Rick Scott's 'climate change' ban claims its first victim.

[JaneyVee]

Washington, DC — A Florida state employee is in hot water for speaking about climate change at an official meeting and keeping notes of that discussion in official minutes, according to a complaint filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In response, his superiors at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued him a letter of reprimand, ordered him to take two days leave and then told him not to return until he had medical clearance of his fitness for duty.

Barton Bibler is a long-time DEP employee who now serves as Land Management Plan Coordinator in its Division of State Lands. He attended a Florida Coastal Managers Forum on February 27, 2015 at which climate change and sea-level rise were discussed among a mix of public attendees. Mr. Bibler’s official notes on this meeting reflected all of that discussion. He was directed to remove any hot button issues, especially explicit references to climate change, and then was given a letter of reprimand for supposedly misrepresenting that the “official meeting agenda included climate change.”

As he was given the reprimand on March 9th, Mr. Bibler was told to not return to work for two days which would be charged against his personal leave time. Two days later he received a “Medical Release Form” requiring that his doctor supply the DEP with an evaluation of unspecified “medical condition and behavior” issues before being allowed to return to work.

“Bart Bibler has fallen through a professional looking glass in a Florida where the words ‘climate change’ may not be uttered, or even worse, written down,” stated Florida PEER Director Jerry Phillips, a former DEP attorney, pointing out that Bart Bibler has no idea whether he will ever be allowed to return to work. “If anyone needs mental health screening it is Governor Rick Scott and other officials telling state workers to pretend that climate change and sea-level rise do not exist.”

Link: http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/03/18/scott%E2%80%99s-climate-change-gag-order-claims-a-victim/
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And they're forcing the employee to take a mental exam??! GTFOHWTBS. Fascists gonna fascist.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Rick Scott has to be arrested...the 47 traitors have to be arrested, do something before the

rest of us LOSE OUR FUCKING MINDS

[Kablooie]

33. Nonsense. This is America

where any conservative is free to invent any lies they want and liberals can be arrested for speaking the truth.
Jesus founded our country and we dare not defy his laws.

[Fred Sanders]

2. This creeping authoritarianism now getting personal in a majority Democratic state..now what will they do?

And climate change change orders on government employees, paid by government for the People, is not a violation of the First Amendment because........😴😴😴😵

Cruz, Carson....J.E.B. aka 'John',....Fox, 👹👹👹, fill in the blank with some NOT "crazy talk" - the liberal media and He Who Must Not Be Mentioned is smearing you with false accusations of being nothing but crazy, here is your chance.

[tblue37]

3. K & fifth R. nt

[tblue37]

4. Sounds like the Soviets' use of nonexistent mental health problems as a way

of "disappearing" dissenters.

[2naSalit]

5. That's the plan. n/t

[JDPriestly]

20. Yes. I just can't believe that this report is anything but a hoax. Is this true?

It just seems so brazenly stupid.

[csziggy]

29. It's being reported several placees but with the same source

http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/185247 and http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/18/1371802/-Speaking-Of-Climate-Change-Earns-FL-State-Employee-A-Mental-Health-Evaluation# both attribute it to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/03/18/scott%E2%80%99s-climate-change-gag-order-claims-a-victim/

[BrotherIvan]

6. This needs a legal solution

As in, sue for wrongful termination and overturn the law.

[blkmusclmachine]

7. The GOP truly is goosestepping toward fascism.

And, yet, still so many elected DEMS want to find "compromise" with these brown shirts. WHY?!?!?!

[obxhead]

17. Because they have the same goal.

Keeping their funding families happy.

[rhett o rick]

8. And yet those in their denial bubble don't want to address that we are becoming

a corporate controlled authoritarian state.

[NCjack]

9. Thank you Barton Bibler for taking the punishment instead of participating in Gov. Scott's deception

of Florida's business and property owners and future buyers.

[GreatGazoo]

10. I still say that this move by the State of Florida is related to lawsuits

SOF is trying to create a defense from lawsuits that they did not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Lawsuits have proceeded in other areas of the country.

“This is a new kind of storm associated with climate change,” Tom LaPorte, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Water Management, told Medill Reports on day two of the April flood. Extreme flooding is part of a pattern that has emerged in the last two decades, according to Illinois State climatologist Jim Angel.

Now a major insurance company is suing Chicago-area municipal governments saying they knew of the risks posed by climate change and should have been better prepared. The class-action lawsuits raise the question of who is liable for the costs of global warming.

Filed by Farmers Insurance Co. on behalf of itself, other insurance companies and customers whose property was damaged by the surge of storm water and sewage overflow, the lawsuits allege the governments of Chicago-area municipalities knew their drainage systems were inadequate and failed to take reasonable action to prevent flooding of insured properties.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/19/climate-change-get-ready-or-get-sued/

SOF may be expecting similar lawsuits and is now engaged in setting up their defense of such suits.

[Octafish]

11. Police State of Florida

Check your brains at the border. It's the law.

[Orsino]

12. Report for reeducation, Comrade. n/t

[malaise]

13. I hope he sues them

Fuck those morons

[WillyT]

15. Huge K & R !!!

[The Wizard]

16. The Repubic Party

is a toxic cloud poisoning the Earth. And doing it for profit. That's immoral.

[secondvariety]

18. Florida sucks.

Thank God I can leave soon.

[demwing]

21. Florida could be an awesome state

if its politics were as blue as its skies and its waters.

[secondvariety]

27. Florida weather and politics-

both are oppressive and here to stay, unfortunately.

[salin]

19. Insane. Is this where we are heading?

Best wishes for Mr. Bibler.

Just how was he supposed to not record the words, yet include that a discussion on the topic was had in the meeting?

What should he have written? "Weather pattern volatility" and "abnormal water depths on the coast"?

This policy is absurd on its face, and dangerous in its practice.

[madfloridian]

22. Florida unfortunately is full of Rick Scott types..too many are my neighbors.

I hate it. I can not have a conversation on anything but the weather.

[gregcrawford]

23. Florida governor "Lurch" Scott is emblematic...

... of all that is unspeakably evil about the Far-right fascist lunatics that call themselves the Tea Party. The conservative hive mentality is congenitally incapable of rational or critical thought; they can only regurgitate rote-memorization word salad. They are so desperate for some drama in their dreary double-wide lives that they'll gladly immolate themselves in the seething furnace of mindless malice that is the Republican Party.

How much worse does this have to get before we DO something about this delusional mass hysteria? How much misery and destruction must we endure before we say, "ENOUGH!"

Oh. I forgot. Even the supposed "Democrats" are too invested in the Money Machine to risk rocking the boat with an untoward remark. Don't want to annoy Mr. Blankfein, now do we?

[heaven05]

24. when all the 'gunshine' voters

who put this clown into office are treading in seawater, we'll see 'climate change' having the last laugh.

[riobravo]

25. Emperor Scott ain't gots no clothes?

Blasphemy!! Who amongst my loyal climate-deniers will rid me of these damn climate change blasphemers!?

[world wide wally]

26. Why on Earth would Republicans ever accuse anyone else of being "Nazi-like" when they

act like this?

I think I may have to add a signature line something to the effect of "Americans prove over and over again just how stupid they are"

[riversedge]

28. "told him not to return until he had medical clearance of his fitness for duty."...

at first I thought I was reading the ONION. what is going on in America?? this is a state employee for c. sake! I am dumbfounded!

[eridani]

30. So when is he arresting Prof McNoldy?

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/rising-sea-levels-already-making-miamis-floods-worse/

You don’t have to look 85 years into the future to see what a sinking world looks like—you only need to look as far as Miami.

Climate scientists have been warning the world about sea level rise for years, pleading with governments to cut back on carbon lest all our coastal cities go the way of Venice. In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth Assessment Report, predicting that oceans would rise more than 3 feet by 2100. Those projections make for some alarming visions of the future—cities water-logged, monuments submerged, islands created.

First: Sea level rise is accelerating—perhaps faster than the IPCC has projected. When McNoldy tracked the average daily high water mark, when flooding events are most likely to occur, he saw it increase over time—but he also saw the rate of that increase go up. The last five years saw an average increase of 1.27 inches of water per year. If that rate holds steady for the next 50 years (and if McNoldy is right, it will only get worse), high tide levels in Miami would go up over five feet.

[Ilsa]

31. Stories like this having me rooting for melting ice caps

to liquidate even faster. Just to prove a point. My only hope is Gov Fascist will be in Miami to greet the flood.

[ellie]

32. How is this not a violation of Bibler's

first amendment rights?

[Rex]

34. Isn't it unconstitutional for a governor to threaten the state population?

Denying Climate Change is dangerous and harmful to the population. It should be a crime to purposely hide such danger from the public.