According to an investigative report released on Sunday, officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been banned from using the words “climate change” or “global warming” in any of their official reports since 2011.

Yep. “Climate change” is apparently a dirty phrase.

The report called it an “unwritten policy” that was spread verbally statewide. One source in the investigation — Chris Byrd, a DEP attorney — says that he went along with it in fear that he’d lose his job if he didn’t.

Apparently, the policy went into effect after our recently-reelected governor claimed his seat for the first time. This means that Gov. Rick Scott has not only denied the existence of climate change, but he’s also allegedly banned the phrase itself from official reports.

And this Orwellian policy does what, exactly?

Does it erase all of the 99.83 percent of peer-reviewed scientific articles on the topic that show global warming is a thing that is really happening?

Does it change the fact that Florida is ranked fifth in the country for carbon emissions?

Yeah, I don’t think that banning the words dissolves the mounds of evidence.

I do think it does do something, though: it stops conversation. Since there’s no other theory to explain the drastic jump in temperatures over the last few years, the only way to argue climate change is to not talk about it.

In a word, the ban is childish.

But global warming isn’t some fairytale for children, like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. It’s almost proven, at this point, by an outrageous number of scientists.

The fact that some conservatives seem to think it’s somehow a myth is baffling to me, and this speak-no-evil routine is downright totalitarian.

Big Brother Scott, however, denies putting such a ban in place. Apparently, it’s “just not true.”

It’s time to get our heads out of the sand and realize this is actually a thing and do something about it, whether our government recognizes it or not.