Summary
Highlights
The film opens with a street interview asking people how long they think humanity has left. Responses range from a few years to an infinite amount of time. The narrator sets the stage by questioning what happens when a single species, lacking self-restraint, goes "too far" and how they would know when their time is up.
The documentary highlights that warnings about climate change, such as rising global temperatures and melting polar ice caps due to carbon emissions, have existed since at least 1958. It recounts decades of pollution, the birth of the modern environmental movement, and the narrator's personal journey as an environmental activist. The election of Barack Obama brought a trillion-dollar stimulus with significant funding for green energy, igniting widespread hope and investment in renewable solutions from politicians, activists like Al Gore and Bill McKibben, and financiers such as Sir Richard Branson.
The narrator investigates the reality behind green energy initiatives. At a Chevy Volt press conference, it's revealed that the electric cars are being charged from a grid powered 95% by coal. A visit to a solar array meant to power Michigan homes shows it only powers 10, requiring an impossibly large area to power the entire city. Wind farms, while impressive, are shown to rely on fossil fuel infrastructure for their construction and require fossil fuel power plants idling to back them up due to intermittency. This exposes a growing concern: green energy sources are not replacing fossil fuels, but rather relying on them or creating a larger carbon footprint.
Ozzie Zehner, a visiting scholar, debunks common misconceptions, explaining that solar panels aren't made from sand but mined quartz and processed with coal. He argues that the growth of renewable energy often coincides with an expansion of natural gas, a fossil fuel. The film reveals that electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels require rare earth metals, the mining of which generates radioactive waste. These technologies also have limited lifespans, requiring frequent replacement, and leave behind "solar dead zones." This segment challenges the notion that industrial civilization can be saved by machines made by industrial civilization, revealing the extensive fossil fuel use and environmental destruction inherent in their production and disposal.
The documentary shifts its focus to the underlying drivers of the environmental crisis. Experts interviewed emphasize that climate change is just one symptom of a larger problem: human overpopulation and unsustainable consumption. It is argued that humans are hitting planetary limits in various areas, such as marine and agricultural production, and water resources. The film suggests that humanity's reluctance to address these issues stems from a deep-seated denial of mortality and a cultural drive for infinite growth, which often overrides rational decision-making for the collective good.
The film exposes the problematic side of biomass and biofuels. It shows that facilities claiming to use forest residues for electricity are burning whole trees, including contaminated wood, requiring massive amounts of resources and fossil fuels for harvesting and transport. These plants are often located near schools and residential areas, causing severe pollution. Environmental leaders are shown to be evasive or supportive of these forms of energy, highlighting a perceived compromise or corruption within the movement, where burning trees is considered "green" despite its ecological impact.
The documentary argues that the push for green energy is largely driven by a profit motive from billionaires, bankers, and corporations. It highlights how environmental leaders, like Michael Bloomberg, promote initiatives that align with the financial interests of these powerful entities, such as timber investment. The film investigates how prominent figures like Al Gore and Bill McKibben have ties to investment funds that profit from various industries, including those considered environmentally harmful. It reveals that "green funds" recommended by environmental organizations often invest in companies involved in mining, fossil fuel infrastructure, and large-scale agriculture, exposing the deep intertwining of environmentalism with capitalism.
The film concludes by emphasizing that the environmental crisis is not solely about climate change but about all the environmental damage caused by human activity, driven by unsustainable population growth and consumption. It calls for an acceptance that infinite growth on a finite planet is suicidal and that our human presence already far exceeds sustainability. The documentary urges viewers to reclaim the environmental movement from those with profit motives and to confront the reality that "it's not the carbon dioxide molecule destroying the planet, it's us." The true solution lies in humans gaining control of themselves and their consumption, rather than seeking technological fixes that perpetuate the same problems.