New Emails Suggest Fla. Officials Could Not Discuss Climate Change

Vehicles negotiate heavily flooded streets as rain falls, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in Miami Beach, Fla. Certain neighborhoods regularly experience flooding during heavy rains and extreme high tides. New storm water ... Vehicles negotiate heavily flooded streets as rain falls, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in Miami Beach, Fla. Certain neighborhoods regularly experience flooding during heavy rains and extreme high tides. New storm water pumps are currently being installed along the bay front in Miami Beach. National and regional climate change risk assessments have used the flooding to illustrate the Miami area's vulnerability to rising sea levels. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) MORE LESS

Florida officials have repeatedly denied that the state government has banned environmental officials from discussing climate change, but emails from Florida officials released on Wednesday may refute the claim.

As ThinkProgress noted, Greenpeace released an email exchange that appears to show two Florida officials discussing a scientist’s appearance discussing sea level rise in Florida.

According to the emails, a scientist with the Florida Coastal Office was booked to speak about rising sea levels for a National Geographic documentary.

A spokesman with the Coastal Office approved the interview but allegedly told the scientist to “make no claims as to cause … stay with the research you are doing, of course.”

“I know the drill,” the scientist allegedly said in response.

According to a report from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, the Florida government unofficially banned employees form using terms like “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications, but were permitted to discuss rising sea levels.

Amid denial from Florida officials, the new secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection repeatedly said the phrase “climate change” during his confirmation on Wednesday in an attempt to prove that no such ban on the term exists.

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  1. The second rule of climate change denial is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL!!

  2. “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
    ― George Orwell, 1984

    “War is peace.
    Freedom is slavery.
    Ignorance is strength.”

    ― George Orwell, 1984

    “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”
    ― George Orwell, 1984**

  3. Avatar for korvu korvu says:

    We all know that sea levels are rising because dumb Californians are pouring water into their side of the ocean. What else explains their shortage.

  4. we didn’t think you’d notice… we’re just looking for attention, there’s no drought

  5. Climate change is only one aspect of science that many people deny.
    They’ll say “Well, it’s only a theory” as if a theory has no standing. There are lots of theories in science. They way the scientific method operates is someone formulates a hypothesis and then goes about testing it by experimentation. At the end of his life gallileo observed that falling bodies will accelerate at the same rate regardless of their mass. Later, Newton applied mathematics to attempt to explain this observation and he formulated a theory of gravity to explain the observed facts. More recently Einstein greatly improved on Newton’s work. So… the present explanation we have for the observed attractions between objects with mass is a THEORY. But I would not suggest the science deniers test it by stepping out a 7th story window.

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