Planet of the Humans
- Directed By: Jeff Gibbs
- Written By: Jeff Gibbs
- On Disc/Streaming: free until 5/20/20 on YouTube
- Studio: Rumble Media
The thing about Michael Moore’s brand of documentary-making is that he has a contrarian nature, and he’s going to say something in fairly short order that you won’t enjoy hearing. This was evident in 2016, when about two weeks before the election, he produced a film showing that Hillary was likely to lose to Donald Trump, and showing exactly where and how Hillary was ignoring voters vital to her ability to win in the rust belt states. Lo and Behold, Moore nailed it. I’m sad to say that in 2020, most mainstream Democrats still haven’t learned the lessons Moore was presenting back then. The main problem is that corporate influence has compromised Democratic ability to fight for the voters they had to soft-pedal to in 2016. Perhaps the coronavirus pandemic and a major collapse of capitalism in the wake of that will change things, I don’t know.
But in July of 2019, Moore released a documentary written produced by Jeff Gibbs, Planet of the Humans. A year later the documentary has been released, this time on YouTube for anyone to watch for free.
The tone is dispiriting, to say the least. Gibbs regards nearly all forms of ‘sustainable’ energy to be absolute frauds, and makes it clear that the number one problem, one that cannot be solved by technology, is the fact that there are seven and a half billion people on the planet, and that’s at least five times as many as the planet can sustain. Further, we’re far enough into overutilization of all things Earth-related that an environmental collapse may be inevitable at this point no matter what we do. The same day I began watching this, three days ago, a newspaper headline in the Guardian reported that a major study revealed that the overall insect mass on Earth had dropped by 25% since 1997, a statistic that promises very dire consequences for us all. Similarly, many articles expressed wonderment at the purity and quality of the air over most major cities over the past few weeks (only a few mentioned why the air was usually so lousy, but then, perhaps they didn’t need to) and some pointed out the emergence of wildlife in places it hadn’t been seen in years. A friend sent pictures of turkey vultures taking up residence on a golf course, and then a few days later, predators (possibly mountain lions) feeding off the birds. I suspect that if all humans vanished overnight, the planet would make a rapid, if incomplete recovery. So there’s that, at least.
Gibbs was highly critical of non-fossil fuel energy sources. He pointed to the large amounts of copper, aluminum, rare earths and other materials needed for windmills, and pointed out that in a fairly short amount of time they break down and need to be replaced. He raised similar objections about solar, noting the creation of “solar deserts” where the panels blocked sunlight and degraded quickly. He noted sardonically that an Earth Day concert boasted of being “completely solar powered” but showed the electrician in charge of the show pointing to an array of panels—perhaps 200 square feet—and snorting that it could barely power a toaster, and the concert itself was powered by a large Diesel generator.
On biomass and biofuels, he was particularly scathing. While it’s true that chipping wood instead of mining coal or pumping natural gas is far more sustainable (replenished in 30-200 years instead of millions) you are still burning forests to make energy, and this far into the Anthropocene and with seven and a half billion people on the planet, it isn’t ‘sustainable’ because we don’t have the luxury of 30 years to keep doing this, let alone 200. Biomass is an ugly fraud perpetuated on us by major energy and banking concerns. There’s no disputing that.
Still, as I was watching, I noticed that a lot of the footage was really dated. As were some of the facts. Windmills, for example, now are designed to last 50 years, rather than ten, and are made with more recyclable products. Solar panels are about 20% efficient on average, not eight, and cost far less than “a million dollars per square inch,” a claim I assumed to be a simple error. We’re closer to a million dollars a square mile now.
Looking around, I discovered a lot of criticism of the dated data and other inaccuracies in the film. Gibbs had to apologize to Bill McKibben for misrepresenting him on biofuels. While sometimes ambivalent, McKibben has never heartily endorsed the technology.
So it’s an imperfect work. But it makes points that are beyond dispute, and warns that if things continue like this, it will destroy us in fairly short order. Biofuels are a cruel hoax, and we cannot burn forests and jungles for fuel, or clear cut them for synthetic oils. Corporations have neutered and even nullified our political process, and large portions of the environmental movement.
And finally, there are seven and a half billion of us, it’s very late in the game, and we may well have gone past the point of no return and should expect ecological and social collapse as a consequence.
It’s not fun viewing, and indeed is grim, but Planet of the Humans needs to be at the very top of your viewing list in order to figure out where, if anywhere, we go from here.