Climate change, sea level rise and other hazards are all banned terms!

[Asher Kelman]

Quoted in entirety


"Dear Friend of the Nation,


Recently, some shocking news came out of Florida: It was revealed that since taking office, Governor Rick Scott has banned officials from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection from using the words "climate change' on grounds that it is not proven to be a "true fact.'1 It's an extreme ideological move that impinges on the rights of state employees while endangering a coastal state like Florida that is under high risk from the effects of climate change. Two top Florida leaders, former Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, are running for president. We need to make sure they use their national profiles to denounce the climate change gag order Rick Scott has imposed in their home state.

Tell Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio: Denounce Florida's climate change gag order. Click here to sign the petition.

Rick Scott's gag order isn't just limited to climate change. It was revealed that state employees have also been barred from using the terms "sustainability,' "global warming,' and "sea level rise.' It's an especially shocking move considering the specific threat that climate change and sea level rise pose for Florida.

The 2014 national assessment for climate change for the U.S. found that Florida is "uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise' and faces "an imminent threat of increased inland flooding...where just inches of sea level rise will impair the capacity of stormwater drainage systems to empty into the ocean.'2

Rick Scott's gag order isn't just a politically-motivated move. It's also an anti-science policy that endangers the health and safety of Floridians and puts them at an increased risk of environmental disasters.

We can't allow Florida's climate change denial policy to spread and become acceptable in American politics. That's why we need to make sure that two presidential hopefuls from Florida – Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio – quickly and clearly denounce Gov. Rick Scott's gag order and call for it to end.

Tell Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio: Denounce Florida's climate change gag order. Click here to sign the petition.

Thank you for your activism.

Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets"

 

[Asher Kelman]

These are the banned words in the state government!

"sustainability,' "global warming,' and "sea level rise.'

I'm stunned!

Asher

 

[Rachel McLain]

It's pretty insane. :-(

Rach

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

These are the banned words in the state government!

"sustainability,' "global warming,' and "sea level rise.'

I'm stunned!

This reflects the interaction between two tools of the Republican arsenal:

• Deny science
• Teach ignorance​

It used to be that ignorance was only the result of a lack of teaching. But the Republican party, evidently feeling that its needs the support of the ignorant to succeed, has learned how to teach ignorance.

It even has a special part of the radio-frequency spectrum over which to conduct this electronically - the AM broadcast band.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Jerome Marot]

Can the world economy survive without fossil fuels? Larry Elliott - The Guardian - 8 Apr. 2015

 

[Doug Kerr]

I have advised a member of my family, an ardent right-winger, that I can understand why he desperately wants a Republican to become president of the United States for the next several terms.

If a Democrat wins, the site of his Florida home will be under water in about 50 years owing to the rise in sea levels. Of course if a Republican wins, it won't - there is no rise in sea level for them.

I'm at 4575 ft MSL, so there will be no need for me to consider converting.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

This is an excerpt from an article on the online Huffington Post:

According to Wisconsin's Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, working on climate change, or even just talking about it while at work, is a waste of public funds.

On Tuesday, the board voted 2-to-1 to prohibit staff "from engaging in global warming or climate change work" while on the clock at the Board of Commissioners.

The move comes as Republicans on the board expressed outrage that the board's executive director, Tia Nelson, had served on a state global warming task force in 2007 and 2008, which was organized by former Gov. Jim Doyle (D).

"[Climate change is] not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries," said state Treasurer Matt Adamczyk (R), the leader of the effort, according to a Bloomberg Business report on the hearing. "That's what I want our employees working on. That's it. Managing our trust funds." Adamczyk, Secretary of State Doug La Follette (D) and Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) make up the board. . . .​

Adamczyck was, at least, refreshingly candid in his explanation of the policy.

New Mexico has a unique situation for managing its public lands. The Land Commissioner by himself (there is no Board) has absolute power, not requiring any concurrence from the legislature, to manage the public lands, which includes entering into leases or royalty-bearing agreement for the extraction of oil or minerals, or selling tracts of pubic land to private developers.

The office was held for the previous few years by a well-respected Democrat, but in the last election he was defeated by a tiny margin by a Republican. There has now emerged a "civic organization" that strongly advocates that public lands now owned by the federal government (of which there is much in New Mexico) be transferred to state control. "The state", of course (that would be the Land Commissioner), "could administer them much more prudently and economically than the federal government."

Wonder what might happen next.

Have you ever wondered why, in the gigantic state of Texas, there is so little public land? A result is that to even fish or hunt one often must go to privately-held "facilities" in Texas - or go to adjoining New Mexico.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Tom dinning]

Thats as bad as banning words like '******'and 'c-u-n-t'. Maybe they could create pseudonyms.

 

[Tom dinning]

Thats as bad as banning words like '******'and 'c-u-n-t'. Maybe they could create pseudonyms.

Bloody hell! Who's banning what?
I said 'n-i-g-g-e-r' and I haven't been shot yet.

Watch what you say, gentlemen lest you get caught up in your own silence.

 

[Michael Nagel]

Hi Doug,

This is pretty serious.

When I read this news, a very German word came to my mind: Denkverbot.

I did not find a similar word in English, but thought crime comes pretty close...

This is not the right way to tackle important tasks for the future (or should I say tasks that will help that there is a future?).

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Michael,

Hi Doug,

This is pretty serious.

When I read this news, a very German word came to my mind: Denkverbot.

I did not find a similar word in English, but thought crime comes pretty close...

I think the literal translation is even better: "the forbidding of thought" (I think - my German is not all that good)! I think it is better in that it implies that all thought is illegal.

(We have a political party in the US devoted to that notion, in a slightly different way.)

This is not the right way to tackle important tasks for the future (or should I say tasks that will help that there is a future?).

Indeed.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Jerome Marot]

Recently, some shocking news came out of Florida: It was revealed that since taking office, Governor Rick Scott has banned officials from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection from using the words "climate change'

It would thus seem that Florida's Department of Environmental Protection is as aptly named as Oceania's "Ministry of Truth".

 

[Michael Nagel]

It would thus seem that Florida's Department of Environmental Protection is as aptly named as Oceania's "Ministry of Truth".

Wouldn't that be Minitrue to be precise?

Newspeak is becoming more and more popular, maybe not in the very same way George Orwell imagined, but pretty much in the spirit of '1984'.

Trying to eliminate words, altering the meaning of words and related language manipulations has become pretty much popular the last 15-20 years, unfortunately few take notice.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Jerome Marot]

Yep. And with Facebook, even the proles have telescreens.

 

[Michael Nagel]

Yep. And with Facebook, even the proles have telescreens.

+1

This was maybe the idea behind FB and the availability of cheap smartphones...

 

[Chris Calohan]

Well, you ought to live in this state, first with Jeb who always reminded me of Charles Durning in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as he did the politico shuffle everything something controversial arose, and Marco Rubio isn't smart enough to denounce anything but Obama's shift to opening trade policies with Cuba...

I recently did an interview with a local TV station on our State Park and used the words Global warning, rising sea levels and ecosystems failures numerous times. I do keep a wary eye behind me that one of Governor Felon's (that's what we call Scott) henchmen might come hunt me down and wash my mouth out with soap. Third largest state in the bloody country and we have the largest idiot for a governor.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Chris,

Well, you ought to live in this state, first with Jeb who always reminded me of Charles Durning in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as he did the politico shuffle everything something controversial arose, and Marco Rubio isn't smart enough to denounce anything but Obama's shift to opening trade policies with Cuba...

I recently did an interview with a local TV station on our State Park and used the words Global warning, rising sea levels and ecosystems failures numerous times. I do keep a wary eye behind me that one of Governor Felon's (that's what we call Scott) henchmen might come hunt me down and wash my mouth out with soap. Third largest state in the bloody country . . .

By population that is; 22nd by area.

... and we have the largest idiot for a governor.

It's sad. It is unfortunate of late to see this sort of cultivated, institutionalized ignorance spreading to the more northerly states!

We actually moved out of Texas to escape governor JR ("Rick") Perry.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Chris Calohan]

Oh, the other idiot in the formula...he's a real work of art, too.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

It's sad. It is unfortunate of late to see this sort of cultivated, institutionalized ignorance spreading to the more northerly states!

Hi Doug,

Well, understanding it could be the first step towards repairing it.

Lawrence Lessig's TED talk is most illuminating for those who didn't already figure out what is wrong.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Jerome Marot]

22nd by area.

For the moment.


This thread reminds me that I took this picture on Surfside beach, TX, in 2006. I don't think that house exists any more.

​

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jerome,

For the moment.

Indeed. Perhaps declining.

This thread reminds me that I took this picture on Surfside beach, TX, in 2006. I don't think that house exists any more.

The mention of Surfside Beach brings back great memories. Years ago, when my late first wife and I lived in Dallas, we would often go with another couple we knew, in their motor home, to Surfside Beach. We would park the motor home on the beach and have a wonderful time.

One time we misjudged the tide and when we woke up in the morning found that the motor home was about to be washed out to sea!

Thanks for the memory.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

Hi Doug,

Well, understanding it could be the first step towards repairing it.

Lawrence Lessig's TED talk is most illuminating for those who didn't already figure out what is wrong.

Wonderful stuff! Thanks so much.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Michael Nagel]

Sadly Wyoming is also part of this.

Recently taking photos for the purpose of collection ecological data was also outlawed (bill text)

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Doug,

Well, understanding it could be the first step towards repairing it.

Lawrence Lessig's TED talk is most illuminating for those who didn't already figure out what is wrong.

Bart,

I remember when I entered the Medical School at the University in Birmingham UK, as a wide-eyed fellow, brimming with expectations of the wonders of science and technology, I was given a rule to apply before venturing to interfere with a bad situation.

First, do no harm!​

That meant holding back on what's so obvious to do, (what's technically feasible), to work from the proposition of "should" instead of "could"!

Not recognizing science is merely a ploy. The university-educated Republicans don't actually believe in their rhetoric, just don't allow money to be spent on any solutions that don't benefit their own finances in the near term.

They promote a culture that anyone who wants to protect the environment is a over pessimistic worker for the liberal left of the country and a threat to the prosperity of "ordinary Americans"! What's amazing is that so-called, "ordinary Americans" vote for them in droves in the "Red States" of the USA!

People here are not brought up with the philosophy of "First do no harm", as invading Iraq was considered a worthy project! But the idea of understanding the counteracting, self-neutralizing potentially dangerous and opposed cultural forces, was akin to becoming addicted to soap operas. The idea was that technological superiority made such evaluations mute.

What they miss is that technology only is reliable if one is willing to simply nuke your enemies and wipe these areas off the map!

Now back to the riding waters and climate change. The averseness to science, fed from dismissing evolutionary genetics as the work of the Anti-Christ, now is part of the thinking of major swathes of the USA. As soon as one resorts to scientific discourse, one is suspected of simply assembling a pack of deceitful lies, aimed at weakening the resolve and moral fiber of the great nation.

Until dead fish floated up in a massive kill-off in layer of red-tide, warnings, (about toxic effluents of successful energy producers like Edison), in Tampa Bay were simply "unpatriotic" and suspect!

Had George Bush understood the concept of, "First do no harm" and had the education to allow caution in meddling in tribal conflicts, he'd have not unleashed the current killing passion of tribal and religious warfare threatening our lives today!

The fundamental root of the fear and loathing of science-with-social-implications
is the preaching that evolution is an evil theory. From that it has been downhill.​

We sustain our massive economy but because it's so strong, we're delusional that somehow God wil protect the USA, even if we make some mistakes about such minor issues as climate change. After all, as long as we fight same sex marriage and masturbation and oppose the ungodly, we'll have divine protection!

Asher