I spent part of this year's Earth Day watching Planet of the Humans, a documentary on renewable energy brought to us by Executive Producer Michael Moore, Producer Ozzie Zehner, and Director Bill Gibbs. It is available for free at that YouTube link above. If you are a strong believer in renewable energy saving the planet, this documentary might as well be titled Abandon hope all ye who enter here. If you are like me, skeptical that CO2 is much of a problem(if any) and not a knee-jerk hater of fossil fuels, this film is an interesting exposé on some of the bullshit behind "green energy." And if you lean more to the ecofascist side, humans are bad and capitalism must die, make popcorn and enjoy the show. (The usual Michael Moore disclaimer applies: I have not vetted for the facts presented nor for any standard Moore tricks in editing, viewer beware.)
Planet of the Humans is essentially a 100 minute slam on the idea that wind, solar, biomass, or any of the so-called green alternatives can replace any significant amount of fossil fuel use. In fact, it makes the case that even attempting to do so is causing extreme damage to the environment while billionaires and large corporations reap enormous profits and laugh all the way to the bank.
Literally.
At about the 9:56 mark there's a clip from a 2007 CBS News interview of Richard Branson and Al Gore. Harry Smith asks Branson, "Is Al Gore a prophet?". Branson responds, "How do you spell prophet?"(profit?) and all three have a good laugh over it. Yuk yuk.
After establishing his bona fides as an environmentalist, Gibbs begins his quest to find the truth after being disappointed to find a solar power festival using biodiesel generators and the electrical grid when solar panels don't work in the rain. It's a bit of a "duh" moment, but it sets the tone for the rest of the movie that the symbolism of renewable energy does not match the reality.
Gibbs marches on to the irony of a Chevy Volt being charged by Lansing's coal-fired power grid and a forest mountaintop being leveled, not for coal, but wind turbines. As the film goes forward it makes the argument that the cost of sustainable energy, in resources consumed and environmental damage, is not sustainable. It's a pretty good case. "Green Energy" is mostly "Big Green Energy" that makes a lot of money conning US consumers into lining the pockets of corporations and interest groups while they use less efficient and more costly generation methods. And more environmentally disastrous.
Shortly after the Branson/Gore/Smith belly laugh, we are treated to another telling clip, one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talking about solar and wind power and declaring, "Once you build our plant it's free energy forever." That's a lie, of course. Nothing lasts forever, including solar panels and wind turbines. Much of the solar and wind infrastructure we have put in place will last at most 25 years, and some less than 20. Then the problem will be how to recycle or dispose of it safely on a massive scale.
Sprinkled throughout the documentary are brief touches on the too many humans/we need a lower standard of living/end capitalism schtick and it gets pretty heavy-handed at the end. As far as I'm concerned you can pretty much skip the last 10 minutes unless you are a masochist.
Ecofascist may be too strong a term for Moore and company, but they are definitely Malthusian in their grim demeanor and anti-liberty in their solutions. They are useful in highlighting some of the renewable energy insanity these days, and in that sense, if you have an hour and a half to kill in these quarantine times, it's worth a viewing. Just don't buy the bullshit that they sling. That humanity is doomed. The planet is doomed. Unless we give power to their con artists instead of the renewable energy con artists. They are both con artists.
Have a good weekend.
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