Bruce Ritchie
U. S. Sen. Bill Nelson is speaking out against policies that would prohibit government employees from discussing climate change, and offered a budget amendment Thursday to prevent federal legislation from doing so.
“We have all read news reports at the state level, the local level, maybe even at the federal level,” Nelson said. “Indeed some folks are trying to muzzle scientists from speaking about the science involved in oceans, atmosphere, climate and the weather.”
Nelson, a Democrat from Melbourne, was making a veiled reference on the state level to news reports that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under Gov. Rick Scott had an unwritten policy against using terms such as climate change and sea level rise.
Scott and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection both deny there was such a policy. The group Forecast the Facts has asked the DEP inspector general to determine whether there was such a policy.
This month, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate from Texas, told a NASA representative that the space agency should focus less on climate change and more on space exploration, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
Nelson sponsored a Senate budget amendment to block legislation that would prohibit federal agency scientists from using terms related to atmospheric, climate, weather or oceanic processes, including climate change.
On Thursday, Nelson said on the Senate floor that melting glaciers could raise sea levels as much as 10 feet and change the Gulf Stream ocean current that warms Europe in the winter.
“At times of seasonal high tide, the streets of Miami are flooded,” Nelson said.
“Scientists simply must have the tools and abilities to tell us what thy observe without limitations on the terms by which they speak,” he said.
Bruce Ritchie (@bruceritchie) covers environment, energy and growth management in Tallahassee.
