Guest essay by Eric Worrall
As Michael Moore extends free viewing time for his blockbuster “Planet of the Humans” for another month, George Monbiot has launched a savage attack against Moore’s film, accusing Moore of perpetuating racist colonialist tropes.
Some Monbiot quotes;
“The only concrete proposal in your film was that there should be a mass die-off”
“Population growth is what people reach for when they don’t want to face structural and systemic problems, problems such as capitalism. Population growth is what people reach for when they want to kick down, not kick up.”
“What we see is a phenomenon of comparatively wealthy white people saying we’re not the problem, our consumption growth isn’t the issue, its those people breeding, they are the problem. This claims is inherently racist, rich white people blaming poor brown people for an environmental problem which is mainly created by rich white people. This emerges from a very long standing discourse, a discourse which really arose from colonialism, and was used as one of the justifications for colonialism. …”
Strong words from Monbiot. In my opinion what we are seeing is utter desperation in the face of Moore’s catastrophic exposure of the green failure to deliver a viable alternative to fossil fuel.
