Jon Stewart let news footage do most of the work on Wednesday night’s edition of “The Daily Show.”
Reporting the news that Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has reportedly barred state officials from using the term “climate change” since 2011, the host played a clip of an ex-government worker who was critical of the move.
“At some point it was mentioned that sea level rise was to be referred to as ‘nuisance flooding,'” one former employee of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.
“Ah yes!” Stewart said. “Moisture inconvenience! State-wide jacuzzification.”
Next Stewart rolled a clip of Bryan Koon, the Florida chief of emergency management, dancing around the word at a recent hearing.
Democratic state Sen. Jeff Clemens eventually pinned and interogated Koon’s repeated use of the word “issue” to mean “climate change.”
“What issue is that?” asked Clemens.
“The issue you mentioned earlier,” Koon said, as the room burst into laughter on the tape.
One lawmaker was laughing so hard he began to weeze, causing Stewart to worry he’d be the first casualty of climate change.
Watch the clip, courtesy of Comedy Central:
I prefer the term “embarrassing wetness in the lower regions”.
Simply an “extravagance of humidity”.
I prefer the term “unscientific hypothesis not supported by data but supported by statists”.
Unfortunately, as inane as Florida’s governor is (or “insane”), this has been a very real policy. State employees have been under a gag-order for 5 years, and unable to mention “Climate-change” or even “Sea Level Rise”. Rick Scott has used his appointments at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, together with these policies, to conduct a quasi-Stalinist purge of scientists throughout the agency, statewide. Some of these people who either quit, or lost their jobs, have been recognized internationally for their research on salt-water intrusion as a result of sea levels rising, which is…wait for it…as a result of climate change. Just look at the pre-election meeting which Scott was forced to attend with climate scientists to discuss the issue (“forced” as the denial had become a minor political liability), and the response after which was “I’m not a scientist”…while never mentioning “climate change” himself.
It’s time for the real grown-ups who care about future generations to stand up and take charge and power away from the Duke Energies, Koch Industries, and other corporations who are killing the planet (and it all starts with repealing Citizens United, which is another story altogether). Maybe the change will come when companies start exporting their jobs OUT of Florida, as the real cost of climate change and harsh weather patterns takes its toll.
The earth “peed its’ pants.”