by Chris White
Anti-fossil fuel activists unsuccessfully attempted to browbeat the film producer behind a new Michael Moore documentary panning green energy into permanently removing the movie over claims that it contains pro-oil industry misinformation.
Activist Josh Fox, climate scientist Michael Mann, and other environmentalists signed onto a petition Friday asking the producer to take down Planet of Humans, claiming Moore’s film relies on old data to claim solar and wind energy is dependent on fossil fuels. Films for Action initially nixed the film before putting it back online, saying the move was meant to engage in debate.
“We are disheartened and dismayed to report that the film is full of misinformation – so much so that for half a day we removed the film from the site,” Films for Action noted in a press statement Saturday. “Ultimately, we decided to put it back up because we believe media literacy, critique and debate is the best solution to misinformation.”
The company then shared some of its thoughts on the film’s premise, which was directed by environmentalists Jeff Gibbs and argues human beings are the problem, not energy production. Films for Action decided that effectively banning the film would be a form of censorship.
“We still need to transition to 100% renewable energy. There is no other option. But the delusion that we need to dispel is the idea that renewables can power our industrial civilization as is, and that these technologies are entirely ‘green’ when they are themselves still destructive,” Films for Action noted in the statement.
Gibbs and Moore lashed into wind, solar, and biomass in particular. “Green energy is not going to save us,” Gibbs noted in the film before focusing his ire on environmentalists Bill McKibben, Van Jones, Robert F. Kennedy and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, all of whom push for a combination of solar panels, nuclear or wind power to replace oil production.
Fox, who’s perhaps best known for producing the anti-fracking film “Gasland,” told his Twitter followers in a tweet Friday that the attempt to take down the film was successful. He included in the tweet a screenshot of Films for Action’s statement, which did not include the section of the post explaining why the producer opted not to take down the film.
“I just received notice that the distributor of Michael Moore’s #PlanetoftheHumans is taking the film down due to misinformation in the film,” Fox wrote before criticizing Moore. “My hero has fallen. I have watched @MMFlint PUNCH UP at authority and hypocrisy with glee for his whole career. He has deeply inspired me and taught me. But now he’s the Goliath in the room, PUNCHING DOWN at us.”
Neither Fox, Mann, nor Planet of Humans have replied to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Mann, a Pennsylvania State University professor, has been criticized in recent years for embellishing his credentials. Environmentalists wrote reviews of the film after it was posted for free on YouTube claiming that the movie relies on old, outdated, information.
Fox is a proponent of the Green New Deal, a policy idea meant to aggressively transition the U.S. away from the oil industry.
Watch the full film “Planet of Humans” here:
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Chris White is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Michael Moore” by Nicolas Genin CC2.0 and “Planet of Humans” by Planet of Humans.
