Florida isn’t the only state trying to shut down discussion of climate change

 http://www.vox.com/2015/3/10/8182513/florida-ban-climate-change

In a growing number of states, conservatives have been taking a rather novel approach to climate change — simply prevent people from talking about it.

Florida state employees say they were barred from using the term “climate change”

There’s a big uproar in Florida this week after an investigation alleged that the state has an unwritten policy barring environmental officials from using the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in their work. On Monday, Republican Governor Rick Scott denied any such policy was in place. But state employees and outside scientists insist there’s heavy pressure not to talk about the topic, despite the fact that Florida faces a serious threat from future sea-level rise.

If so, that wouldn’t be the first time state officials — Republicans, usually — have taken steps to prevent people from discussing global warming or climate science.

In 2012, North Carolina’s GOP-controlled state legislature passed a law to prevent the state from considering the most up-to-date climate science in formulating predictions of rising seas. In Pennsylvania in 2014, back when Republican Tom Corbett was governor, one former state employee alleged that she was ordered to remove references to “climate change” from the conservation agency’s website.

In a somewhat different vein, states like Tennessee and Louisiana have been passing laws making it easier to teachers in the classroom to present alternative theories to climate change — even though there’s a broad and firm consensus among climate scientists that human activity is responsible for the rise in global temperatures over the last 50 years.

More: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/10/8182513/florida-ban-climate-change

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