Urgent Environmental Doc 'Planet of the Humans,' from E.P. Michael Moore, Released For Free on YouTube

Film by Jeff Gibbs argues we are headed for planetary disaster, and "Green New Deal" won't save us

Director Jeff Gibbs (center) with executive producer Michael Moore (right) and producer Ozzie Zehner attend the world premiere of "Planet of the Humans" at the Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan. July 31, 2019. Photo by Matt Carey

Planet of the Humans, a searing documentary that predicts doom for the human species if we don't take proper action on climate change, has begun streaming for free on YouTube just in time for Earth Day.

Jeff Gibbs directed and Michael Moore executive produced the film that argues the environmental movement has given us false hope that converting to "green energy" can stave off catastrophe.

"As we suffer through one health and environmental crisis after another, it is we clear we can no longer simply solar-panel-and-windmill our way out of this emergency," Gibbs and Moore said in a statement announcing the film's release.

​Planet of the Humans has already recorded 125,000 views on YouTube since it became available Tuesday morning.

There is nothing you will ever have in your life that's not an extraction from the planet earth. We've all lost touch with that.

--Planet of the Humans director Jeff Gibbs to Nonfictionfilm.com

The documentary makes the case that so-called green solutions like solar power and biomass necessitate the extraction of resources from the Earth and actually further global warming. 

"The Green New Deal, to the extent it's proposing that green energy is going to save, it's not going to save us, it's actually going to kill us faster," Gibbs told me at the Traverse City Film Festival last summer, where Planet of the Humans held its world premiere. "The parts of the Green New Deal that have to do with social justice and equality are fantastic. But the part that has to do with energy - building out an electric car and solar and wind infrastructure and the biomass, biofuel infrastructure, is going to run us off the cliff faster. Because it's an additional round of mining, fossil fuels and destruction that does not replace the one that's already destroying the planet."

The film cities statistics that show the development of alternative fuels has not in fact reduced demand for fossil fuels (what has cut fossil fuel use recently, of course, is the COVID-19 pandemic). Gibbs argues that our economic assumptions must be radically reconsidered to avert disaster, beginning with what he calls an infatuation with the notion of infinite economic growth. 

"I'd like to have millions, tens of millions of people see the film - hundreds of millions," Gibbs commented. "I think influencing whether it's the right thousand people or the right 10 million people, I trust the process just so we can keep moving forward."

Watch a tease trailer for the film below and scroll down further for audio clips from my interview with Gibbs and Zehner and from the world premiere of Planet of the Humans.

---

Related: 
>Planet of the Humans director Jeff Gibbs on looming 'environmental apocalypse'

---