Environment FDEP Officials Ban Global Warming Terms

BRADENTON — Officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were ordered not to use the terms “climate change” or “global warming”, according to a new report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

While FDEP maintains that it has "no policy" regarding the terms, the report quotes several former employees as well as department emails in which FDEP officials were instructed not to use the terms in official communications, emails or reports.

In some instances, even the term "sea-level-rise" was scrubbed in favor of "nuisance flooding." The employees contended that it was difficult to work in a department that had to directly deal with issues associated with such matters, without being able to call them by name.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has largely evaded questions as to whether he believes in climate change, or whether its effects are linked to human behavior. While campaigning last May, he famously uttered the much lampooned line, "Well, I'm not a scientist," in response to that question.

Scott denied accusations in the FCIR report on Monday, but still would not address whether he or the agency believed in global warming, evading the question in a similar fashion.

In 2014, the National Climate Assessment was released. More than 300 experts, guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee, produced the report, which was then extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.

The report warned of southwest Florida: “just inches of sea level rise will impair the capacity of stormwater drainage systems to empty into the ocean.”

NOAA graph showing how much of Florida would be covered by water (red) with rises of 2, 4, 6 and 8 meters.