<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class="">Salon </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">MAY 1, 2020 </span></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><b class="">Why "Planet of the Humans," Michael Moore’s new film about green energy, is so controversial</b></span></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><a href="https://www.salon.com/writer/sophia_a_mcclennen" class=""><b class="">SOPHIA A. MCCLENNEN</b><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class=""><b class=""></b></span></a></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><<<a href="http://salon.com/2020/05/01/why-planet-of-the-humans-michael-moores-new-film-about-green-energy-is-so-controversial/" class="">salon.com/2020/05/01/why-planet-of-the-humans-michael-moores-new-film-about-green-energy-is-so-controversial/</a>>></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class=""><font color="#222222" face="Helvetica" class=""><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class="">EXCERPT </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class="">—</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""> 2 key realities Planet of the Apes got right</span></font></b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">4. The manufactured faith in renewable energy has distracted us from considering ways to reduce consumption.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">"Planet of the Humans" asks why the environmental movement lost sight of the basic need to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> </span><a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/11/11/Climate-Change-Realist-Face-Facts/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class="">reduce human energy consumption</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">as a core mission.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> If renewable energy is not so renewable after all, then how did it come to dominate energy activism? "The reason why w</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">e are not talking about population, consumption, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">and the suicide of economic growth," Gibbs says, "is that it would be bad for business, especially for the cancerous form of capitalism that rules the world now hiding under a cover of green."</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Techno-fixes create an illusion of helping the planet when all they do is help capitalism generate more profit, the film argues. This green illusion, as Zehner puts it, has allowed climate-concerned citizens to think that green energy is a solution. If they support it, they feel "good" and they don't have to <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/power-shift-away-from-green-illusions/" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class="">change their patterns of consumption</span></a>.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">It's a basic lesson in capitalist ideology: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">Consumers are led to believe that their consumption doesn't do any damage</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. The film argues that </span><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/06/the-path-to-clean-energy-will-be-very-dirty-climate-change-renewables/?fbclid=IwAR2lzt-tfCt6RK5uWajY-gufRTd3vgeqiHIBJGqv01go2SWVJUe2zTAdMLs" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class="">this artifice of a "safe" way to get energy</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> has distracted the public from a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">much-needed conversation about how to reduce the energy demands of the population</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Gibbs explains that at one point the mantra of climate activism was "reduce, reuse, recycle." Yet, the idea of reducing and reusing has been sidelined as capitalism wormed its way into the green movement and convinced everyone that renewables were the answer.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><b class="">5. Why can't we talk about constructively about how to reduce human footprint?</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">Perhaps one of the most sensitive topics raised in the film is the question of what to do about the rise in population growth and the increase in energy demands. "Planet of the Humans" makes a bold claim — that the only way to take seriously the human toll on the planet is to talk about what humans do to it.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">My colleague, Penn State Anthropology professor Nina Jablonksi, who is interviewed in the film, suggests that "population growth" is the elephant in the room that few climate activists are willing to address. Then she adds that "we have to have our ability to consume reigned in, because we are not good at reigning them if there are seemingly unrestrained resources" or close to it. As long as humans believe that they have unconstrained resources, i.e. that their energy needs can be met in renewable and sustainable ways, they will refuse to limit their consumption demands.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">This line of questioning has been sidelined by leftist environmentalists because it has so often been used to advance fascist and racist agendas. But, the film asks, isn't it time to try to broach this topic in a way that highlights t</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">he fact that the highest energy demands derive from the privileged West? </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">What if the fascism-consumption fallacy has allowed the left to ignore the need to talk about consumption? And, what if, ignoring that conversation allowed climate-concerned citizens to feel like they were doing good things for the planet when they weren't after all?</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">At the heart of the film is the notion that the real "inconvenient truth" that Al Gore once referred to in his iconic environmentalist film is actually more like Moore's "awful truth":</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""> Maybe we didn't focus on reducing consumption because we didn't want to. Maybe it was easier to believe that renewables would give us all the energy we wanted without asking us to change.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> Or, maybe we didn't know that renewables weren't the energy saviors we thought they were. After watching this film, you won't be able to think about the human toll on the planet in the same way again.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Clearly "Planet of the Humans" has struck a nerve. In its first week it had been seen over four million times, attacked by </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/climate-dangerous-documentary-planet-of-the-humans-michael-moore-taken-down" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class="">calls to have it censored</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">, and lauded </span><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/09/consuming-the-planet-of-the-humans-the-most-important-documentary-of-the-century/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: rgb(238, 44, 29); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(238, 44, 29);" class="">as a much-needed intervention into the energy debate</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. There is no question that, in the spirit of Moore's confrontational, provocative, socially committed, progressive style, "Planet of the Humans" is a game-changer designed to spark an intense and meaningful debate over an urgent issue. It may well be that the pandemic has created the ideal context for viewers to consider that</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""> the only way to save the planet and to support human life is to change the way we live.</span></span></p></div><div class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><div class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);">—————————————————————————————————————--------------------------------</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">“Consumer expectations of ever-higher living standards were fuelled by more lenient and readily available bank lending …. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">Social status and identity became closely associated with consumption, in particular with the concept of luxury. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">"Identifying oneself with the good life meant being able to live beyond traditional understandings of basic needs. Debt was the price </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">one paid for the joys of being part of a hedonistic consumer culture.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class="">Kenneth Dyson. The Morality of Debt. Foreign Affairs. May 3, 2015<br class=""><br class=""><a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-05-03/morality-debt" class="">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-05-03/morality-debt</a></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">Despite recognizing the downsides of debt, the lure of spending remains strong. After covering off on necessities, Americans said 40% </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">of their monthly income goes toward discretionary spending on entertainment, leisure travel, hobbies, etc. In fact, when asked what </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">financial pitfalls they are prone to, one quarter of Americans flagged “excessive/frivolous” spending.<br class=""><br class=""></span><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><a href="https://www.northwesternmutual.com/about-us/studies/planning-and-progress-study-2017" class="">https://www.northwesternmutual.com/about-us/studies/planning-and-progress-study-2017</a></span></div></div></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""> </span></div></div></div></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">————————————————————————————————————</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">"The big challenge is still to deliver emissions reductions at the pace and scale needed, especially in a world where economies are driven by consumption.”<br class=""><br class="">Sonja van Renssen.The inconvenient truth of failed climate policies. Nature Climate Change MAY 2018<br class=""><br class="">Published online: 27 April 2018 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4" class="">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4</a> <br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">———————————————————————————————————————</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="color: rgb(10, 35, 54); font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: 0.36px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">The most penetrating criticism I’ve seen of renewable energy—such as wind, solar, hydropower, hydrogen and long-life battery technology— is that it’s being promoted at massive scale to reassure us that we can go on as before, with little if any change of lifestyle, no move beyond our comfort zones. That’s a comforting view, one that we’d all love to be true.</span></div><div class=""><span style="color: rgb(10, 35, 54); font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: 0.36px; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(10, 35, 54); font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: 0.36px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">Lance Olsen. </span><span style="color: rgb(10, 35, 54); letter-spacing: 0.36px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; widows: 2;" class="">The Paradox Of Building America's Green Lifestyle Grid</span></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">May 13, 2019 <a href="https://mountainjournal.org/renewable-energy-solves-one-problem-but-creates-another" style="letter-spacing: 0.36px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">https://mountainjournal.org/renewable-energy-solves-one-problem-but-creates-another</a></span></div></span></div><div class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div><div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </div></div></div>
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