I’m sure some of you came across Moore’s Planet of the Humans (it was offered free on YouTube this week). It’s essentially a negative opinion piece on renewable energy, sustainable transportation, environmental groups, and the general environmental movement. In the film, Moore offers that solar and wind are failures, that the major environmental groups are tainted by greed, and the main or only solution is to manage the population. The film is a patchwork of images and video snippets from across many decades, designed to create the impression that renewable energy is just another evil that will replace fossil fuels.
While there were some interesting (and very concerning) claims about the capitalist influence on the renewable energy industry, there were a number of misleading claims about solar, wind, and electric vehicles. It also illuminated the biomass industry. (This part of the video is probably the most educational portion – it suggests that the biomass energy industry is largely dependent on forests and is contributing to mass deforestation)
Henry Curtis wrote a review of Planet of the Humans in Ililani Media. It exposes the film’s nuts and bolts very well. (Thanks, Henry.) I’ll be on the lookout for responses from 350, Sierra Club, and Climate Reality to the claims made by Moore.
The film raised feelings of frustration, hopelessness, and doubt. It suggested that our solutions are a failure. At the same time, it really offered no specific solutions.
Solutions?
The reality is that there is no silver bullet – the climate crisis is a multi-dimensional problem with many causes. We solve problems like this with a systematic approach – one that determines the various root causes and the relative contribution of each to the overall problem, and one that addresses the causes with rigor, persistence, and agility. A good list can be found at Project Drawdown.
A valid takeaway from Planet of the Humans is the call-to-action on population growth and hyper-consumption. Project Drawdown has this as a focus and suggests that education and empowerment of girls and family planning are important strategies to manage the population.
There is also a need to examine and challenge GDP as a gauge of economic success as it is a metric that influences production (and consumption). Fortunately, there are nations that have started to move the spotlight to ‘happiness’. New Zealand announced this in 2019.
Back to EVs…
Electric vehicles continue to play an important role as a climate solution. They are ~80% efficient (vs ~20% for gas cars), emission-free, are easier and more cost-effective to maintain, and are fun to drive. Importantly, they offer you and me the opportunity to contribute to solving the climate crisis.
Let’s ignore the naysayers – let’s keep ‘kicking gas’.
— Noel Morin