Hoaxing the planet

“Planet of the Humans” is a new documentary by Michael Moore. For some reason, Moore himself never appears in the actual production, which is narrated by Jeff Gibbs, a radical environmentalist activist. The documentary is available free of charge at YouTube. (The title is a jocular reference to “Planet of the Apes”, the classical science fiction franchise about apes taking over the world after humans destroy civilization.)  

Moore and Gibbs target the mainstream environmentalist movement, which they believe has completely sold out to corporate capitalism. Al Gore, Michael Bloomberg and Robert Kennedy junior are some of the people forced to run the radical Green gauntlet. However, “Planet of the Humans” goes further and actually attacks the entire idea of “renewable energy”. Solar and wind aren´t feasible, while various kinds of biomass might not even be desirable.

Moore is good at finding and using absurd situations, and this production reeks with them. There´s the Green festival which is forced to use non-Green electricity from the grid when their solar power generators stop working due to bad weather. There´s the enormous array of solar panels which powers exactly ten houses. There´s the forest being cut down to make room for an enormous wind turbine…in Vermont, the most liberal state in the Union.

The main point of “Planet of the Humans” is that “Green” energy is impossible without a fossil fuel base, enormous mining operations, copper, rare earth minerals and (presumably) huge corporate investments, often from the same businesses that pollute the environment elsewhere. Several of the "Green” energy projects shown in the documentary turn out to be natural gas plants – but natural gas is, of course, also a fossil fuel! The American environmentalist movement, including the Sierra Club, is portrayed as being part and parcel of the “Green” energy scam. In the end, all the bluster about renewables don´t matter, since only a tiny fraction of the world´s energy needs come from them anyway. I get the impression that Green capitalism isn´t parasitical on the brown version – it´s hardly even there, except in the propaganda (and a few subsidy sinks).

So what is the solution to our predicament? Gibbs never really says, but strongly implies that overpopulation is to blame, so presumably less people is the bottom line. A smaller population would stop super-exploiting the natural world and give it a chance to recover. Of course, this is unacceptable to many, and in the commentary section to the documentary, many people agitate for more nuclear power or other sources of hopefully abundant and cheap energy (thorium, hydrogen, etc). A curious detail is that “Planet of the Humans” says very little about climate change.

I happen to think that “Green” capitalism really is a sham. Does anyone *seriously* believe that we can electrify the entire world economy without an *enormous* increase in the production of copper, rare earths and uranium? If we want to keep our modern civilization going, fossil fuels and carbon storage actually seem cheaper…

And if that´s impossible, well, say hello to Paul Ehrlich and Negative Population Growth!

I´m frankly surprised Michael Moore decided to destroy his reputation among the normie liberals in this way, and so close to the 2020 elections. Still, it does make me respect the man. Now, we would all like to hear a comment from Greta Thunberg!