Millions have watched Michael Moore’s eco-doc Planet of the Humans on YouTube—here’s why it’s so controversial 

If you’ve been catching up on climate-change documentaries lately, there’s a new film that has everyone talking. Planet of the Humans, which was originally released in 2019, has been viewed nearly 4m times since it was made free to watch via YouTube on Earth Day (April 22). Directed, written and presented by Jeff Gibbs and produced by Michael Moore (the duo behind 2002’s Bowling for Columbine and 2004’s Fahrenheit 9/11), the documentary makes a number of controversial claims about the eco-movement, which climate scientists and environmental campaigners have challenged—even calling for the film to be removed from public viewing. 

So, should you add Planet of the Humans to your watchlist? Here is everything you need to know about Michael Moore’s documentary. 

What is Planet of the Humans about? 

The documentary follows Gibbs as he investigates how green the renewable energy sector really is, ranging from solar panels to electric cars. The filmmaker’s biggest claim? We haven’t been told the whole truth about clean energy, which relies on technology that often requires fossil fuels in order to function. 

At one point in the documentary, writer Ozzie Zehner goes as far to suggest: “You would have been better off just burning the fossil fuels in the first place, instead of playing pretend.” Meanwhile, the world’s ever-increasing population is declared the “elephant in the room” that we really need to deal with, in order to tackle our diminishing resources. 

Why has the documentary proved so controversial?

Climate scientists and campaigners have branded it “dangerous, misleading and destructive” in an open letter started by filmmaker Josh Fox. Academics say there are a number of factual errors in the documentary, including the suggestion that electric cars are bad for the environment because they run on coal (a report published in March found their emissions are up to 70 per cent lower than petrol-fuelled vehicles). Meanwhile, experts say some statistics quoted about the efficiency of solar power are more than a decade old. 

The documentary’s comments on population control are also highly controversial and have been compared to arguments often made by eco-fascists. (The gunman who shot dead 23 people and injured 23 others in the tragic El Paso massacre in Texas in 2019 wrote in his manifesto: “If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.”) Far-right news organisation Breitbart has also voiced its support for Planet of the Humans. 

Why do Al Gore and Elon Musk come under fire? 

Aside from attacking renewable energy, one of the documentary’s main arguments is: “The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete.” Those put under the spotlight include former US vice president and environmentalist Al Gore, who is called out for selling his cable channel Current TV to Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera in 2013 (oil makes up 70 per cent of the Qatari government’s revenue). 

Meanwhile, CEO of Tesla Elon Musk comes under fire for claiming his Nevada factory will use wind, solar and geothermal power to produce “all the energy it needs”—according to the documentary, the factory is connected to the local power grid. (This 2018 report says the factory was reliant on the grid when it wasn’t fully operational.) 

Environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, is also heavily criticised for supporting biomass—the burning of natural material to produce energy—and being influenced by funding from major corporations (claims he has denied). 

So, how green is renewable energy? 

Despite the criticisms aired in the documentary, studies have found that CO2 emissions created from building solar and wind plants are insignificant compared to the emissions created from directly burning fossil fuels—meaning we definitely should not be giving up on renewable energy right now. 

The technology has also improved significantly in the past few years; figures released in March by the International Renewable Agency show that a third of the world’s power is now created using green resources. While there is undoubtedly a long way to go until the world is operating on 100 per cent renewable energy, scientists from Stanford University have set out a roadmap on how we could achieve this by 2050—a goal that we can all get behind.

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