"Gosh, I wonder how humans have survived for the past 200,000 years without electricity? Could it be that we really don't need electricity?" says the filmmaker whose filmmaking equipment probably uses electricity. Or, maybe it runs on algae.
"Electricity is a convenience, it is a luxury," says the guy with an electric light burning away right next to him during his interview.
The film presents some interesting information that the so-called "green" industry (solar power, wind turbines, "biomas") are not as "green" as they purport. I don't doubt this. Industries exist to make money. Also, the "green" industry is going to have a reasonably big carbon footprint in these early stages because it's in its infancy, and the oldschool, polluting industries are the only ones that can mine and fabricate the components. But this is not near good enough for the purists behind this film. From the absurdity that electricity is merely a "convenience" -- tell that to people who underwent life-saving surgery today, keeping our COVID-19 vaccine doses temperature-controlled, or simply working jobs to support their families.
The documentary is certainly worth watching. No doubt there is hypocrisy in the green industry, but these filmmakers are pretty stark examples of letting "'perfect' be the enemy of 'good'". They are also caricatures of what most people think of as "environmentalists" -- who get choked up over the birds that are killed each year by wind turbines, cats, and sky scrapers (as it turns out, wind turbines kill the fewest of the three, it turns out -- but still receives heavy scowls and deep disapproval from those who love the earth).
People are entitled to their beliefs, but the filmmakers open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy with their rigidness and purity. Electricity cannot be dismissed as merely a "luxury", as something people could probably live without and be happier for it. That is the kind of mind behind this film. I mean, when you tie the solar power industry in with the Holocaust, explaining what a "claim to virtue" is, there is something drastically wrong with your argument.
Watching this doc, I learned about the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which was fascinating.
In the abstract, many of the ideas voiced by the filmmakers are correct. Capitalism is destroying the parts of earth that sustain human life. Technology isn't the answer to every problem. Often, it's the source of the problem, or exacerbates problems that already exist.
At one point, one of the filmmakers asks "What does the earth need?"
The honest answer is: drastically fewer human beings.
Thing is, that's not going to happen.
"Electricity is a convenience, it is a luxury," says the guy with an electric light burning away right next to him during his interview.
The film presents some interesting information that the so-called "green" industry (solar power, wind turbines, "biomas") are not as "green" as they purport. I don't doubt this. Industries exist to make money. Also, the "green" industry is going to have a reasonably big carbon footprint in these early stages because it's in its infancy, and the oldschool, polluting industries are the only ones that can mine and fabricate the components. But this is not near good enough for the purists behind this film. From the absurdity that electricity is merely a "convenience" -- tell that to people who underwent life-saving surgery today, keeping our COVID-19 vaccine doses temperature-controlled, or simply working jobs to support their families.
The documentary is certainly worth watching. No doubt there is hypocrisy in the green industry, but these filmmakers are pretty stark examples of letting "'perfect' be the enemy of 'good'". They are also caricatures of what most people think of as "environmentalists" -- who get choked up over the birds that are killed each year by wind turbines, cats, and sky scrapers (as it turns out, wind turbines kill the fewest of the three, it turns out -- but still receives heavy scowls and deep disapproval from those who love the earth).
People are entitled to their beliefs, but the filmmakers open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy with their rigidness and purity. Electricity cannot be dismissed as merely a "luxury", as something people could probably live without and be happier for it. That is the kind of mind behind this film. I mean, when you tie the solar power industry in with the Holocaust, explaining what a "claim to virtue" is, there is something drastically wrong with your argument.
Watching this doc, I learned about the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which was fascinating.
In the abstract, many of the ideas voiced by the filmmakers are correct. Capitalism is destroying the parts of earth that sustain human life. Technology isn't the answer to every problem. Often, it's the source of the problem, or exacerbates problems that already exist.
At one point, one of the filmmakers asks "What does the earth need?"
The honest answer is: drastically fewer human beings.
Thing is, that's not going to happen.