To the Editor:
A reply to Mr. Abergel’s “Opinions should be based on facts, science and honest conversation”.
Thank you Mr. Abergel, Director of Communications, for Hydro-Quebec for insightful comments on my opinion piece “Tell the Truth About the Corridor”. Just for your edification, I was trained as a scientist, a forest biologist.
I so agree with you that opinions should be based on science. I have always prided my self on trying to get the facts straight – and when proven wrong to alter my outlook. Unfortunately, I find your piece bereft of truth. Remember when you point a finger, three are pointing back at you.
Do you really expect people to believe that Hydro-Quebec’s megadams have not annihilated whole ecosystems?
How could you be protecting biodiversity when you have flooded an area the size of Connecticut?
You don’t have to be a “rocket” scientist to understand the ecological devastation both upstream and downstream from your 550 damns and dikes. Are you going to deny that all this flooding has not contaminated fish with methylmercury?
Are you going to deny that altering natural flow volumes on scores of rivers does not impact the food chain?
Are you going to deny that your reservoirs are producing greenhouse gas emissions – methane being one such gas?
Are you going to deny that your corporation, owned by the Quebec government, has destroyed millions of acres of carbon sequestering boreal forests?
Please, don’t insult Maine peoples’ intelligence. What Hydro-Quebec has done to the boreal forest certainly would rank up there with the some of the worst examples of human induced biocide in the 20th and 21st centuries.
I am sure as the Director of Communications it is your job to put the best spin on things. Greenwashing has become an art form. If you can not dispute the facts, there are always ways to twist the truth. Trying to make the corridor debate about the fossil fuel industry is just a distraction.
Their energy is not clean and either is yours. We can do better than both by developing, properly placed, distributive local wind and solar power. Owned and operated by and for Maine citizens.
Let’s be honest, as you suggested, Hydro-Quebec and CMP are interested only in the billions in profits they will reap if this Corridor goes through. I predict that Mainer’s will see through all of the greenwashing and vote Yes to stop the Hydro-Quebec and CMP “dirty” energy corridor in November.
Jonathan Carter, Dir. FEN
Lexington
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