Florida State Employee Speaks Up after Being Ordered to Get Psych Exam for saying “Climate Change”

March 21, 2015

Catch 23.

To speak up about climate change in Rick Scott’s Florida, you’d have to be crazy.

Right?

Posted by greenman3610
Filed in Crock of the Week

27 Comments »

27 Responses to “Florida State Employee Speaks Up after Being Ordered to Get Psych Exam for saying “Climate Change””

Andy Lee Robinson Says:

March 21, 2015 at 6:05 am
We all knew the GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, but this is insidious and nasty.
Looks like they issued a fatwa to the GOP to silence climate change on pain of losing funding and support in the primaries, and have to sign an oath to that effect.
State employees are then terrorized into complying in order to keep their jobs, and the truth buried.

Just uttering the words or acknowledging Climate Change becomes an instant exit to gardening leave and psychological assessment or worse.

This Orwellian tactic is beyond scandalous, it’s treacherous.

I hope more people will come out to expose this corruption, rescue reality and put it back where it belongs so we can start fixing the system, and the planet.

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- climatelurker Says:
  
  March 22, 2015 at 8:31 am
  Note that ONE week after Mitt Romney stated he thinks the climate is changing and it’s caused by human activity, he backed out of his second run for the presidency. Coincidence? NOPE.
  
  Reply
  - dumboldguy Says:
    
    March 22, 2015 at 10:17 am
    Yes, and it’s interesting that Romney seems to have taken Rubio under his wing and is “mentoring” him. Will that produce a change in Rubio’s positions as a climate change denier? Was Romney stepping out front on the issue to make it easier for Rubio to do so later? Will Cruz “move” in response? Is it possible that some sanity is creeping under the tent of the Repugnant clown circus and they are getting ready to believe the scientists? Will the sanity be driven away by threats from the Koch brothers to cut off campaign contributions to those who accept AGW? Stay tuned.
    
    Reply
redskylite Says:

March 21, 2015 at 6:09 am
I once had a job where you were supposed to keep your head down and not “rock the boat” so I can sympathize with Mr. Bibler in Florida. I am pleased to see that a least some citizens are incensed enough to protest at his treatment. In earlier days before the internet took hold, there were not many avenues to register solidarity and support, certainly Barton Bibler has mine.

“About a dozen members of the group Forecast the Facts, many appearing with their mouths covered by duct tape emblazoned with the words “climate change,” dropped off about 43,000 electronically signed petitions Friday with the receptionists at Gov. Rick Scott’s Capitol office.”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/group-petitions-for-inquiry-into-claims-of-climate-change-ban/2222235

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Grapevine Wall (@GrapevineWall) Says:

March 21, 2015 at 6:43 am
You’ll enjoy an art piece I made about good ole Rick Scott – http://tilleyart.com/governor-rick-scott-about-climate-science-i-have-not-been-convinced/

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1happywoman Says:

March 21, 2015 at 7:45 am
The PEER website has links to PEER’s complaint, the medical release letter and form, the letter of reprimand, the meeting notes, and a PEER article reporting that fines collected from Florida polluters fell by more than half in 2013:

http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2015/03/18/scott’s-climate-change-gag-order-claims-a-victim/

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- dumboldguy Says:
  
  March 21, 2015 at 9:09 am
  Thank you for the link. Some great (and unbelievable) stuff there.
  
  My crap detectors vibrated a little in reading it all—-it almost seems like Bibler was being a bit of a “bad boy” on purpose and trying to set them up.
  
  If so, he succeeded beyond any expectations and the knuckle-draggers are now in big trouble. The reprimand was bad enough, the two days involuntary leave (charged to “PERSONAL leave) was outrageous, and the medical clearance requirement is simply beyond belief. The inappropriate harshness and overkill by DEP DOES demonstrate how fearful they (and Scott?) are about open discussion of climate cjhange in Fl.
  
  A good analogy would be that the fools have walked into a mine field, and in their ignorance didn’t even notice. Now they are standing in the middle of it with all feet firmly planted on mines—if anyone lifts a foot, a mine blows, and the cascade will get them all.
  
  The PEER complaint is well done—-I DO hope that criminal charges result from it, but won’t hold my breath—-just the bad publicity is wonderful.
  
  Reply
  - Jim Housman Says:
    
    March 21, 2015 at 1:54 pm
    While sharing the view that Rick Scott is a nasty piece of work I, too, smelled a fish in Mr. Bibler’s account of the situation.
    
    If he purposely instigated that situation and it is turning out badly for the gov, well, that’s great.
    
    Reply
    - neilblanchard Says:
      
      March 22, 2015 at 7:19 am
      He acknowledges reality, that’s all. It is pretty difficult to do scientifically based work while ignoring reality.
      
      Reply
Gingerbaker Says:

March 21, 2015 at 7:52 am
One of the more bitter regrets of my life is that I did not become a lawyer. There are SO many people/institutions who richly deserve to be separated from all their money.

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- dumboldguy Says:
  
  March 21, 2015 at 8:42 am
  Uh, GB? Your emphasis on “separating people/institutions from their money” here is only OK if the money is not headed to your pocket but to some “greater good”. Otherwise, you’d just be “one of them”—-greed and the desire for personal gain at the expense of others is our biggest problem.
  
  Reply
philip64 Says:

March 21, 2015 at 8:13 am
The behaviour of the officials involved in this fiasco is only explicable in a climate of fear, one which Rick Scott and his fellow deniers seem to have created inside Florida’s institutions. That’s the real revelation here: what happens when these people get into positions of power. They’ve no answer whatsoever to the scientific evidence; so they try to gag people from mentioning it. Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

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- caerbannog666 Says:
  
  March 21, 2015 at 10:15 am
  What needs to be done is to put some names/faces to the responsible individuals in the chain of command above Bibler.
  
  Public shaming won’t work for Scott, but it might prove effective with folks lower in the bureaucratic food chain. The only to provide any protection for others in Bibler’s position is to subject the responsible individuals above Bibler to appropriate public humiliation — i.e. make examples of them.
  
  Make other managers think twice about pursuing similar actions against conscientious employees under them.
  
  It’s past time to start playing serious hardball with those folks.
  
  Reply
  - dumboldguy Says:
    
    March 21, 2015 at 11:26 am
    With any luck, it will go beyond “public shaming”. Take a look at the PEER complaint in 1happy’s link—-in addition to invoking whistleblower protections, it asks for an investigation into criminal behavior. Someone may be convicted and go to jail. That should keep “bosses” from running blindly into minefields.
    
    “3. Consider the referral of a criminal case to the Office of the State Attorney, 2nd Judicial Circuit, due to the efforts by Mr. Bibler’s superiors, Ms. Gengenbach and Ms. Boree, to procure the alteration of public records”.
    
    Reply
dumboldguy Says:

March 21, 2015 at 8:36 am
This is not the only “gagging” of public employees going on in Florida under the leadership of Der Fuehrer Scott. Prison inspectors have been gagged also, and this in a state where 346 inmates died last year, many under suspicious circumstances.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/20/3637101/florida-prison-gag-order/

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John Eric Victor Says:

March 21, 2015 at 9:36 am
Rick Scott is amazing. Normally, politicians are elected on their looks and have backgrounds free of major criminal activity. But Rick Scott looks like an escapee space alien from Star Wars and has a criminal background. What has happened to the red neck voter? Beyond stupid.

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David Keller (@bullsnbearszx) Says:

March 21, 2015 at 9:37 am
I’m not sure that many are understanding the significance of employees at the Florida DEP being unable to address climate change.

The FDEP runs the CCCL (coastal construction control line) permitting program. This program regulates how closely a building can be constructed to the coast line, and how high the building must be elevated above the mean high water line.

They do this by mapping the tidal and storm surge effects of a 100 year storm event – that is a storm that has a probability of occurring every 100 years.

Obviously climate change could effect both the mean high water line, as well as our determination of what is, or will be a 100 year event.

My question is this: who determines what a 100 year storm event is, and is that determination based purely on historical data or do climate scientist chime in on what they expect in the future?

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anotheralionel Says:

March 21, 2015 at 10:43 am
Florida is clearly a ‘State of Fear’, thanks Crichton for that title.

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