Finally, YouTube has found the flimsy pretext it needed to cancel the controversial Michael Moore-produced eco-documentary which has been infuriating greenies with its anti-renewables message: ‘copyright infringement.’
Planet of the Humans, the documentary executive-produced by Moore and written and directed by his friend Jeff Gibbs has racked up over 8 million views on YouTube since its launch last month.
But now — in what Gibbs says is a “blatant act of censorship” — YouTube has taken down the video.
This follows a copyright infringement claim to YouTube by Toby Smith, a British environmental photographer, who doesn’t like the context in which his material was used and who claims a clip of his material was run without his approval.
Smith filed the complaint to YouTube on 23 May after discovering Planet of the Humans used several seconds of footage from his Rare Earthenware project detailing the journey of rare earth minerals from Inner Mongolia.
Smith, who has previously worked on energy and environmental issues, said he did not want his work associated with something he disagreed with. “I went directly to YouTube rather than approaching the filmmakers because I wasn’t interested in negotiation. I don’t support the documentary, I don’t agree with its message and I don’t like the misleading use of facts in its narrative.”
Michael Moore’s YouTube channel for the documentary now says:
Video unavailable. This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by a third party.
This is but the latest skirmish in a long-running battle between green activists and the documentary makers Moore and Gibbs.
Watch trailer below:
In the process, Michael Moore has become an unlikely darling of the right. Moore is, of course, far better known for his decades of leftist activism. But on this occasion, his message gels with what conservative climate skeptics – most notably President Donald Trump – have been saying for some time: that renewable energy is an expensive, environmentally destructive boondoggle which does nothing to save the planet.
Greenies and left-wing activists feel that they have been betrayed by one of their own. They have sought desperately to get the documentary cancelled.
They first attempted to do so by claiming the film contained ‘misinformation.’ Left-wing activists led by Josh Fox, director of the discredited anti-fracking movie Gasland, and Michael Mann, inventor of the discredited Hockey Stick curve, published an open letter, claiming:
“The film is dangerous, misleading and destructive to decades of progress on environmental policy, science and engineering.”
But though the documentary was rejected by its distributor, it continued to be available on YouTube. Until now.
Filmmaker Jeff Gibbs is surely correct when he says that YouTube’s cancellation of the documentary is politically motivated.
In a statement quoted in the Guardian, he says:
“This attempt to take down our film and prevent the public from seeing it is a blatant act of censorship by political critics of Planet of the Humans. It is a misuse of copyright law to shut down a film that has opened a serious conversation about how parts of the environmental movement have gotten into bed with Wall Street and so-called “green capitalists.” There is absolutely no copyright violation in my film. This is just another attempt by the film’s opponents to subvert the right to free speech.”
It does give an indication, though, of how successful the documentary has been in exposing the cognitive dissonance at the heart of the green movement. For decades greens have been championing renewable energy as the only meaningful solution to ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’; but as Planet of the Humans painstakingly demonstrates, the environmental cost of renewables far outweighs their (at best) feeble benefits.
The complaint brought by photographer Toby Smith is typical of this cognitive dissonance. His Rare Earthenware project traces the rare earth elements used for green technologies such as wind turbines and smart car batteries to the region where they are mined in Inner Mongolia. What Smith shows is that there is nothing remotely green about the toxic, radioactive conditions under which they are mined.
Yet, apparently because the documentary gives succour to right-wing climate sceptics, Smith doesn’t want his material used in it.
This speaks volumes about the warped thinking of the green movement: political ideology will almost always take precedence over actually saving the planet.