LOS ANGELES (AP) — 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.
HT/Willie Soon
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sounds like they did what most alarmists and greenies dont do, make an effort to scratch one or two layers deep instead of regurgitating dogma and prattling about “the Science” They may have red pilled themselves, partially at least. They still think there is a problem that we humans need to manage.
I wonder if has occured to them to use the same logic and back track into the IPCC and all their cronies and see what lies under the covers there? Heresy I guess.
While on the topic of Moore, there apparently has been some Left outrage that the owner of a high end fitness center change has DARED to offer support for Trump.
So what has our Cultured Elite done in response?
Yup – gone on Twit to publicly declare they have just cancelled their memberships.
Who was one of the first do to so? To declare they were no longer going to a gym and fitness center?
Yup – our good friend Michael!
I laughed.
Irony ?
Ozians supposed to be good at it, north americans not so….but in the current cae ?
Hey,
You know what would be really cool, and helpful?
If you are replying to a comment, declare WHAT specific comment you’re replying to.
Because after a few comments are accumulated, you can’t tell who is being called an asshole.
This is important, so specify the object of your disgust PLEEEEZE.
“Gibbs’ prescriptions for an environmental turnaround include curtailing the world’s population, which is approaching 8 billion. “Why don’t we provide family planning to everyone in the world? … Regarding population control, I asked Gibbs if he were not concerned people might accuse him of advocating the killing of 4 or 5 billion people. “Here’s the answer,” he replied. “By not dealing with this you are going to kill off 4 or 5 billion people.”
Greens want to kill off more than half the planet.
Michael Moore does not have much respect for truth when he’s on a mission to make a film with a message. There was a scene in one of his movies (Columbine? Sicko? – I can’t remember which) where he is standing in an urban park in the middle of a brand new mixed social/private housing development on a former rail yard near downtown Toronto – and he says “This is a Canadian slum” (the point being, of course to show how much more attractive and safe and wholesome it was than those nasty American slums). I know the area well, we even looked at buying a condo there a couple of times. Made me wonder how many of his other “facts” are that made-up.
On that basis, his respect for truth is on a par with the inimitable Gore.
But now, despite his bias against capitalism/USA/whatever, he’s seen the light about the green industry. Take your allies where you can find them. “My enemy’s enemy” and all that.
I’m curious to see how the left responds to this movie. They may take it seriously taking into consideration who made it. Nobody considers him a corporate shill with a vested interest.
On the other hand, Moore may discover he shouldn’t stand too close to a bus lest he find himself under it.
As I was reading the article, I suddenly thought that I had traveled through time to next April 1st. I had to recheck my calendar to convince myself that I had not entered a time warp. Once I realized that I wasn’t dreaming, I had to accept that several people on the far left have actually rejected the renewable Koolaid.
Moore’s motivation for making the the movie seems to be that he does not like the idea of evil corporations profiting from the renewables scam. However to make his point he had to open the curtain and expose the lies that the left has been spewing about green energy. Regardless of his motivation. Michael Moore is exposing at least a few of the lies from the green machine with this movie.
Thanks Mich, looking forward to your follow up recommending ending wind, solar, bio-fuel renewable subsidies, mandates and grid priority and your strong support for natural gas generation for the next few decades as we transition to nuclear.
““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,…”
Hmm, he should start looking at “climate change” in the same manner.
I bought into the whole global warming pitch until James Corbett (Corbett Report) exploded it and forced me to look harder. There are many credible climatologists like Dr. Judith Curry (Georgia Tech) and atmospheric scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen (MIT) who point out the dubious nature of the pronouncements by the IPCC “experts” – their failure to account for the effect of what is the principal greenhouse gas, water vapor, while elevating CO2, the tiny greenhouse fraction that might conceivably (under some models) contribute (in some hypothetical degree) to warming. Today on NPR it was announced that” July 2019 was the warmest in human history.” That kind of hyperbolic (and arguably false) claim is typical of the nonsense we are told about “climate change” – as if climate cycles haven’t occurred through recorder history.
“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? ”
It only took them about 25 years to figure that out? Coming soon: “CO2 is actually beneficial to the environment!”.
Mr Moore would make 2764 triple burgers. He is a very large piece of meat.
7 billion people on a planet that will soon only be able to support 3 billion, and people are discussing the right, the left, economics, windmills, elections, oil company profits and Michael Moore’s weight.
Forget about saving the planet; it will heal itself after we’re gone. In the end it’s about saving ourselves. It could be said that we’ll get what we deserve, but really we’re just doing what any dominant species would do given the chance. Humans aren’t nearly as smart as we think we are.
Nature bats last. It will deal with us and it won’t be pretty when it does.
7 billion people on a planet that will soon only be able to support 30 billion..FIFY….I’m sure you inadvertently left off the ZERO.
Production Capacity is growing exponentially, and we have no idea how much more it will increase as technology advances. People are starving only because of politics and artificial barriers to producing and transporting food to them and due to converting food into useless, inefficient, damaging, polluting FUEL and plowing food under and …..not because we can’t produce enough.
Thanks for Fixing It For Me. Just adding a zero on a page doesn’t fix anything. That’s what economists do.
30 billion people… won’t that be fun!! Where do you propose we put the other 8 million species we share the planet with? That’s our problem, we’re focused on growth instead of balance. As the dominant species we are clearly unable to evolve to be able to manage our numbers. And as I pointed out, the planet will balance things for us whether we like it or not.
OK, so my number is a little high, I just used GlowBULL Warming Math and the underlying graph extrapolation techniques, especially Michael Mann’s Magical “Horse Hockey Stick Trick.”
Seriously, the Earth can easily support a huge increase in the population of virtually all species, although they don’t all grow at the same rate. There are VAST expanses of empty, habitable land, islands, you name it all over the Earth, and I don’t mean Siberia or Antarctica. I used to marvel at the emptiness as I flew over places all over the world and wondered why there is such a clamor for reducing the population. I almost felt I was alone flying over the emptiness for hours without a sign of human life.
So, when exactly is this “soon”? A month? A year? 10 years? And who is this “we”? Didn’t realise Humanity™ is a hive mind. Though that would explain the voices in my head.
It’s a bit confusing though. Like when I saw my aunt play soccer and she really sucked at it, and I thought “wow, we humans really suck at soccer”. But then I saw Ronaldo do it and I thought “wow, we humans are really good at soccer.” Some humans weirdly don’t seem to belong in this hive mind, like blacks and other minorities. Because when I read about these people commiting crimes, the response is always “Not all of them are like this! It would be racist to suggest that they are all the same.” It’s like they are treating them as individuals or something. But that can’t be right. We are all the same!
Where on earth did you hear all of this steaming crap you were parroting? Maybe you should learn to do your own research and think for yourself instead of being told what to think by people who want to own your ass. No, that’s wrong: they very obviously already do. “Activist” = shock troops for obscenely powerful globalists.
We’ve already survived an ice age, Barry. We’ll certainly survive the current tsunami of pathetic sock puppets like you.
“We’ve already survived an ice age, Barry.”
Yeah, we can survive a lot. Some of us will, anyway. Do you think we’ll get to keep our iPods?
As long as we don’t let leftist imbeciles execute their “change the entire economy thing,” absolutely; and much, much more than you can imagine, any more than Shakespeare could have imagined an iPod.
This is an interview of the director and producer of the movie. It has more information than the Breitbart article.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/08/planet-of-the-humans-possibly-most-bracing-environmental-documentary-ever-made-premieres-at-traverse-city-film-festival/
This interview with the director and producer has more information than the Breitbart link,
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/08/planet-of-the-humans-possibly-most-bracing-environmental-documentary-ever-made-premieres-at-traverse-city-film-festival/
I was once a member of Greenpeace when it wasn’t corporate and a “believer ” partially for self interest business reasons but in my heart I knew it was the overblown con job it is and I can’t deny that .
If Moore does his homework , which it sounds like they are doing , we will see if he doesn’t pull the curtain back .
The biggest scam on the planet . Who knew ?
The problem is that most of the elites don’t give a rats ass about the environment.They have lobbyist to do their talking for them. What they do care about is their own investments in it…. Leonardo DiCaprio once flew 400 miles just to buy a hamburg while Barbra Streisand had her dogs flown 10 thousand miles to UK just to here her sing in concert in July 2019….during Climate Emergency in UK..
PS/ climate emergency was created Barbra Streisand in 2005
So if we stopped using fossil fuels would the climate stop changing ?
If the climate changed in unpleasant ways would that be ok as long as Volvos were gone ?
Did the climate change before the first Ford rolled off the line ? Why ?
Is a warming trend better than a cooling trend ?
Who would set the earths temperature if we could ?
If you can set the temperature as advertised by planet savers who wins and who loses ?
What about those peskie natural climate variables ? How do we control volcano’s and sun spots ?
Such deep questions or maybe it’s just to obvious a massive fraud .