For Earth Day, Michael Moore released released the fundamentally misleading Planet of the Humans. Highlighting this at Daily Kos generated attention with 356 comments (as of the moment), many defending Moore as insightful and too many dismissing Moore’s rampant truthiness. For the same reasons that Moore got lots of soft-peddled media attention for the release, his notoriety led knowledgeable reviewers to (regrettably) take the time to watch the film (such as here) and, well, the detailing of errors, falsehoods, truthiness piled up. And, a letter from scientists made this clear. With evidence in hand, one of the film’s distributor didn’t hesitate to act.

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

An interesting red flag for a distributor (or publisher), Moore refused to allow the distributor see (and have external review of) the film prior to release.

3)Like all the distributors of the film that I spoke t, FFA had not seen the film prior to posting it. I don't blame @FilmsForAction for this-they did it bc of @mmflint's reputation. But I think it's strange that Michael Moore would not let anyone see the film before distribution — Josh Fox EndFossilFuels (@joshfoxfilm) April 24, 2020

At Films for Action, (the extremely good and worth reading) Skepticism IsAn Healthy, but Planet of the Humans Is Toxic – A Critical Review ends

A movie that purports to care about the environment and the future of humanity and yet seeks to undermine support for the very things we must do to save this planet, and ourselves, is worse than a disappointment. It’s reckless.

Note that Films for Action is not the full distributor but a sustainable film clearinghouse.

UPDATE: Films for Action chose to reverse action and put the film back up on their site:

Our statement on Planet Of The Humans. Why we took it down. Why we ultimately decided to put it back up (including this note). Plus our critiques and thoughts on the film. https://t.co/SvijkSgEPM — Films For Action (@FilmsForAction) April 25, 2020

Providing a context for Moore’s truthiness

Yes, there are elements of truth in Planet of the Humans. Yes, neither solar nor wind is without environmental impact. Yes, human population is a real challenge that is too little discussed. Yes (YES), biofuels are overhyped and are (mainly?) damaging. Yes … HOWEVER, Moore falsifies much, maligns (too) many people and institutions with partial truth or falsehoods, presents things in fundamentally misleading ways, and — writ large — does not provide a useful contribution to the discussion of our global (climate) challenges and solution options/paths to address them.

Like Robert Bryce’s work (not that in anyway are producer Jeff Gibbs’ and Moore’s knowledge of energy issues as encyclopedic as libertarian, climate-dismissing Bryce’s), this film has the same fundamental flaws:

it is too error-filled for non-educated/knowledgeable people to watch due to misdirection & embedded deceit that might not be evident as the viewer has to be knowledgeable to see the truthiness and deceit.

For those already knowledgeable, the core thematics/points aren’t news and it just takes so much effort to wade through the falsehoods and truthiness for having thoughts/perspective that are already out there in discussion.

Additionally, Gibbs’ and Moore’s truthiness and falsehood-filled product isn’t helpful because they created something that is being leveraged by climate deniers/delayers to attack (not complete, need to improve, are improving) solution paths. (For examples, see Emily Atkin’s thought-provoking The wheel of first-time climate dudes.)

NOTE/UPDATE:

To make clear, “a” distributor (with a limited footprint) pulled the film, not “the” distributor which is Moore’s Rumble. From Rumble Media

I’m the distributor of Planet of the Humans. Rumble Media. The movie was released on Tuesday and has not stopped being in release for one minute. It’s on my YouTube channel where I’ve made it available free of charge as a public service. In these three and a half days it has had nearly 2 million views. Not sure where you heard it was no longer in distribution. Probably wishful thinking on someone’s part! This movie, like Rumble Media, exists in part to ignite a discussion, end greed/profit-motive/capitalism, and save the planet.

