What if alternative energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? That’s the provocative question explored in the documentary Planet of the Humans, which is backed and promoted by filmmaker Michael Moore and directed by one of his longtime collaborators. It premiered last week at his Traverse City Film Festival.
The film, which does not yet have distribution, is a low-budget but piercing examination of what the filmmakers say are the false promises of the environmental movement and why we’re still “addicted” to fossil fuels.
Director Jeff Gibbs takes on electric cars, solar panels, windmills, biomass, biofuel, leading environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club, and even figures from Al Gore and Van Jones, who served as Barack Obama’s special adviser for green jobs, to 350.org leader Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and advocate for grassroots climate change movements.
Gibbs, who produced Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, didn’t set out to take on the environmental movement. He said he wanted to know why things weren’t getting better.
But when he started pulling on the thread, he and Moore said they were shocked to find how inextricably entangled alternative energy is with coal and natural gas, since they say everything from wind turbines to electric car charging stations are tethered to the grid, and even how two of the Koch brothers — Charles and David — are tied to solar panel production through their glass production business.
“It turned out the wakeup call was about our own side,” Gibbs said in a phone interview. “It was kind of crushing to discover that the things I believed in weren’t real, first of all, and then to discover not only are the solar panels and wind turbines not going to save us … but (also) that there is this whole dark side of the corporate money … It dawned on me that these technologies were just another profit center.”
Both know the film is going to be a “tough pill to swallow.” It was a difficult eye-opener for them as well.
“We all want to feel good about something like the electric car, but in the back of your head somewhere you’ve thought, ’Yeah, but where is the electricity coming from? And it’s like, ‘I don’t want to think about that, I’m glad we have electric cars,’” Moore said.
“I’ve passed by the windmill farms, and oh it’s so beautiful to see them going, and don’t tell me that we’ve gone too far now and it isn’t going to save us … Well, my feeling is just hit me with everything. I’m like let’s just deal with it now, all at once.”
It’s part of the reason why they had to make it independently. Gibbs said he tried for years to get an environmental group on board to help offset the costs, only to be turned down at every door.
He was further disheartened when, in the film, he approaches people like Jones, McKibben, and a local Sierra Club leader, and asks them about their stance on biofuel and biomass.
Biomass, like wood and garbage, can be used to produce heat and is considered a renewable source of energy. It can also be converted to gas or liquid biofuels that can be burned for energy.
He finds every one ill-prepared to comment on their stance about the biomass process, which the documentary says requires cutting down enormous numbers of trees to produce the woodchips that are converted into energy.
Neither Jones nor McKibben responded to request for comment from The Associated Press.
“I like so many people in the film and I’m one of those people who wanted to believe all of these years that that was the right path,” Moore said. ”(But) I refuse to let us die out. I refuse to let this planet die.”
They were even nervous to show it to the festival crowd, where they expected maybe a “50-50 response.” Instead, they got a standing ovation. And there were even members of The Sierra Club there.
“It’s up to people who actually share the same values to sometimes call each other out and bring out the uncomfortable truths,” Gibbs said. “This is not a film by climate change deniers, this is a film by people who really care about the environment.”
Although the findings will be disheartening, both Gibbs and Moore say they hope that it inspires people to reset and start thinking differently.
“Now we can begin to come up with the right solutions that might make a difference … The film doesn’t have the answers but it will get us asking a better set of questions,” Gibbs said. “I really do trust that when millions of people are discussing an issue, answers will emerge … This is what we do as humans, we solve problems, but we’ve got to have the right questions.”
Read more at Breitbart
Finally some honesty is beginning to emerge! Yes, we need to acknowledge our obsessive-compulsive energy binge. And yes, we need to get out from under the polluting and politically destructive worldwide domination of the oil companies; but turning over alternative energy decisions to the corporate shysters, who more or less created the dilemma to begin with, is definitely not the answer!
There are available non-polluting energy options to our world leading fossil fuel consumption that need to be embraced—but are not. Attention, and therefore funding, for viable energy alternatives and changing cultural consumption norms is siphoned off through corporate marketing ploys of BS ineffective feel-good placebos, such as, I’m-doing-my-eco-duty-to save-the-planet electric cars with “smart charging stations”, and the “renewable and clean” wind farms (on vital ocean habitat) that will supply the juice for your easy-to-plug-in, and very hip, Prius and your oh so sexy and naughty 400hp Lexus Hybrid SUV weekend cruiser!
So, thank you Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs for having the guts to ferret out the truth about some of these “clean energy” boondoggles. Perhaps soon we can get moving on some ideas that might actually help!
First, throw political bias out of the equation when you seek the truth. Fact, carbon dioxide is an essential component of all life on Earth. Fact, it is at historically low concentrations. The IPCC ‘s claims are deliberate distortions of their researchers’ work. Those researchers keep their heads down, or else find employment elsewhere.
They did their homework so good on them .
Corporate interests prevail especially if tax payers are paying part of the freight .
The bluff call on the $trillion earth has fever industry is build nuclear and unless something else comes along that’s what’s going to be built as base load energy supply when the fossil fuel energy supply starts to tail off .
We are not going to die out …at least not from change to the climate
that we have any influence over. So continue to innovate .
The problem is as these gentlemen are finding out peoples perception are wildly out of sync with reality . The whole thing is based on an entirely
dishonest set of “facts’ twisted to scare people and make others stinking rich .
No wonder they got a standing ovation . A lot of people see through the con-game that begins with using highly inaccurate climate models as “proof ” .
It takes guts to actually produce something that conflicts with your views .
There was a chart on this website recently that showed that renewable energy hasn’t matched the human race’s increasing energy demand, ie, despite all the green energy installations, to date, fossil fuel consumption is increasing.
Here’s their solution . Family Planning. They’re admitting that green energy ain’t gonna save the planet. Bring in the exterminators.
The environmental movement used to be about cleaning up the environment.
If they were still focused on that, a fraction of the money wasted on “renewable” energy could have been spent to clean up the trash issue that allows so much trash to be dumped in the ocean. We only know about the plastic, because it floats away. What about everything else?
Wind Turbines are just not safe for Birds and Bats they make a terrible noise and their a unrelible
Well knock me over with a feather! Who knew that “renewables” and “green energy” were scams and that the enviro groups were also scams? Oh wait, anyone with his eyes open would know that. If they really wanted “clean” energy they’d be pushing nuclear power as well as utilizing hydro power where it can be deployed. Instead they chose two of the worst for reliable energy–wind and solar–to pin their hopes on.
“It was kind of crushing to discover that the things I believed in weren’t real…”
Isn’t that what we’ve been saying all along?
They were sure we were just “climate deniers” and shills for fossil fuel industry. Instead they found that the “green energy” groups were all just in it for the money!
Good! A wake up call to all those who just casually accept the “renewable mantra” and the dishonest tactics of many of the Environmental NGO’s. About time folks start waking up to the fact this is an ENERGY TRANSITION and will take DECADES to convert to clean, scalable & sustainable alternatives. Let’s get a thoughtful energy debate started and insist policymakers start doing their homework and looking for real SOLUTIONS…
What if the “clean” alternatives is high efficient gasoline-powered cars, and natural gas and nuclear power plants. Then what?
That is not the answer the Eviro-fascists want to hear.