There is a fair amount of good information in this film, but again--early on we have the statement that green technologies are "worse than fossil fuels." This is bullshit. The film proves no such thing. What it does prove is that electric cars in particular are far from "zero emissions" or "clean." Yet they could be a solution--if we intended to produce fewer of them than the gas guzzlers they replace, and make them all small, slow microcars. As for solar and wind power--they are not without environmental impact. But to show us places in China and Chile where mining has impacts on the land, water, local communities and health, while the federal government pays cursory attention and the local government is too fixated on revenues to care, and whole towns end up evacuating--I have seen all of this in West Virginia. For coal mining, the mining-on-steroids known as mountaintop removal mining. That's for coal--to be sent after a filthy refining process to power plants to burn for energy. Pollution at every step, emissions especially in the burning--the difference is that all that pollution is for just the fuel--the power plant also requires cement and steel, etc. At least with the windmills and solar farms, once they're installed there is almost no ongoing emissions or pollution. When these films and essays and books claim that renewables are "worse than fossil fuels or nukes" they lead the viewer to the conclusion that "there is no alternative except living naked in a cave eating berries. SO WE MIGHT AS WELL STICK WTH BAU," which makes me wonder whether sometimes the oil industry funds these things. It's very true that the idea that we can transition to world powered by sun and wind but otherwise just like today, is a dangerous delusion, a dishonest marketing claim, which this film says at the end. That's a legitimate and necessary message. But when you start with an assertion that these things are even worse than the fossil fuels that are killing our world, you make it even less likely that anyone will do anything to avert the crash. If you want to make it a little less impossible that the public will wake up to reality and embrace limits, you need to talk about real solutions. If this vision is a false one, what COULD we do?
Disturbing. Towards the end it becomes clear that the main problem is capitalism. Thanks for sharing. I have passed it on.
Thanks James. We'll watch. Bright Green Lies is also goodly in this space. x
Bright Green Lies Trailer
https://vimeo.com/346171480?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=26027810
Gravitas Plus: The dark side of Electric Vehicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFHvq-8np1o
Another film with a similar message:
Toxic Cost of Going Green | Unreported World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipOeH7GW0M8
There is a fair amount of good information in this film, but again--early on we have the statement that green technologies are "worse than fossil fuels." This is bullshit. The film proves no such thing. What it does prove is that electric cars in particular are far from "zero emissions" or "clean." Yet they could be a solution--if we intended to produce fewer of them than the gas guzzlers they replace, and make them all small, slow microcars. As for solar and wind power--they are not without environmental impact. But to show us places in China and Chile where mining has impacts on the land, water, local communities and health, while the federal government pays cursory attention and the local government is too fixated on revenues to care, and whole towns end up evacuating--I have seen all of this in West Virginia. For coal mining, the mining-on-steroids known as mountaintop removal mining. That's for coal--to be sent after a filthy refining process to power plants to burn for energy. Pollution at every step, emissions especially in the burning--the difference is that all that pollution is for just the fuel--the power plant also requires cement and steel, etc. At least with the windmills and solar farms, once they're installed there is almost no ongoing emissions or pollution. When these films and essays and books claim that renewables are "worse than fossil fuels or nukes" they lead the viewer to the conclusion that "there is no alternative except living naked in a cave eating berries. SO WE MIGHT AS WELL STICK WTH BAU," which makes me wonder whether sometimes the oil industry funds these things. It's very true that the idea that we can transition to world powered by sun and wind but otherwise just like today, is a dangerous delusion, a dishonest marketing claim, which this film says at the end. That's a legitimate and necessary message. But when you start with an assertion that these things are even worse than the fossil fuels that are killing our world, you make it even less likely that anyone will do anything to avert the crash. If you want to make it a little less impossible that the public will wake up to reality and embrace limits, you need to talk about real solutions. If this vision is a false one, what COULD we do?