Florida's stealthy climate policy visits DC
Keith Rizzardi
Professor of Law at Nova Southeastern University; Special Counsel at GrayRobinson, P.A.
Florida's climate policy - unofficial censorship & official denial - just went national. Two news stories, more than two years apart, show the pattern of how the state and federal governments both censored climate science and then denied the policy of censorship.
In March 2015, the Miami Herald revealed how Gov. Rick Scott's administration and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection censored scientists who mentioned climate change or global warming. Senior officials told state scientists "not to use the terms." But official statements of denial followed. “DEP does not have a policy on this,” said the agency press secretary, and “There’s no policy on this,” wrote the Governor's spokeswoman.
Years later, in August 2017, Science Magazine reported on a U.S. Department of Energy email instructing a scientist to delete references to climate change in her research grant paper. The official response came straight from the Florida playbook. "There is no departmental-wide policy banning the term 'climate change' from being used in DOE materials. That is completely false," said the DOE spokeswoman.
No policy? Completely false? A group of politicians and their spokespeople, from Tallahassee to Washington, are saying and doing the exact same thing to climate scientists over the course of two years. Agree with it or not, that is the very definition of policy: "a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by a government, party, business, or individual."
Manager - Environmental Engineering, Remediation, & Chemical Management Program -- IBM Corporate Sustainability Office
7 年Gov. Scott should acknowledge and accept the huge breadth of scientific evidence indicating that climate change is real, and is already affecting FL in a big way. Floridians (and other world citizens) have nothing to gain and much to lose by denying climate science and stifling research. Let DEP and Dept of Energy (and the multiple other federal and state agencies that have been stifled) do their job and research/develop solutions to battle climate change. Private industry (including the majority of Fortune 500s) and nearly every government around the world are on board and already way ahead of the (current) US government. We still have the opportunity to take a leadership role instead of acting like an ostrich with our head in the sand. Let's not waste another day on the wrong side of history!