Rickford should read sources with the right information

Re Energy minister slammed for quoting source that casts doubt on climate change science, Nov. 27

Ontario Energy Minister Greg Rickford considers himself a well-studied person and takes every opportunity, whether on the internet or sources of literature, to come to his climate change denying stance.

My university educated son reminds me often that we cannot believe anything we read on the internet unless from a reputable source. I am afraid they are few and far between.

I believe the sites Rickford goes to for reliable information are questionable at best. This does not fair well for his educated assumption.

May I suggest he read one of the most compelling and factual reports available to all, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Report. Over 6,000 scientific references, peer reviewed by highly educated scientists. This report can be sourced on the internet.

Sonia Kurmey, Etobicoke

By his own admission, the website Climate Change Dispatch is one of Ontario Energy Minister Greg Rickford’s “favourite” sources for climate change information.

Climate Change Dispatch is a blog, the ranting self-published website of a former writer for such right-wing fringe outlets as Breitbart News and LifeZette. Its mission is to “deconstruct the man-made global (warming) theory propagated by” Al Gore and others. Its contents are solicited not from authoritative scientists but from its own readers ( just fill in the box on the site, with your email address). It contains the exact opposite of what is found in evidence-based, peerreviewed scientific journals.

If this junk is some of our energy minister’s “favourite” briefing material, then he is incompetent and just plain dumb. Rickford should be fired today.

Thomas Mulligan, Grimsby

This note is aimed simply at pointing out the distortion of the facts that the minister has done with respect to the “green energy” sector in Germany.

The problems with the power grid are directly — and anticipated — effects of the success of the introduction of green energy. If too large a proportion of energy comes from sources that are intermittent, it becomes very difficult to manage the power grid. This is not a reason to toss green energy aside.

Furthermore, the success of the program is the reason for lowering the subsidy to green power providers — as happened in Ontario. And the need to reallocate resources that increase energy storage and provide better management tools for the power grid. One should remember that the green energy initiative Rachel Notley took in Alberta produced impressively low costs for the electricity.

Ontario, at this juncture, is far from having the challenges that Germany is now tackling, because of the large proportion of water and nuclear power in the Ontario energy mix. We will face some of those issues, eventually, as nuclear plants are phased out and energy demand grows. But this is not the chicken-little moment that Rickford is crying about. And it is not a justification for gutting the green energy sector — at enormous cost — just so Ford can undo the good things the Liberals did.

This is a time of great opportunity to get off polluting fossil fuels and address climate change in a way that minimizes the impact of the shift on our daily lives.

Tom McElroy, Toronto