Florida governor Rick Scott continues to deny that his office has forbidden state staff to use the term "climate change." Really, Rick? Watch Florida emergency management director, Bryan Koon squirm under questioning.
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Can You Get to the Top of a Rightwing Party Unless You're an Unrepentant Liar?
Florida governor Rick Scott vehemently denies there's any such thing as a ban prohibiting state employees from using terms such as "climate change" or "global warming."
Tell that to longtime Florida public servant, Barton Bibler.
...Bibler reportedly included an explicit mention of climate change in his official notes from a Florida Coastal Managers Forum meeting in late February, during which climate change, rising sea levels and the possible environmental impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline were discussed.
On 9 March, Bibler received a formal reprimand for “misrepresenting that ‘the official meeting agenda included climate change’”, according to a statement from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a nationwide non-profit that champions public employees’ rights and providers resources and guidance to whistleblowers using its network of members across the country.
Bibler was instructed to stay away from the office for two days and told he could return to work only after a mental health evaluation from his doctor verified his “fitness for duty”, the complaint said. In the letter to Florida’s inspector general, Candie Fuller, the state’s Peer director calls for a full investigation to the matter.
Bibler told the Miami Herald that he “didn’t get the memo” about the gag order, so when he introduced himself by congratulating other officials on the call for the “exciting” work they were doing to address climate change, the “reaction was mostly shock”.
Tell that to longtime Florida public servant, Barton Bibler.
...Bibler reportedly included an explicit mention of climate change in his official notes from a Florida Coastal Managers Forum meeting in late February, during which climate change, rising sea levels and the possible environmental impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline were discussed.
On 9 March, Bibler received a formal reprimand for “misrepresenting that ‘the official meeting agenda included climate change’”, according to a statement from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a nationwide non-profit that champions public employees’ rights and providers resources and guidance to whistleblowers using its network of members across the country.
Bibler was instructed to stay away from the office for two days and told he could return to work only after a mental health evaluation from his doctor verified his “fitness for duty”, the complaint said. In the letter to Florida’s inspector general, Candie Fuller, the state’s Peer director calls for a full investigation to the matter.
Monday, March 09, 2015
Well, That Certainly Fixes Everything
The rightwing state government in Florida knows how to respond to climate change - bar employees of the state environmental protection department from using the words "climate change, global warming" and "sustainability." There, problem solved.
Florida governor Rick "I am not a scientist" Scott is said to be behind the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" policy.
Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the agency in charge of setting conservation policy and enforcing environmental laws in the state, issued directives in 2011 barring thousands of employees from using the phrases “climate change” and “global warming”, according to a bombshell report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR).
The report ties the alleged policy, which is described as “unwritten”, to the election of Republican governor Rick Scott and his appointment of a new department director that year. Scott, who was re-elected last November, has declined to say whether he believes in climate change caused by human activity.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Florida - Global Warming's Punching Bag
What's a "perfect storm" Florida-style? That's easy, a property market collapse, a Tea Bagger governor and the onset of the ravages of climate change. That's a real Trifecta.
Florida, like other states in that corner of America, is reeling from a sustained drought that shows no sign of ending any time soon.
At the north end of the sprawling Everglades system, endangered snail kites are abandoning nests from the Kissimmee River basin down to Lake Okeechobee. Marshes in the heart of the Everglades are burning or shriveling into cracked mud.
On the east coast, oysters are dying as sea water pushes deeper into the brackish St. Lucie River estuary. On the west, explosions of toxic algae are killing fish and triggering public health warnings in the Caloosahatchee River. At the south end of the Glades, stretches of coastal Florida Bay mangroves have dipped into unhealthy hyper-salinity.
The ecological damage from one of South Florida’s worst droughts is deepening, water managers said Thursday, and rain is going to have to arrive soon —and in big buckets — to heal it.
“This has essentially overwhelmed and taken a toll on the entire natural system from top to bottom,’’ said Linda Lindstrom, director of restoration sciences for the South Florida Water Management District.
The drought is just one challenge confronting the district, which also began the process Thursday of meeting demands from the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to reduce property tax rates and slash $128 million from the budget of an agency that oversees the water supply and flood control for 16 counties.
Yeah, that's right. You've got a severe water crisis so the solution is to slash the budget of the water management district. Poor old Florida, the place my parents' generation went to while away their last years and escape Canadian winters. A lot of the state, particularly the places where people like to live, is very low-lying and vulnerable to sea level rise that will be continuing throughout this century. Add that to the state's susceptibility to hurricanes, which are only expected to increase in frequency and severity, and it's no wonder that real estate, Florida's economic engine, is getting harder to flog down there.
Florida, like other states in that corner of America, is reeling from a sustained drought that shows no sign of ending any time soon.
At the north end of the sprawling Everglades system, endangered snail kites are abandoning nests from the Kissimmee River basin down to Lake Okeechobee. Marshes in the heart of the Everglades are burning or shriveling into cracked mud.
On the east coast, oysters are dying as sea water pushes deeper into the brackish St. Lucie River estuary. On the west, explosions of toxic algae are killing fish and triggering public health warnings in the Caloosahatchee River. At the south end of the Glades, stretches of coastal Florida Bay mangroves have dipped into unhealthy hyper-salinity.
The ecological damage from one of South Florida’s worst droughts is deepening, water managers said Thursday, and rain is going to have to arrive soon —and in big buckets — to heal it.
“This has essentially overwhelmed and taken a toll on the entire natural system from top to bottom,’’ said Linda Lindstrom, director of restoration sciences for the South Florida Water Management District.
The drought is just one challenge confronting the district, which also began the process Thursday of meeting demands from the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to reduce property tax rates and slash $128 million from the budget of an agency that oversees the water supply and flood control for 16 counties.
Yeah, that's right. You've got a severe water crisis so the solution is to slash the budget of the water management district. Poor old Florida, the place my parents' generation went to while away their last years and escape Canadian winters. A lot of the state, particularly the places where people like to live, is very low-lying and vulnerable to sea level rise that will be continuing throughout this century. Add that to the state's susceptibility to hurricanes, which are only expected to increase in frequency and severity, and it's no wonder that real estate, Florida's economic engine, is getting harder to flog down there.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Could Charlie Crist Upset Florida's Republican Tea Party?
Florida's Republican nobs have passed judgment on Governor Charlie Crist's ambitions for the US Senate - he isn't rightwing enough to deserve the nomination. So Crist is planning to run as an independent which, according to McClatchey, has his party utterly apoplectic:
You've never seen such fuming, whining and grinding of capped teeth. And that's not from voters — that's from Republican leaders, who are pitching a hissy fit.
They want the governor to shut up and go away, but he's not playing ball. They want him to yield the stage to Marco Rubio, a robotic right-wing smoothie, but Charlie insists on hanging around for an encore.
...Not so long ago, the governor was their golden boy, and not just because of his trademark tan. Most of the party's top dogs were singing his praises for the Senate
.
But try as he might -- and at times it was pathetic to watch -- Crist just couldn't swerve hard enough to the right. His belated bashing of President Obama sounded halfhearted compared with the spittle-flecked ravings on Fox News.
The governor is famous for tacking with the political breeze, but even he couldn't pull off a convincing ideological swoop to ultra-conservativism.
That's the irreconcilable problem: Crist is a moderate in a party whose leaders no longer tolerate it.
Always distrustful of him, Republican screamers officially turned on the governor after he accepted federal stimulus benefits. In a state suffering from brutal unemployment and epidemic home foreclosures, only a moron would have turned down the money.
And that says it all. Charlie isn't moronic enough to deserve the Republican nomination in Florida, the state where he's the sitting governor. Charlie didn't measure up to the, "spittle flecked ravings" of today's Republican leadership.
You've never seen such fuming, whining and grinding of capped teeth. And that's not from voters — that's from Republican leaders, who are pitching a hissy fit.
They want the governor to shut up and go away, but he's not playing ball. They want him to yield the stage to Marco Rubio, a robotic right-wing smoothie, but Charlie insists on hanging around for an encore.
...Not so long ago, the governor was their golden boy, and not just because of his trademark tan. Most of the party's top dogs were singing his praises for the Senate
.
But try as he might -- and at times it was pathetic to watch -- Crist just couldn't swerve hard enough to the right. His belated bashing of President Obama sounded halfhearted compared with the spittle-flecked ravings on Fox News.
The governor is famous for tacking with the political breeze, but even he couldn't pull off a convincing ideological swoop to ultra-conservativism.
That's the irreconcilable problem: Crist is a moderate in a party whose leaders no longer tolerate it.
Always distrustful of him, Republican screamers officially turned on the governor after he accepted federal stimulus benefits. In a state suffering from brutal unemployment and epidemic home foreclosures, only a moron would have turned down the money.
And that says it all. Charlie isn't moronic enough to deserve the Republican nomination in Florida, the state where he's the sitting governor. Charlie didn't measure up to the, "spittle flecked ravings" of today's Republican leadership.
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