"Climate change activists blasted Florida Governor Rick Scott on Monday for leading an 'Orwellian' campaign to ban employees of the state's lead environmental agency from using such terms as 'global warming' and 'climate change.'
Despite coastal Florida's vulnerability to storm surges and rising sea levels, the state's Department of Environmental Protection was directed in 2011 not to use the phrases in official communications, according to a report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
'This is embarrassing, but worse than that, it's very worrying,' said David Hastings, a marine science professor from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, on Florida's west coast.
'To have this authoritarian word control is very Orwellian, a page right out of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' he said, referring to George Orwell's dystopian novel about widespread government surveillance."
Barbara Liston reports for Reuters March 10, 2015.
SEE ALSO:
"It’s ‘Orwellian': Florida Scientists Respond To Report That State Agency Banned ‘Climate Change’" (Climate Progress)
"In Florida, Officials Ban Term ‘Climate Change’" (Florida Center for Investigative Reporting)
"Earthjustice, Florida Dems Slam Rick Scott Over ‘Ban’ on ‘Climate Change’" (SaintPetersBlog)
"Florida Gov. Rick Scott Denies Environmental Agency Banned Term ‘Climate Change’" (Miami Herald)
"Threatened By Climate Change, Florida Reportedly Bans Term ‘Climate Change’" (Washington Post)
"In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott, Bans Use of 'Climate Change,' 'Global Warming' in Reports" (Chicago Sun-Times)
"Politics and the Floridian Language" (Atlantic)
"42 Climate Scientists To Rick Scott: Climate Change ‘Is Not A Hypothetical’" (Climate Progress: 9/18/14)
"Rick Scott, Meet the Politics of Climate Change" (New Republic: 8/5/14)
"Meet the Scientists Who Sat Rick Scott Down And Explained Climate Change To Him" (Salon: 8/21/14)
"Florida Bans Use of 'climate Change' By State Agency: Report" (Reuters)
"Florida Officials Banned From Saying ‘Climate Change’ Because Gov. Rick Scott Doesn’t Think It’s Real" (Raw Story)
"Yes, Florida Is Allowed To Ban the Term "Climate Change" From Its Workers' Mouths" (Fortune)
"Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott Denies Muzzling Global Warming Talk" (Politico)
"Rick Scott Denies Claim He Told State Officials to Stop Saying 'Climate Change'" (Bloomberg)
"Under Rick Scott, Florida Environment Officials Said to be Barred From Saying ‘Climate Change’" (Newsweek)
"Gov. Scott Bans Terms Climate Change, Global Warming" (USA TODAY)
"Did Florida Prohibit Environmental Workers From Saying 'Climate Change'?" (Christian Science Monitor)
"Florida Officials Banned the Term 'Climate Change'" (Vice News)
"Billionaire Environmentalist Targets Gov. Rick Scott for Defeat" (Naples News: 7/31/14)
