Florida DEP employees told not to use terms “climate change” and “global warming”
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028693
Miami Herald : In 2011, Governor Rick Scott took office in Florida and appointed Herschel Vinyard Jr as the director of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). According to many DEP employees, shortly thereafter they were instructed to stop using phrases such as “climate change” and “global warming” in official documents and statements. However, both Tiffany Cowie, the DEP’s press secretary, and Jeri Bustamante, Scott’s spokeswoman, have denied that any such policy was ever put in place. Scott has previously said that he was not convinced by the evidence for climate change and also that he is “not a scientist.” Florida is under severe threat from the effects of climate change; up to 30% of its beaches are predicted to be submerged by the end of the century as sea levels rise.
