It may be more difficult to see Michael Moore’s next documentary, and not because movie theaters are closed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. A group of environmentalists — leftists — pressured Moore’s distributor into dropping the film, leaving the documentary, which focuses on the environmental movement, in limbo.
Moore debuted his film online on Earth Day as a way of paying homage to his first film, a short documentary about pollution in his home town of Flint, Michigan, Moore made when he was in high school. “Planet of the Humans,” is supposed to be a natural extension of Moore’s first movie, showing how little the environmental situation has improved in the fifty years since “Pollution in My Hometown” premiered.
“50 yrs ago today, on the 1st EarthDay, I showed my first documentary ‘Pollution in My Hometown’ to the ppl of Flint. I was 15yrs old. It was my EagleScout project. 50 yrs later, the planet is in WORSE shape. I won’t be silent. Watch ‘Planet of the Humans,’ Moore tweeted as an introduction to “Planet of the Humans.”
Certainly, Moore assumed his efforts would be well-received. Although his last few efforts — a documentary about the election of President Donald Trump called “Fahrenheit 11/9,” and a one-man show about his “resistance” in the Trump age — both flopped, Moore is a beloved member of the progressive left and his films always find an audience.
This time, though, Moore seems to have made a mistake: “Planet of the Humans” criticizes the left’s obsession with alternative energy sources and renewable fuels.
Moore’s criticisms aren’t without merit. In the film, he derides alternative energies like wind and solar as “useless,” ultimately dependent on fossil fuels, and unable to meet the great demand for energy that drove the desire for fossil fuels in the first place. Moore also seems to “ignore” the Green New Deal, one of Moore’s most vocal critics points out, likely because the Green New Deal is a thinly veiled attempt to destroy American industry and prop up progressive pet causes rather than an adequate way of addressing climate change.
Moore also, critics say, takes aim at darlings of the progressive environmentalist movement, labeling them as either figureheads or profiteers.
“We need a serious new direction,” the film’s director, Jeff Gibbs said. “What we have been calling green, renewable energy and industrial civilization are one and the same thing — desperate measures not to save the planet but to save our way of life.”
The fury was so great, environmental activists issued a petition to the film’s distributor to have Moore’s effort pulled from streaming … and it worked.
“I just received notice that the distributor of Michael Moore’s #PlanetoftheHumans is taking the film down due to misinformation in the film. Thank you to @FilmsForAction for responding to our demand for a retraction and an apology from @mmflint,” wrote Josh Fox in a celebratory Tweet sent over the weekend.
1) I just received notice that the distributor of Michael Moore's #PlanetoftheHumans is taking the film down due to misinformation in the film.
Thank you to @FilmsForAction for responding to our demand for a retraction and an apology from @mmflint.
See below. And thank you to… pic.twitter.com/3ZzkLhTVyC— Josh Fox EndFossilFuels (@joshfoxfilm) April 24, 2020
Moore is probably not unnerved. After all, as an environmental activist, Moore, who owns eight homes at last count and travels frequently, is not a paragon of climate change virtue.