Officials at Florida's Department of Environmental Protection have been banned from using the terms "climate change" or "global warming" in any official communications, the Miami Herald said based on a report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

Former employees, consultants and volunteers of the agency revealed the policy, which has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy "beyond semantics," the investigative journalists pointed out. They noted that it was ironic to implement such rules in a state where "sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of ... beaches over the next 85 years."

Christopher Byrd, who worked as an attorney with the department's Office of General Counsel in the state capital of Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, noted how clear the prohibition was.

"We were told not to use the terms 'climate change,' 'global warming' or 'sustainability,'" Byrd explained. "That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel."

According to its Web site, the Department of Environmental Protection "protects, conserves and manages Florida's natural resources and enforces the state's environmental laws." The agency has about 3,200 employees and a yearly budget of $1.4 billion.

The unwritten policy went into effect when Republican Rick Scott assumed Florida's governorship in 2011, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting said. Scott, who has admitted that he is not convinced that climate change is caused by human activity, appointed Herschel Vinyard, a former Jacksonville shipbuilding executive, to head the Department of Environmental Protection.

Vinyard resigned from his post last November, ending what the Miami Herald called a "four-year run steeped in controversy," and neither he nor his successor, Scott Steverson, offered comments on the banned terms.

"(The department) does not have a policy on this (issue)," its press secretary, Tiffany Cowie, wrote in an email. She declined to respond to three other messages requesting more information, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting noted.

Kristina Trotta, who formerly worked in the department's Miami office, told the Washington Post that considering Scott's views, the ban may have seemed logical. But "it was a surprise, given what a clear threat climate change is to coral reefs and also to the state of Florida in general," Trotta noted.