Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he attends a road expansion event at the Casa Maiz restaurant as he fields questions from reporters about climate change. Source: AFP
POLITICS in a modern representative democracy is dominated by semantics and sales pitches.
One astute politician in the United States understands this so well he has decided to pick and choose the words his state's officials are allowed to use.
The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, has reportedly disallowed his employees to use the phrase, "climate change" and "global warming" when speaking in public.
In a perfect example of the farcical nature of such a policy, video has emerged of one Florida official having a hard time navigating the unspoken rule.
Bryan Koon, Florida's emergency management chief, testified before the state senate's budget subcommittee last week. Throughout his testimony he was forced to employ some linguistic gymnastics in order to avoid uttering the outlawed phrases — much to the amusement of those in attendance.
Assuring the senate subcommittee that future mitigation plans will contain financial provisions for incidents of man-made nasty weather, Mr. Koon was careful not to use particular words.
"Future version of our mitigation plan will be required to have language discussing that issue," he said.
Knowing the politician was backed into a corner, the senator asked with a cheeky grin: "What issue is that?"
"The issue that you mentioned earlier ..." Koon meekly responded as the committee panel erupted in laughter.
Senator Jeff Clemens, who ran the senate subcommittee, had facetiously offered the term "atmospheric re-employment" earlier in the discussion as an alternative phrase "the governor could get behind."
The Florida Centre for Investigative Reporting first broke the story of the climate change silent treatment earlier in the month.
"We were told not to use the terms 'climate change,' 'global warming' or 'sustainability,'" said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of General Counsel, reported the FCIR.
Since then, several ex-state employees as well as contractors, researchers and volunteers, have come forward to make the same claim.
The governor has repeatedly denied allegations he has outlawed the phrases, simply saying "there is no policy." But the performance of Mr. Koon paints a very different picture.
One anonymous Florida official that spoke with The New Republic admitted they might just have to wait it out. "Well, the governor only has three more years, so that's kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel," they said.
Some 400 activists lie on the sand to form a message during a Greenpeace protest against global warming at a beach in Dania, Florida in November 2006. Source: AFP
Florida has a lot to loose from the effects of climate change. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, global warming is responsible for beach erosion in the peninsula.
The state has 4,500 square miles of land within 1.37 metres of sea level, and with the IPCC predicting global sea levels will rise another 26 to 98cm by 2100, Florida would be significantly effected.
If predictions by a majority of climate scientists turn out to be correct, it will be tough for Floridians to ignore the impacts of climate change. They just won't hear about it from state officials while Rick Scott is in charge.
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