Planet of the Humans by Jeff Gibbs is a documentary on green power’s failures. Note: this movie includes disturbing images throughout.
Filmed from a green activist’s perspective, this documentary took fascinating, if not controversial perspectives.
The documentary attacked America’s greenest of liberals, including Al Gore and Robert F. Kennedy, for being duplicitous in their support for green energy. Gibbs pointed out that these political influencers, along with others in the upper echelons of politics and business such as Michael Bloomberg, have made billions from green power.
According to Gibbs, green enterprises steeped in superficial environmentalism were sponsored by corporate interests, such as oil companies. Incidentally, Gibbs travels a lot throughout in the movie, relying on a camera, audio equipment, a computer and other technical bits and bobs to film this dystopian doc.
Gibbs is correct to note the connections oil companies have with green initiatives: the largest of oil companies have readily admitted to funding green power. Alex Kimani in OilPrice.com wrote in February 2020: “The world’s largest oil traders are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into climate-friendly projects as they also face growing pressure from investors, financiers, governments and activists to shift to a lower carbon future.”
But, is this actually a bad thing?
Regardless, the documentary’s fundamental thesis decided green ingenuities first conceived to improve humanity were actually inefficient and unsustainable. “Everywhere I encountered green energy, it wasn’t what it seemed,” Gibbs noted.
He discussed ethanol – a green fuel reliant on production in sufficient quantities through industrial-sized farming operations.
Gibbs visited an elderly wind power mill near Daggett California, where the once mighty wind turbines were wilting in the desert with their nuts, bolts and propellers dropping off into the sands.
Gibbs didn’t let solar power off so easy either, saying the power panels contained mined quartz and gave only intermittent energy. He enjoyed going to solar-powered concerts on rainy days, where the filmmaker discovered the gigs advertised as green-powered events relied on fossil fuel and other sources whenever the solar ran out. In Gibbs’ conclusion, power from the sun and wind had profound limitations.
Regarding this central thesis of the documentary, most environmentalists would conclude that green power is best constituted within an amalgamation of sources. Moreover, Gibbs neglected to say the technology guiding the production of green energy remains in virtual infancy.
The United States Environmental Production Agency themselves said: “The U.S. voluntary market defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.” But Gibbs isn’t convinced.
Certainly, biomass production remained one of Gibbs’ most controversial finds in Planet of the Humans. Biomass power plants are fired up on trees – lots of trees.
Deforestation for biomass is genuine and Canadian forests are being affected by companies sourcing this kind of power. Nelson Bennett wrote a story in April 2020 for the Prince George Citizen about two firms, Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. (TSX:PL) and Pacific BioEnergy, who used entire living trees in British Columbia for biomass.
Gibbs became especially judicious when the filmmaker discussed the negative effects of biomass – leading the filmmaker to hike in some precarious areas, including a biomass power plant. In the documentary, Gibbs received an invitation to the office by a security guard when he and his crew were discovered walking along the perimeter of the plant in Vermont. Gibbs politely (and wisely) refused the offer of a sit down and a chat in the guard’s office.
An articulate and provocative film, Planet of the Humans is long on criticisms, but oblique on solutions. “I truly believe that the path to change is awareness,” Gibbs determined in a Zen-inspired extract. “Infinite growth is suicide.”
