Peter Tabuns MPP, Toronto-Danforth

QUEEN’S PARK — Climate Change Dispatch is a conspiracy website that denies the overwhelming scientific evidence showing that humanity is facing a man-made climate crisis — yet Energy Minister Greg Rickford has been quoting from the digital rag to defend his government’s choice to rip up green energy contracts and rip down windmills. 

What else has Rickford read there?

·       “CO2 is not pollution” and “Global warming has nothing to do with pollution.”

·       "The absolute worst case of professional incompetence and dishonesty is in the area of climate science.”

·       "You would think sane people would want to stay as far from Greta [Thunberg] as possible lest they get accused of child abuse.”

·       In glowing agreement with the book L’écologisme, nouveau totalitarisme? by Drieu Godefridi, the Climate Change Dispatch compared those who believe in climate change with Nazis. "Long before the violence started, Germany’s Nazis were plainspoken about who was the enemy. They didn’t hide their intentions. ‘Never again,’ is meaningless, says Godefridi, if we refuse to see what’s happening in front of our noses."

The website Rickford’s been quoting from uses false arguments to undercut climate science, and personally attack scientists and those who want action on climate change. 

“Hate-filled conspiracy theories are not a foundation for good policy,” said NDP Climate Crisis critic Peter Tabuns. "We are past the point of debating whether climate change exists. Ontarians know climate change is real, and caused by human action. Does this government know that?”

The Doug Ford government’s latest battle in its war on the environment is a $231-million bill — which could climb higher — for scrapping green energy projects already underway.