Climate scientists hit out over ‘errors’ in new Michael Moore film

A NEW film produced by Michael Moore, the documentary filmmaker, criticising the environmental movement has been accused of a series of inaccuracies and outdated claims.

Planet of the Humans is described by the Bowling for Columbine director as a “wake-up call” and contains claims that renewable energy is as bad as burning fossil fuels.

Directed by Jeff Gibbs, Mr Moore’s long-time collaborator, it has had 3million views since its Youtube release last week to mark the 50th Earth Day.

But it was briefly pulled from online video library Films for Action, which said it was “full of misinformation”, following an open letter signed by dozens of climate scientists and experts.

The film’s central argument is that solar, wind and biomass, and renewable technologies such as electric vehicles, rely on fossil fuels for construction and operation. Mr Moore says it exposes the “reality” that limiting population and consumption growth are the only way to keep climate change in check and that the green movement has sold out to “corporate America”.

But the film overlooks many of the technological developments that have improved the efficiency and environmental credentials of renewables in recent years. Leah Stokes, a professor specialising in energy and environmental policy at the University of California, said the film was “riddled with errors about clean energy”.

She said that, for example, claims that solar panels were only 8 per cent efficient were a decade old, and Mr Gibbs’ suggestion that electric vehicles were not green as they use coal-powered electricity were also outdated.

The film also attacks figureheads from the environmental movement, including Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg. One of its targets, activist Bill Mckibben, said his attempts to correct claims about him before the film’s release were ignored.