use the terms during their time at the state’s DEP.

“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” Christopher Byrd, who served as an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel from 2008 to 2013, told FCIR.  “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”

The DEP’s press secretary Tiffany Cowie disagreed with these reports, however, saying that her department “does not have a policy on this.”  But according to the former employees’ accounts, the unofficial policy went into place after Gov. Rick Scott (R) took office in 2011 and appointed a new DEP director.  Over the last year, Scott has skirted answering questions on his views on climate change.  He said in 2010 that he had “not been convinced” that climate change was real, but during last year’s gubernatorial race, he refused to take a stand on the issue.  In August, five Florida climate scientists sat down with Scott in an attempt to explain the science behind climate change and the effects it’s having in Florida, but the scientists left the meeting feeling unsure that the governor had gotten the message.

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