On Sunday's Velshi show, MSNBC host Ali Velshi provided liberal film makers Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs a forum to plug their new film, Planet of the Humans, which promotes an alarmist view that humans are damaging the planet, and actually hits environmental groups from the left, charging that they do not go far enough.
Moore suggested that the coronavirus pandemic is a "warning from Mother Nature" that "our behavior is not appreciated," and pushed for less energy consumption. Gibbs warned that "perpetual economic growth" is "essentially suicide."
The bulk of the film is devoted to making the argument that alternative energy or "green energy" sources promoted by liberals are not a viable way to replace fossil fuels, and, in some cases, are just as bad, and suggests that the only way humans can prevent disaster is by limiting the population and cutting energy consumption.
At 9:27 a.m. Eastern, Velshi set up the segment:
ALI VELSHI: This past week was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and it could not have come at a more critical time. The World Meteorological Organization says carbon dioxide levels are up an astounding 26 percent, but the WMO also says carbon emissions had dropped six percent this year due to the pandemic. And that is the biggest yearly drop since World War II. It's great news except it's going to go back up as soon as we get back to normal. A new documentary by Michael Moore explores the human role in climate change, and it opens up with a simple question: How long do humans have?
After showing a clip of the film in which random people reacted to the question of how long they believe humans will survive, Velshi brought aboard his guests and began by going to Moore, who suggested that the coronavirus pandemic demonstrates that Earth is angry at the human population:
MICHAEL MOORE, FILM MAKER: ...We are in dangerous, dangerous shape here, and this pandemic should act as a warning from Mother Nature that we have -- our behavior is not appreciated, and the fact that we have treated the species on this planet -- species that often times give us these viruses. It's a failure of us -- all of us who call ourselves environmentalists.
After the liberal filmmaker argued that the environmental movement needs new leadership from young people, and complained about the influence of some big businesses in the movement, Velshi then turned to Gibbs and cited the pandemic as demonstrating what the world could be like if humans polluted less.
Gibbs asserted that the coronavirus pandemic is a result of humans "abusing the environment," and talked up the possibility of younger environmentalists turning against economic growth as a way of preventing "suicide" by the human race:
JEFF GIBBS, FILM MAKER: So I think young people are really asking these questions, and I think many young people realize that growth itself -- perpetual economic growth on a finite planet is essentially suicide, and that we have to find a different model for how we measure growth, happiness and prosperity.
Instead of challenging his guests from the right on the issue, Velshi soon cued up Moore to argue that there should be less consumption of fossil fuels:
VELSHI: Most people who have studied this -- as you and Jeff have -- come to the conclusion that without actually fundamentally changing our consumption of fossil fuels, things don't change. So we can use paper straws all we want -- we can think about beef -- we can do all these things, but if you don't change fossil fuels, we will not meet our goals in terms of climate change. Do you agree with that?
The liberal film maker complained that First World nations consume too much: "Not only the consumption of fossil fuels, but all kinds of consumption. We overconsume -- especially in the First World. We are wrecking this planet -- we are a small percentage of the planet, and yet we overconsume on so many levels."
The MSNBC host jumped back in to press again on the issue of cutting fossil fuel consumption:
VELSHI: But, MIchael, we do have to be hyperfocused on fossil fuels, right? Because if all the other things happen -- we believe the fossil fuel industry's idea that, for $40 a ton of carbon tax, we'll be okay -- it won't happen, right? I mean, the fact is, if we don't do fossil fuels, the rest doesn't matter.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Sunday, April 26, Velshi show on MSNBC:
Velshi
4/26/2020
ALI VELSHI: All right, this past week was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and it could not have come at a more critical time. The World Meteorological Organization says carbon dioxide levels are up an astounding 26 percent, but the WMO also says carbon emissions had dropped six percent this year due to the pandemic. And that is the biggest yearly drop since World War II. It's great news except it's going to go back up as soon as we get back to normal. A new documentary by Michael Moore explores the human role in climate change, and it opens up with a simple question: How long do humans have? Listen.
[CLIPS OF PEOPLE FROM THE FILM RESPONDING TO THE QUESTION]
What's the point of it, Michael? You know, it's one thing to look at the six percent reduction in CO2 emissions, but it's not practical, right? We are going to go back to driving vehicles and running factories, and I think the point is, we're going to have to figure out how to live semi-normal lives without being as destructive to the Earth as we currently are?
MICHAEL MOORE, FILM MAKER: ...We are in dangerous, dangerous shape here, and this pandemic should act as a warning from Mother Nature that we have -- our behavior is not appreciated, and the fact that we have treated the species on this planet -- species that often times give us these viruses. It's a failure of us -- all of us who call ourselves environmentalists. We have spent decades on this, and we are worse off -- we are not better off. The planet is in worse shape, and we have to do something different. We have to get off the road we've been on. We have to -- we need a new environmental movement.
We need young people to essentially take over -- it's their future. We need to listen to them. We have too many people -- too many corporations frankly -- too much Wall Street that has been trying to take over the green energy movement because they see profit in it. And they try to bamboozle the public with it. And they try to buy off certain people and organizations within the movement. We've spent almost a decade researching and documenting this. It's a shocking film to watch, but it's an important film to watch because I think a lot of people watching the show right now know that we have not succeeded. The climate change battle is being lost, and I refuse to accept that.
ALI VELSHI: You know, Jeff, I almost think the bigger lesson about the climate is not that the skies are cleaner right now and you can see the jellyfish in the canals of Venice, but that we are realizing from coronavirus that our behavior will make it better or worse. If only we could understand that globally on a climate basis -- that this is entirely up to us -- but Michael's point about a new generation feels to me like a new generation has taken this one which has made these Earth Days so much more popular, which has made this much more of a priority than it was five or even 10 years ago.
JEFF GIBBS, DIRECTOR WRITER AND PRODUCER OF PLANET OF THE HUMANS: Ali, thanks for having me on and having us on. I began to make this movie because I was worried that we were going to hit these points that we're hitting now, and with climate change -- but with other things, too, like the virus emerged from us abusing the environment, and I've always felt like things are bigger than climate change. You know, we've taken 90 percent of the fish from the ocean, you know, we've deforested 70 percent. We've cut down 70 percent of the forests on the planet.
And young people are talking -- you're seeing the word now -- extinction. And I think we should all be quite concerned. But this moment now teaches us that we can stop --we can slow down -- we can change. We changed in a day and a week to save ourselves, and I don' t know how we're going to get there, but we need to look at ourselves as a species that's come to dominate the entire planet, and perhaps to think about things like measuring growth not through how we consume and consume nature, but how we become happier and how we sustain nature. So I think young people are really asking these questions, and I think many young people realize that growth itself -- perpetual economic growth on a finite planet is essentially suicide, and that we have to find a different model for how we measure growth, happiness and prosperity.
(…)
VELSHI: It's easy in the environmental movement to get distracted by all the good things that we should be doing and all the ways we should be thinking, but, in the end, most people who have studied this -- as you and Jeff have -- come to the conclusion that without actually fundamentally changing our consumption of fossil fuels, things don't change. So we can use paper straws all we want -- we can think about beef -- we can do all these things, but if you don't change fossil fuels, we will not meet our goals in terms of climate change. Do you agree with that?
MOORE: Not only the consumption of fossil fuels, but all kinds of consumption. We overconsume -- especially in the First World. We are wrecking this planet -- we are a small percentage of the planet, and yet we overconsume on so many levels. …
VELSHI: But, MIchael, we do have to be hyperfocused on fossil fuels, right? Because if all the other things happen -- we believe the fossil fuel industry's idea that, for $40 a ton of carbon tax, we'll be okay -- it won't happen, right? I mean, the fact is, if we don't do fossil fuels, the rest doesn't matter.
