Michael Moore Heresy Watch (Cont’d)

The environmentalist freakout about Michael Moore’s new film “Planet of the Humans” continues. The Guardian reports today about demands that the “dangerous” film be “taken down” and suppressed:

Planet of the Humans has provoked a furious reaction from scientists and campaigners, however, who have called for it be taken down. Films for Action, an online library of videos, temporarily took down the film after describing it as “full of misinformation”, though they later reinstated it, saying they did not want accusations of censorship to give the film “more power and mystique than it deserves”. A free version on YouTube has been viewed more than 3m times.

And one person I was expecting to hear from has finally shown up for duty:

Michael Mann, a climate scientist and signatory to [Josh] Fox’s letter, said the film includes “various distortions, half-truths and lies” and that the filmmakers “have done a grave disservice to us and the planet by promoting climate change inactivist tropes and talking points.”

“Inactivist tropes.” I like that phrase: Henceforth I think I’m going to describe myself generally as an “inactivist.” The world needs more inactivism!

Speaking of activists, one person who comes in for a well-deserved pasting in the film is the egregious Bill McKibben:

Climate activist Bill McKibben, one of the targets for the film for allegedly being influenced by corporate money and for supporting the burning of biomass such as wood chips for energy, said the characterisations are untrue. McKibben has previously changed his views on biomass energy, which he now sees as being detrimental to climate action, and claims he has “never taken a penny in pay” from any environmental group.

I have highlighted the passage on McKibben changing his views on biomass, because he was one of the prime instigators behind Middlebury College, the sinecure from which he runs his 350.0rg activist group, building an expensive campus biomass plant several years ago. As it happens, the National Association of Scholars did a deep dive into Middlebury’s biomass plant several years ago as a part of a large report on the “sustainability” fad on college campuses, and it did not turn out well for Middlebury. The cost-per-ton of abated carbon dioxide emissions from Middlebury’s frantic efforts was about ten times as high as what Europeans spend to reduce emissions. It is all virtue-signaling. The report estimated that in 2015 Middlebury, a relatively small liberal arts college with a total enrollment of about 2,500, spent nearly $14 million on behalf of “sustainability,” a figure that might not be sustainable in the post- COVID 19 higher education fiscal environment.

My pal Michael Shellenberger, an ex-leftist, appeared on Andrew Bolt’s TV show down in Australia last night talking about the film, and it is worth taking in if you have nine minutes to spare:

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