I wonder if any of the "facts" presented in this film were seriously researched. I found many errors. Following are some facts that the film misrepresents.
Wind turbines are highly successful. The wind does not die at night--it's well documented that they produce more electricity at night than they do in the day. Ivanpah uses only 4% fossil fuel energy, and 96% of its energy comes from sunlight. Sustainable energy does not lead to wasted energy at backup power plants. With a 100% fossil-fuel grid, the combined plant runs at 80% plus one whole plant running standby for backup. It's not that different with sustainable energy in the mix. Electric cars (EV), are still as clean as some of the best fossil-fuel cars when powered with coal-fired electricity (both CO2 and other pollutants), but coal use is in the minority and dropping, so the advantage of EVs gets better year after year.
The film portrays anything less than perfection as useless. It portrays many of the people who have done our best environmental work as villains or fools. The bar for taint is very low. It takes comments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of context and puts a negative spin on them. It portrays Bill McKibben as a dupe and a fool. The most ridiculous spin in the film is the condemnation of Caterpillar because their bulldozers are used in building the Dakota Access Pipeline.
I understand the need to flatten, and possibly reduce, world population--infinite growth in a finite system leads to disaster. But the film has this as its only option, which may be a bridge too far. US birth rates are already too low to sustain our population, but we heavily over consume. Were the whole world to live as Americans do, we would need five earths to support us. Doing nothing about that while waiting generations for population to decline will destroy us.
Wind turbines are highly successful. The wind does not die at night--it's well documented that they produce more electricity at night than they do in the day. Ivanpah uses only 4% fossil fuel energy, and 96% of its energy comes from sunlight. Sustainable energy does not lead to wasted energy at backup power plants. With a 100% fossil-fuel grid, the combined plant runs at 80% plus one whole plant running standby for backup. It's not that different with sustainable energy in the mix. Electric cars (EV), are still as clean as some of the best fossil-fuel cars when powered with coal-fired electricity (both CO2 and other pollutants), but coal use is in the minority and dropping, so the advantage of EVs gets better year after year.
The film portrays anything less than perfection as useless. It portrays many of the people who have done our best environmental work as villains or fools. The bar for taint is very low. It takes comments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of context and puts a negative spin on them. It portrays Bill McKibben as a dupe and a fool. The most ridiculous spin in the film is the condemnation of Caterpillar because their bulldozers are used in building the Dakota Access Pipeline.
I understand the need to flatten, and possibly reduce, world population--infinite growth in a finite system leads to disaster. But the film has this as its only option, which may be a bridge too far. US birth rates are already too low to sustain our population, but we heavily over consume. Were the whole world to live as Americans do, we would need five earths to support us. Doing nothing about that while waiting generations for population to decline will destroy us.