When a University of Florida Ph.D. candidate used the phrase "climate change" in her epidemiology dissertation, which examined how climate change in Florida had affected ciguatera – a deadly fish-borne disease that affects the nervous system – she and her co-author were informed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that they couldn't use the words "climate change." They substituted "climate variation."

It's unofficial, of course, and Florida's Governor Rick Scott denies it ("I'm not a scientist," he says), but Florida's DEP – and even the state's Department of Health – are apparently on orders from somewhere in Florida's capitol not to use the words "global warming" or "climate change," and it is even questionable as to whether "sea level rise" is acceptable.

The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, according to the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald on March 12, 2015, said that the governor's administration "ordered DEP employees, contractors and volunteers not to use the terms 'climate change' and 'global warming' in official communications." The Center's investigation showed that the phrases had been used 209 times under the prior administration, but only 15 times during the first year after Rick Scott first became governor five years ago.