There’s a fine line between delusion and illusion. And both are part of the myth of a “clean energy” that magically lifts humanity from its crash course with the planet. Rather than drastically reduce our consumption of resources such as water, fossil fuels and hard-rock minerals, humans are more content to seek technological fixes that won’t work anyway.
That is the thesis of Planet of the Humans . Move over, Al Gore. Henceforth, Earth Day belongs to Jeff Gibbs.
Gibbs directs and reports the documentary produced by Michael Moore and released on April 21. It’s free on YouTube for 30 days and is a must-watch.
Just as billions in federal aid have been dumped into “the economy” in recent weeks from COVID-19 stimulus and relief packages, the US has poured fountains of money over the elusive concept of better energy, and we’re not saving the planet as much as we’re flailing to save our standard of living.
Gibbs highlights how the global environmental cost of mining, production and disposal of solar and wind technology don’t get primetime play. We’re still using fossil fuel-based infrastructure to build them. Plus, the same evil corporate overlords who run technological/industrial society (read: The Koch Brothers) run the strategy and profit bases that prop up the “green energy movement.”
The movie is an enjoyable if also gut-rotting indictment of Big Environment and some of its figureheads, including Vermonter Bill McKibben, and yes, Gore, in particular.
Catch candid interviews with other people you’ve never heard of who run solar farms, make policy and study science and human behavior. Just about everything with the word “green” in front of it takes a punch through this lens: biomass, biofuels, divestment/investments, natural gas and even giant mirrors in the California desert; “the takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism,” Gibbs says, “is complete.”
The planned release date couldn’t have anticipated how so many people would be feeling this day, and that while we’re under stay-at-home orders from a public health threat, we see how the deep scar of humans on the environment can heal in perceptible ways.
There is much to mourn. And we can change. But how?
9
+Must-watch cold water on a hot topic
-It might burst your bubble
Planet of the Humans
Directed by Gibbs
YouTube, NR, 100 min.
