#246 | Planet Of The Humans: Addressing The False Promises Of Green Energy w/ Jeff Gibbs

Intro: 11:53 | Book Pre-sale

In this episode, I speak with Jeff Gibbs, Director of the popular and controversial documentary film ‘Planet of the Humans.’ The film was Executive Produced by Michael Moore and released to the public on YouTube, generating over six million views since its release on Earth Day last month.

Since its release, ’Planet of the Humans’ has generated enormous controversy, backlash, and intense discussion within the environmental and climate movement at large. Some of the harshest criticisms this film has received have come from stanch proponents of "renewable" and "green" energy technologies (like wind, solar, and biomass — the subjects of the film). The harshest of these criticisms have come from activist and ‘Gasland’ filmmaker Josh Fox, who has stated that the film "is wildly unscientific, outdated, full of falsehoods, and benefits fossil fuel industry promoters and climate deniers" and has asked Moore and Gibbs to disavow the project. (https://bit.ly/3b6ElPa / https://bit.ly/3dnft7c) Pen America, preeminent watchdog in the U.S. defending free expression and human rights, in turn has responded to the calls to take down the film by stating “calls to pull a film because of disagreement with its content are calls for censorship, plain and simple.” (https://bit.ly/2YDZKgg)

In researching the dozens of reactions this documentary has generated, I recognized that the underlying point of the film was lost in all the controversy. In this discussion, I ask Jeff to provide some deeper insights into what his intentions with the film really were, as well as address some of the criticisms the film has received, in particular from Josh Fox. 

Jeff Gibbs is the director, writer, and producer of the feature documentary film ‘Planet of the Humans.’ Born in Flint, Michigan, Jeff has served as a long time collaborator with Michael Moore. The first film he ever worked on was ‘Bowling for Columbine’ producing many iconic scenes including “the bank that gives you a gun,” “dog shoots hunter,” and the “Michigan Militia.” Following the success of ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Jeff became co-producer for ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ the largest box-office documentary of all time. Jeff also wrote the original score for both films. Since ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ though taking an occasional break to produce other films including the Dixie Chicks documentary ‘Shut Up and Sing,’ Jeff has been singularly obsessed with the fate of the earth and humanity.

Episode Notes:

- Learn more about ‘Planet of the Humans’ and watch the film: https://planetofthehumans.com

- Read Josh Fox’s take on the film: https://bit.ly/3b6ElPa

- Read the response from Pen America regarding the calls to take the film down: https://bit.ly/2YDZKgg

- Some more resources that Jeff shared with me back up the film: https://bbc.in/2L2MGJl / https://go.aws/2WwN0VL / https://go.nature.com/2W7tH6L / https://bit.ly/2W6Rxzl / https://bit.ly/2xDxK0Z / https://bit.ly/2A3eJGd

- The song featured in this episode is “Active” by Dark Party from the Ghostly Swim album.