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Planet of the Humans
Directed by Jeff Gibbs
(No certificate)
THIS new documentary, released to mark the 50th annual Earth Day and free to watch on YouTube, takes a harsh look at how the environmental movement is fighting a losing battle on climate change.
Unwittingly, it claims, it has got into bed with capitalism and been taken over by it. As its publicity blurb declares: “We are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet Earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America.”
Executively produced by Michale Moore and written and directed by lifelong environmentalist Jeff Gibbs, it investigates just how green and sustainable green energy is.
Gibbs delves into solar and wind power and biomass and shows how the latter involves burning woodchip which comes from felling trees in large numbers, while solar cells and wind turbines are made from an array of elements including cobalt, graphite, nickel, sulphur and lithium and involves the use of fossil fuels.
And he visits a solar-powered music festival which relies on an old-fashioned generator and solar array plants to see how, decades down the line, just how energy-efficient they are (not very).
It is a painstaking and detailed investigation by Gibbs, who questions leading environmentalists such as Al Gore and Bill McKibben.
But the film, which Gibbs labels as “a full-frontal assault on our sacred cow,” also looks at the growth in populations and consumption, suggesting that humanity is poised “for a fall from an unimaginable height.”
Cue the coronavirus pandemic, a serious wake-up call, with almost a quarter of a million people dead worldwide already, and rising.
Yet pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions are down due to the stringent measures countries have adopted overnight. We have cleaner air and blue skies again, showing that it can be done.
The film does not provide answers but it aims to ignite a discussion in the environmental movement which given the controversy it is courting, is a must.
Watch this film and make up your own mind.
