A new documentary available on youtube, Planet of the Humans posits that industrial wind farms, solar farms, biomass, and biofuels are wrecking natural environments, causing more environmental harm than good. Filmmaker Jeff Gibbs and Producer Michael Moore challenge assumptions the environmental movement have taken as gospel for the past twenty or more years.
Much is revealed about the deleterious effects of the use of ethanol, biomass, and biofuels on the environment. The more surprising disclosure is the relatively short (about 20-year) lifespan of wind turbines and the environmental harm in the construction of solar panels.
The final message is that billionaires, even the ones claiming to be environmentalists, are not our friends. Al Gore, Bill McKibbin, Denis Hayes, Michael Brune, Richard Branson, Michael Bloomberg, and others are all shown to have underlying corporate and profit motives, some of which are antithetical to clean energy and sustainability.
The film is intended to be disturbing to environmentalists who have embraced green energy. Is it successful? Somewhat. The point that infinite growth on a finite planet is in itself unsustainable is certainly valid. Whether billionaires are our friends (not so, according to the film) is debatable; certainly, some are, some not, and some somewhere in between.
Ultimately, the film is terribly one-sided. It will surely add fuel to the anti-environmentalists out there. It’s good to look at the things we think are the solution and to question them. It’s quite another to do this to present it as if green, sustainable energy is as bad or worse than the fossil fuel burning it replaces. That simply isn’t true.
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