A week after Florida’s conservative Republican banned state workers from uttering the phrases “climate change” or “global warming”, a Florida employee has been reprimanded and told not to come to work after acknowledging the obvious. 

Florida’s governor is Rick Scott – a billionaire conservative businessman, climate change skeptic, and Voldemort look-alike – who denies forbidding state employees to speak those four words.  But just like how climate change is a fact that cannot be denied, Scott’s not-so-secret ban claimed its first victim this month.

Long-time Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) worker Barton Bibler was issued a letter of reprimand and ordered to take two days of leave.  This was because attended a Florida Coastal Managers Forum, where a number of attendees discussed climate change and sea-level rise, among other environmental topics. 

In a move reminiscent of oppression in the Soviet Union, Bibler was ordered not to return to work without a medical clearance from his doctor for unspecified “medical condition and behavior.” 

“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,” said Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Director Jerry Phillips.  “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.”

Florida’s coastal urban areas such as Miami Beach are already subject to flooding because of rising sea levels.  But a new report says salt water isn’t just a threat to cars and coastal real estate.

A report titled Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise in Florida (.pdf link) says that Florida’s fresh water wells are going salty – and therefore, non-potable.  According to the report from US Government scientists:

“Rising sea level will increase the hydraulic backpressure on coastal aquifers, reduce groundwater flow toward the ocean, and cause the saltwater front to move inland, thus threatening to contaminate water-supply wells in coastal areas with seawater. In the low-lying southernmost Everglades, sea-level rise will cause brackish waters to encroach farther northward.”

I wonder if Floridians will be allowed to call for help when their kidneys begin to fail from drinking saltwater?  I wonder how many will regret voting for conservative global warming deniers?