Review: Planet Of The Humans, How Capitalism Hijacked the Green Movement - BCfm Online Politics Show

Planet Of The Humans, Jeff Gibbs, How Capitalism Hijacked the Green Movement

https://politicsthisweek.wordpress.com/2020/04/27/friday-37th-of-lockdown-whatever-happened-to-democracy-in-bristol-bcfm-politics-show-presented-by-tony-gosling/

Planet of the Humans | see also Banking Nature (2015)
https://tlio.org.uk/banking-nature-2015-documentary-on-new-wbcsd-markets-and-the-privatisation-of-nature/

Planet of the Humans: How Environmental and Green Energy Movements Have Been Taken Over By Capitalists – Watch on YouTube – The promise of green energy, embraced by President Barack Obama, airline owner Richard Branson, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, and a large percentage of the public. Electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines were to be the alternatives to a reliance on fossil fuels, but it hasn’t turned out to be that simple. An electric car is charged from an outlet powered by the local company that relies on coal and natural gas. A site for wind turbines in Vermont requires that a forest be cut down, a mountain-top removal similar to what seen in coal country. In an upsetting sequence, we see all the materials that have to be mined, transported, and processed to make solar panels. And still, both solar and wind power requires a backup system for rainy and windless days — which turn out to be power generated by burning fossil fuels. Gibbs asks: “Can machines made by industrial civilizations save industrial civilizations?” When solar and wind did not provide the answer, biomass became the energy alternative — most often the burning of wood chips made from trees and waste wood, like old railroad ties. But just because trees can be planted and harvested, does that make them a sustainable form of energy? What about the fuels used to power the machines cutting down the trees and converting them into chips?

Planet of the Humans Directed by Jeff Gibbs
A delusion-shattering documentary on how the environmental and green energy movements have been taken over by capitalists.
Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Click here to watch the documentary. A discussion with Executive Producer Michael Moore, Writer/Director Jeff Gibbs, and Producer Ozzie Zehner, recorded on April 22, can be viewed here.
We remember well the first Earth Day. Mary Ann’s brother Philip had helped to organize the event, including the big celebration on the mall in Washington, D.C. So we had plenty of advance notice of its significance, and we enthusiastically joined the crowd in New York City’s Union Square Park. In the 50 years since, we have remained committed to environmental causes, attending more rallies, making donations to various organizations, divesting from fossil fuels with our investments, and participating in recycling and other projects. Like others, we’ve hailed the rise of green energy options like solar and wind power. And we’ve read and reviewed the books and the documentaries by environmental activists.
Watching this documentary, written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs, a lifelong environmentalist, and executive produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker and social prophet Michael Moore, we realized that what we’ve been doing is not enough.
In fact, what all of us have been doing may not be enough.The film opens with on-the-street interviews with a variety of people asking them how long they think humans have on earth. Gibbs asks his own questions: “How you ever wondered what would happen if a single species took over an entire planet? Maybe they are cute; maybe they are clever, but lack a certain self-restraint. What if they go way, way, way, way, way too far? How would they know when it is their time to go?” Sobering questions, especially in light of the delusion-shattering information to come in the next two hours.
Let’s start with the promise of green energy, embraced by President Barack Obama, airline owner Richard Branson, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, and a large percentage of the public. Electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines were to be the alternatives to a reliance on fossil fuels, but it hasn’t turned out to be that simple. An electric car is charged from an outlet powered by the local company that relies on coal and natural gas. A site for wind turbines in Vermont requires that a forest be cut down, a mountain-top removal similar to what seen in coal country. In an upsetting sequence, we see all the materials that have to be mined, transported, and processed to make solar panels. And still, both solar and wind power requires a backup system for rainy and windless days — which turn out to be power generated by burning fossil fuels. Gibbs asks: “Can machines made by industrial civilizations save industrial civilizations?”