The Plot To Kill ‘Planet of the Humans’
Shortly after Planet of the Humans premiered, a campaign arose to suppress, smear, and ultimately censor the film. A new investigative report by Max Blumenthal reveals what the censors did not want people to see, namely how the solid evidence presented in Planet of the Humans endangers a $50 trillion plan to profit off the destruction of the living world.
The censorship effort failed after 11 days and Planet of the Humans broke through to an unprecedented audience of 15-20 million this summer, mostly on YouTube.
Today, Michael Moore interviewed Max Blumenthal in a thrilling and expanded expose on the film. Blumenthal reveals that not only is Planet of the Humans correct in its critique of supposed energy solutions but it also reveals a disturbing corruption of mainstream environmental groups by billionaires and bankers.
Listen to the interview:
Episode 128: The Plot To Kill ‘Planet of the Humans’ (featuring Max Blumenthal)
Read Max Blumenthals investigation:
‘Green’ billionaires behind professional activist network that led suppression of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary
See Michael Moore respond to the investigation on The Hill:
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I also think Ozzie that your book did much more service to the environmental movement than this film. The film is — least to say — short on facts and solutions and high on sensationalism.The quality of the depiction in the film is also highly amateur — which is typical of self-made documentaries, not just this film — and really does more harm than service to the environment. Your book discussed the issues objectively, factually and gave a full description of the prices we are paying for renewables, while then admitting that that’s the only solution we have provided we drastically cut down our consumption (which is the best and only possible approach indeed).
The film on the other hand presents little information about the climate issue, very few facts, unlike your book. The focus on the “conspiracy” of the biomass industry is especially what make the film less credible. Criticizing the industry is absolutely needed. But conspiracy thinking: no thank you. It’s not hard to see today how conspiracy theories, along with their post-truth philosophical underpinnings, are endangering the very fabric our societies. By fanning the flames around conspiracies, you are only propping up an assault on rational thinking and on the factual world, and this is surely not conducive to solving the climate crisis — afterall such conspiracy theories and divorce from reality is precisely what climate denialism is based on.
As I mentioned in my review of the film:
“In the whole film, of 1hr 39 mins, the producer barely dedicated 2-3 mins to hint at solutions. I think documentaries like these only make the problem worse. They make people feel good about themselves, and continue on buying stuff, eating meat and consuming like crazy, al the while schizophrenically thinking this is all ok since they watched a documentary and they "know" they're doing better than the big banks and the industry tycoons who are the source of all evil in the world. Except these tycoons are simply producing junk for precisely people like them.
The movie probably does more harm than good, since any right-wing conspiracy theorist will just come and selectively pick up lines and slips from this "documentary" to knock down the very people actually trying to tackle the climate issue.
The film could have been much more useful had the producers talked about the side effects of green energy in a smaller portion of the film, but also compared them to other options and more importantly discussed actual solutions. Here are the solutions: stop taking the plane instead of complaining about the airline companies, stop eating meat instead of complaining about the Amazon deforestation, stop buying useless things that go dead the month after you buy them, and stop wasting your time watching documentaries and spend that time studying your behaviors and their impact instead.”
I really think the quality of your activism, as I gleaned it from your book, was lost on such a cheap documentary.
![[image error]](https://ozziezehner.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/max-blumenthal-rumble.png){kind=link}
There is a historically elitist streak to conservationists and environmentalists going back to the late 19th century that makes many cringe when they talk about the need for population control. I think it's a little overblown to refer to the film as racist for mentioning population control, but I think it would have been better if they had linked that to the only known way of effectively lowering birthrates (educating women).
I think the film is worth watching, but I think Zehner's book might be a better use of everyone's time.