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HUMAN_MONBIOT

                                             February 8, 2021

George Monbiot addressing Michael Moore (but not Jeff Gibbs?)
about the documentary "Planet of the Humans":


   [link]

This is a very tight, coherent statement of the green
response to this film.  I liked these passages where he
takes on the films claim that population growth is the
central problem underlying climate change:

   "... But worse ... you provided us with no
   solutions.  Oh, except for one thing: mass die-offs."      [link]


   "Population growth is what people reach for when
   they don't want to face structural and systemic            [link]
   problems.  Problems such as capitalism.  Population        [link]
   growth is what people reach for when they want to
   kick down, rather than kick up."

   "Climate breakdown and ecological breakdown are
   above all, the result of consumption ...  the rate
   of consumption growth world wide was roughly 3% per
   year ... the rate of population growth is 1% a year
   which has declined from it's peak in 1963 of 2.5% ... "

   "Does that mean population growth has roughly 1/3
   of the impact of comsumption growth?  Not at all.
   The greater part of population growth is happening
   amongst the world's poorest people, who consume
   very little."

   "And so what we see is the phenomena of
   comparatively wealthy white people saying 'We're
   not the problem.  Our consumption growth isn't the
   issue.  It's *those* people, breeding, they are
   the problem'"

   "This claim is inherently racist.  Rich white people
   blaming poor brown people for an environmental
   problem which is mainly created by rich white
   people."



Most of the above can found here:

  "Michael and Me"
  May 11th, 2020
  https://www.monbiot.com/2020/05/11/michael-and-me/
  
  
  "How did Michael Moore become a hero to climate deniers and the far right?"
  The Guardian UK, May 7, 2020:
  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/07/michael-moore-far-right-climate-crisis-deniers-film-environment-falsehoods
  
  

Somewhat oddly, I can't find the opening line of my quote ("mass dieoffs")
anywhere there now, I suspect that it survives in this video form:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__UJ09PZFoI&feature=emb_imp_woyt


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