“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. … 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.’ … (continue reading)
Photo: Gov. Rick Scott plays politics with science