Michael Moore this Earth Day released a film Planet of the Humans on YouTube. I highly recommend watching the thought-provoking documentary that digs beneath the surface of the Green Energy revolution. I felt the film pays strong homage to the iconic Planet of the Apes series focusing on human behavior of greed and corporate deceit to show we cannot resolve our peril with old or new technologies. Planet of the Humans challenges conventional wisdom of green energy and electric vehicles as well as the promoters of Environmentalism to show that trade offs are not decreasing environmental impacts. Actually, most commercial solar and wind systems and corporations heavily rely on petrochemicals and mining industries as well as promoting biomass as renewable that burns trees and garbage including tires.
The film does not offer many solutions for saving Planet Earth and all species, specifically Primates, realizing that demands on energy, transportation, and natural resources are interconnected and unsustainable. The film briefly mentions the need the do less with what we have, i.e. conservation.
I am a strong advocate of finding a balance and taking a risk cost-benefit approach to all energy sources with assessing environmental impacts. We need local, national, and United Nations energy strategies that decrease impacts to human health (including workers) and the environment.
Here are a few ideas to consider that are not discussed in film and might make a good sequel:
If we must burn coal for decades to come, phase out high sulfur coal in West Virginia in favor of Wyoming coal.
If we must burn nuclear power, phase out unsafe and older power plants in favor of new modular reactor designs.
If we must use biomass and biofuels, ensure adequate local resources and transparent public health protections.
If we must build more wind generators, make sure we have a national supply of materials including rare earth elements.
If we must build more solar electric plants, make sure they will last more than 10 years.
We need to take a stronger look at waste as a resource! Here is a blog I wrote about collecting waste natural gas at the local sewage treatment plant to run biofuel vehicles.
Also, last week nuclear engineering students from the University of Michigan received an award for proposing that waste spent nuclear fuel be used to heat and transform sewage sludge into fertilizer!