Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

State Employees Say Rules Prevent Open "Climate Change" Discussion In Florida

Posted by timothy on from the but-it's-the-sunshine-state dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting has an article in the Miami Herald about there being certain words state employees have been ordered to avoid: "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."

12 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. i'th Post by mrsquid0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Grow up Florida.

    --
    Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    1. Re:i'th Post by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, I know. I always get tuttes about quantum superposition at work, ands don't get me started on the missives banning plate tectonics.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:i'th Post by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Informative

      Grow up Florida.

      Grow up Florida.

      It's not really a Florida thing, but a Republican thing. From TFA:

      This unwritten policy went into effect after Gov. Rick Scott took office in 2011 and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr. as the DEP’s director, according to former DEP employees.

      Be prepared for this sort of thing from other Republican states because apparently, according to their ostrich-like logic, not talking about something means it isn't happening and can't/won't happen. (Though, in Florida, sticking your head in the sand might mean you might drown from the increasingly rising tides.)

      Of course, Rick Scott and many other Republicans have otherwise simply side-stepped these kind of issues by declaring: I am not a scientist.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:i'th Post by Aereus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The irony in this statement is so palpable, one could cut it with a knife: Florida, the Sunshine State, is a poor choice for solar due to "cloud cover" ...

    4. Re:i'th Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The irony in this statement is so palpable, one could cut it with a knife:

      Florida, the Sunshine State, is a poor choice for solar due to "cloud cover" ...

      It isn't irony. It was marketing. The cloud cover is a given, but the state is a greenhouse for about 9 months a year and the unclouded sun can be intense due to its sub-tropical location.

      In fact, the cloud cover is because Florida is a Sunshine State. It's a narrow strip of land surrounded on 3 sides by ocean and you cannot get more than about 100 miles away from ocean anywhere in the state. The sun boiling down on all that water forms clouds and they then move over land, dumping torrential rains almost daily in the extended summer season. Which is about the only way the place was livable prior to air conditioning - which was more or less invented in the state. The rains drop the temperatures from muggy mid-90s down to an endurable 75 or so for a brief blessed while.

      Scott, on the other hand is a jerk.

      I doubt that these anti-solar statements are a matter of the fossil fuel industry having a death-grip on the state's utilities. Florida's utilities operate on a diverse mix of fossil and nuclear plants and some of the major fossil plants are fuel-of-convenience capable (coal or oil).

  2. this is just dumb by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and I am not one who buys into the doom and gloom scenarios that the global warming crowd would like us to, but restricting people from learning about it does nothing.

    even if I am wrong, i would much rather an open debate over this.

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:this is just dumb by Deadstick · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps they're confusing "climate change" with "Beetlejuice". Say it too many times...

    2. Re:this is just dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if you don't buy the doom and gloom scenarios, of all places to be worried about *mild* climate change scenarios, Florida is it.

  3. 5 words you cannot say in Florida? by ramriot · · Score: 5, Funny

    So as a Floridian federal employee I cannot say:-

    "There is no such thing as human induced [climate change], or [global warming] as it was once called and my belief in this will last as long as the [sustainability] of a congressman's gravy train."

    but I can say:-

    "You climate deniers are full of S..t, and are definitely corrupt and in the pocket of the oil industry"

    OK, I can go with that.

  4. Good thing English is such a flexible language by byuu · · Score: 5, Funny

    climate change => weather modification, temperature shifting
    global warming => worldwide heating, earth roasting
    sustainability => maintainability, continuity
    Florida => laughingstock of the world

    Easy, right?

  5. Re:Hilarious by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One side of the abortion debate describes foes as "anti-choice" rather than "pro-life."

    To be honest, that one seems to make sense - these "pro-life" people are more likely to supports wars and the death penalty, so calling them "pro-life" seems kind of disingenuous.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. Re:Hilarious by itzly · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're confusing race with genetics. The two are not related in any way. Race is a human construct.

    Race is a human construct based on small differences in genetics.