Charnele Michel, who has worked as a graduate assistant on the eyesontherise.org project since its launch, has been awarded FIU’s University Graduate School Provost Award for Student Engagement. Michel will receive the award on April 10. Without Charnele’s innovation, dedication, and creativity, eyesontherise.org would never have been able to do what it’s done in the past year.[…]
Above: DEP officials told Jim Harper not to use the term “climate change” in an educational project he was doing on coral reefs. Photo by John Van Beekum. Republished with permission.
By Tristram Korten
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Republished with permission from fcir.org
The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years.
But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency on the front lines of studying and planning for these changes.
DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department that has about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.
“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’ ” said Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013. “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.” […]
Check out this promo video about MAST @ FIU’s electronic race car that they will race in downtown Miami this coming weekend. The project was sponsored, in part, by eyesontherise.org to communicate ways we can slow climate change — and have fun doing it! Read more about the project from eyesontherise.org, see what FIU’s student media[…]
eyesontherise.org team member and documentarian Kate MacMillin will be joined by Miami’s local public television station WPBT2 to discuss issues of collaboration between educators and industry. They will be joined by other journalism educators around the nation. Tweet to #EdShift at 1 p.m. Eastern! #EdShift is a product of PBS.org’s MediaShift. (Also, turn to MediaShift on March 23[…]