Planet of the Humans

So Michael Moore has released a new documentary taking down renewable energy, which I watched yesterday. I can’t recommend it. I too have grave doubts about the capacity of renewables to power modern civilization, and yes, this documentary mercilessly drives home the valid points about intermittency and low energy density. But this is still a piece of propaganda, as per usual from Michael Moore. Sure, it’s fun to get a peek behind the stage of a Earth Day Festival that is supposedly “100% Renewables” and see the Diesel generators churning, and to see all those other “100% Renewables” companies that are still connected to the grid just like everyone else. And the fast sequence about the incredible material resources needed for solar panels and wind turbines, all for relatively short life spans, are pretty much accurate, and must be painful watching for environmentalists. But the quick editing disguises a lot of irresponsible quote mining, fast-and-loose reasoning, and outright errors and manipulations. Worst of all, the documentary is insufferably misanthropic and bleak, doesn’t offer any realistic solutions, and buys into the old canard that capitalism and modernity are the real problem. And of course, that humans are a blight/pest/cancer on the face of our beautiful planet.

https://youtu.be/Zk11vI-7czE