Original subtitles

(intense electronic music)

(haunting music)

[Jeff] I have a question.

How long do we humans have?

How long does mankind have?

Oh.

Aeh.

Oh wow

I don't know exactly, but it could be soon.

I have no idea.

[Jeff] no? (laugh)

I hope I can get at least 50 more years. (laugh)

I think there is an infinite amount of time.

Infinite.

infinite, yes.

I give us a million.

A million years.

I would probably say as nice about 10 years.

10, 12 years.

Thousands of years.

47 years, three months, five days.

It is approximate.

We're like cockroaches on the planet

no matter how much damage we're going to do,

enough of us will survive to reproduce and keep going.

Unless we can get to another planet,

but then we'll just mess it up like we did on Earth.

Well, I think we'll be here

for a long time, but we will change.

We will turn into monkeys again.

(exciting dramatic music)

[Jeff] Have you ever wondered what would happen?

What if a single species took over an entire planet?

Maybe they're cute, maybe they're smart

but a certain is missing

should we say

Self-control?

(darker dramatic music)

What if they go too far?

What if they go far, far, far?

way too far?

(darker dramatic music)

How would you know when it's time to go?

(fascinating orchestral music)

(Intensification of orchestral music)

(Music fades)

(old music)

Because of our emissions from factories

and cars every year

of more than six billion tons of carbon dioxide,

Our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer.

Is it bad?

Well, a couple of degrees of climb was calculated

and the temperature of the earth would melt the polar ice caps.

(Let the ice crash into the water)

And if this happens, an inland sea would become a good part

of the Mississippi Valley.

Foreign weather, we are not only dealing with forces

of a much greater variety

when even the atomic physicists encounter

but with life itself.

(Piano synthesizer music)

[Jeff] That was 1958.

We knew about the dangers

of climate change for six decades.

There was so much air pollution back then

that the sun was actually blocking.

There was so much water pollution, rivers were burning.

(Synthesizer music)

Forget about throwing plastic bottles into the water

We threw our cars into it.

We also knew that one day we would run out of oil.

For millions of Americans

This could be the worst weekend you have ever had

for the search for petrol to give them the freedom to drive

that they take as their right.

[Jeff] I never thought people would find a better way

and I wanted to be part of it.

A scientist raised the alarm

and the modern environmental movement was born.

Unless we can better control these chemicals,

we are certainly on the way to disaster.

[Jeff] students across the country

organized the first day of earth.

It's very, very fashionable at this point

talk about the environment

but as an everyday procedure you find that very

very little is done.

[Jeff] As for me, you could say

I was an early environmentalist.

When I was nine years old

A bulldozer struck the forest near my house.

I retaliated by putting sand in the gas tank.

(softly dramatic music)

When I grew up, I became a tree keeper and moved

in the wilderness of northern Michigan

to build a sustainable farm and communicate with nature.

I wired my cabin for solar panels

and used wood instead of fossil fuels.

I wrote about sustainable living

on environmental issues for Mother Earth News

and several news agencies.

(soft singing)

I traveled the country to document invasive species.

(hammer and clink)

(Buzz) collapse of the ecosystem.

(scary music)

And endangered species.

Come on girls, boys.

(Crowd sings)

I have reported protests against the destruction of mountains for coal.

(People scream and clap)

And was even confronted by the BP police once.

(Car tire crunch)

Journalist. Are you a journalist?

[Jeff] Yes, yes, yes.

You can definitely take all the pictures you want.

[Jeff] Okay.

We will write in our report and then we have to send it

to the FBI and the US law firm.

They'll call you.

(Traffic whizzing)

(popping)

[Jeff] Through all of this I kept asking myself:

Why are we still addicted to fossil fuels?

So I decided to follow the green energy movement.

(mild rock music)

What better place to check out

how our revolution of renewable energies is progressing,

as a solar festival

in the green mountain state of Vermont.

Powered by 100% solar energy.

(Bass guitar and guitar music)

Solar. (laugh)

[Jeff] I was having fun.

And got a chance to ask

about the installation of solar panels.

So you can add something every time

Do you get a tax refund, buy another solar panel?

(singing rock music)

[Jeff] But then a little rain started to fall.

(Rock band plays and sings)

♪ My guitar packed ♪

♪ Off to the next bowling alley ♪

My cameraman noticed some excitement behind the stage.

(Beat)

[Jeff] What have you set up here?

This applies to biodiesel generators

in case we lose electricity through rain.

[Jeff] So the festival is going

especially on solar energy?

Primarily.

We have to bring some of these things with us

just because we want to be sure

We have enough power not to kill our fancy toys

that we light the stage.

[Jeff] Right.

But the biofuel generator wasn't enough

So they got blocked

into the power grid that we all use.

The other inverter is working

it actually draws electricity from the grid,

to charge the batteries.

(Background chat)

It runs backwards from the pa

we originally intended to do it, but.

(Guitar music)

[Jeff] That was disappointing.

(To sing)

But it had been raining.

Maybe next time it would go better.

(soft rock music)

Fortunately, hope was on the way.

It's been a long time, but tonight

Change has come to America.

(Cheering the crowd)

(Guitar music)

[Jeff] Green activists across the country cheered

as a newly elected president, Barack Obama,

a trillion dollar stimulus package rolled out

with almost $ 100 billion for green energy.

(Guitar playing and people singing)

Gruen was finally starting up

and everyone wanted to be part of it.

President Obama brought environmental activist Van Jones

from the Apollo Alliance, with turnkey projects.

You have to build tens of thousands of wind farms,

You have to set up millions of solar panels.

[Jeff] Former Vice President Al Gore,

who had released an Oscar-winning film a few years earlier,

shared his ideas with the president.

We now have the opportunity

To create jobs across the country

in all 50 states to supply America again.

[Jeff] Al Gore had already encouraged

Sir Richard Branson, owner of a billionaire airline,

to invest generously in green energy.

Branson promises future profits from its airline

in the amount of maybe three billion dollars.

Three billion, that's a B to fight global warming!

Is Al Gore a Prophet?

(laugh)

Ah, ah, ah, how do you spell "prophet"? (laugh)

(everyone's laughing)

[Jeff] Investors came forward.

[Newswoman] investor Vinod Khosla, known as the father

the Clean Tech Revolution,

pocketed over a billion dollars of his own money

in about fifty energy startups.

[Jeff] Big banks really wanted to get involved.

We believe that for renewable energies by 2020

$ 395 billion will be required on an annual basis.

[Jeff] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,

was also a board member of large environmental organizations

and led an investment group for green energy.

We build wind farms, we build solar farms,

As soon as you have built our system, there is always free energy.

(Quiet music)

[Jeff] The Sierra Club received $ 50 million

by the billionaire and former New York Mayor,

Michael Bloomberg.

Your mission?

Fight coal and promote clean energy.

With the Mayor's gift the following will happen.

We will have a large and aggressive presence in 46 countries.

It is time for America to find a new energy path.

One that takes us beyond coal.

So funny

[Jeff] And then Bill McKibben,

one of the nation's leading environmentalists

and author of a breakthrough book called

The end of nature

founded an organization called 350.org

with the mission to ignite a global climate movement.

(soothing music)

I can show off my tie for a minute

because they did it for me yesterday?

It has this 350 on it

because it's the most important number in the world.

[Jeff] Things looked good.

And the green energy transition was in progress.

(Wind blows)

Michigan had been hit hard by the Great Recession

and hundreds of millions of dollars

with the green stimulus program, money arrived.

Now, to do their part for the new green economy,

General Motors launched a new line of electric vehicles.

When the Chevy Volt was ready to be released,

I attended their press conference.

So these electric vehicles are finished

for public consumption and we are ready

with the infrastructure, with the tariffs,

with communication.

I am very grateful to be here today

This is an opportunity for me to say formal thank you.

The Chevy Volt is up.

We will be able to see it.

(Hit metal)

[Woman] We have about 1,000 photos.

[Jeff] Yes.

Here is the plug.

(Crowd laughs)

(Click)

As simple as that.

[Jeff] The batteries are in the trunk?

No, the battery in this special design is a T-shape.

exactly in the middle and over the back seat area.

(Group talk)

Because everyone thought we killed the electric vehicle.

No we have not.

It is alive and well.

[Jeff] So what's charging the batteries right now?

What is the power source?

Well, here it comes from the building.

[Jeff] I mean is it our current mix?

Oh, actually Lansing feeds the building.

[Jeff] what's this?

Lansing supplies the building with electricity.

So, I don't know

[Jeff] You are ...

I bet there's some coal?

I think they're full of natural gas, don't they?

[Jeff] The car is charging from your network at the moment?

Correct.

It would be loaded from our network, which is 95% coal.

[Jeff] How long will it take?

before there is a solar and wind network?

Oh my God.

to suggest that the total energy consumption

for these cars from wind and sun

would be incorrect in the near future.

Indeed, we are talking about charging

At night, so there is no sun at this time.

So we are exposed to the wind and very often

the wind falls off at night.

I don't think coal is bad.

That what? The size

Removal of the Talberg summit.

Oh, mountain ...

Oh yes oh yes. (laugh)

[Jeff] Yes.

It has nice BTUs, it has nice energy values.

How do you burn it cleaner?

I mean, do you see that natural gas is being bashed?

We'll be natural gas based performance

deliver very soon.

And even with this mix, we plan to use biofuels when we can.

[Jeff] Did you get any support?

Oh, the environmental groups support us a lot.

We have installed the largest solar system in the state

at my company, The Board of Water and Lights,

just down the street from here a few miles

if you want to see it.

Which agency are you with?

[Jeff] New World Media, we're doing a poll

on renewable energies.

Oh, sorry, I have to go for a second.

[Jeff] Okay, sure.

Thanks a lot.

(People talk)

[Jeff] I decided to accept his offer

to check your football field-sized solar system

right down the street.

What we try with this type of tour is:

to get a feel for what they have already done

as an indication of what we could do

to get more out of it.

We looked closely at wind power and found that

there is no really good wind around here

all the time.

We liked that about solar.

You would get the strength when you needed it most.

Pass them around, look at them.

You are flexible.

Made in Michigan, that would be another good thing.

Although the efficiency

of these panels are just below 8%.

If you happen to be a NASA member and you own it

a rover running around Mars,

you have very efficient panels.

But we cannot afford that

at about a million dollars per square inch.

[Jeff] For how many houses would

power this array?

The standard answer we all say is:

that we offer enough

to meet the top requirements of 50 houses.

But, for most people who do

take a closer look:

we generate approximately 63, 64 thousand kilowatt hours per year.

Our average customer uses

about six thousand kilowatt hours a year.

Six thousand in 64, it's just over 10.

We can cover the energy needs for 10 houses.

over a year.

(Traffic hums)

Will that be an incentive to invest more solar energy?

Well, if you have all the energy

want to do more than a year for the city of Lansing?

Now how about

You have a solar system

that would be three times five miles.

Correct.

But we don't do that.

But I mean. (Female voice is hidden)

[Jeff] My friend from the Sierra Club wanted him

to be more positive but he wasn't interested.

(Wind blows)

As a result of the great pressure for green energy

there are wind farms across the country,

also near my house in northern Michigan.

We have been making coal and nuclear power for years.

We tried to get more on the renewable side.

These are the biggest in Michigan

I think it's a total of 482 feet (147 m).

[Jeff] How many cubic meters of concrete?

[John] There were 800 cubic meters of concrete at the base,

and around 140 tons of reinforcing steel.

[Jeff] What are these rotors made of?

This is all glass and wood fiber.

They are about 36,000 pounds each.

This tower will weigh 800,000 pounds when we are done.

Then the unit weighs 220,000 pounds ...

and the hub rotor assembly another 160.

It is quite extensive.

(Wind blows)

[Jeff] They were impressive machines.

(Wind blows)

But is it possible that machines have some

be made by an industrial civilization

save us from industrial civilization?

(Wind blows)

(Group speaks together)

In the home country of environmental leader Bill McKibben

from Vermont, the Green Mountain State,

one location was deforested

for the installation of wind turbines.

A group of citizens were concerned

about how the construction

could affect the mountains they love.

I went on a tour with them.

There will be 21 turbines.

[Group] 21?

Yes. about this project?

in this project, yes.

The guess was that there might be three full-time jobs.

if the goal is to make Vermont the leader in climate change

I appreciate looking at the sky

in the hope that we can do it.

But more importantly, I personally watch

Towards the ground ... This is not a legacy that

I want to leave it to my children.

When I was a child we went hiking in these forests.

we could drink from the beaker

down the hill here, and now you have to question that.

[Jeff] And how long should these towers last?

[Man] about 20 years, 20

I know it's only a nanosecond.

[Jeff] 20 years?

Oh, it's a nanosecond in the time of energy.

[Jeff] Has anyone thought about it

that this is a removal of mountain peaks for wind instead of coal?

Yes, and we even let people say:

"When you're in Kentucky and West Virginia

Remove mountain peaks for coal,

then it is time for the rest of the country

also involved in the removal of mountain peaks, right? "

Uhoh.

[Jeff] Do you think he'll tell us to move out?

[Man with a hat] Probably.

The thing is, you gotta have a fossil fuel

Have a power plant as a backup

which is idle 100% of the time.

Because when you drive the system up or down,

depending on the demand for the wind

then you actually create a larger carbon footprint

as if you were just going through it.

[Jeff] Do you ever go where they are going?

That is not true.

It doesn't matter, we will have an intelligent network.

Doesn't make a difference, they still have to

You use it. Let it run idle.

Let's just say the wind has just stopped.

It just stopped an hour ago.

You must have this current.

[Jeff] what are you doing

I am an environmental, health and safety consultant.

I usually work with companies to help them do things

but I would never work with scum like that.

(Leaves crunch)

You didn't put me in front of the camera, did you?

Though not judgmental or trying to play God,

but we have to deal with population grow

and we all have to reduce sustainable resources.

All this energy is supposed to heat a water park.

We can find unique and different ways to waste energy.

This is not a Vermont company.

Green Mountain Power is bought up by Gaz Metro

and Gaz Metro belongs to Enbridge, as I understand it,

It is a large commodity company in Canada

which the oil sands recycle,

and want to build the XL pipeline.

Can you see it.

[Woman] And they're all in bed together.

Still, we don't know the whole story.

[Jeff] Have you asked Mr. McKibben to look at this?

He thinks everything that is renewable is good.

[Jeff] Yes.

That's how I heard people say.

(Wind blows)

(Up-tempo music)

[Jeff] I'm in a strange position.

I am against our addiction to fossil fuels

and have been a fan of green energy for a long time.

(Crowd talks)

But wherever I came across green energy

it wasn't as it seemed.

This is like an eternal energy battery.

[Jeff] And where do you get the hydrogen from?

The hydrogen is inside, the hydrogen is drawn

from any hydrocarbon material.

So you can get it from natural gas, you can get it

of every petroleum-based product.

[Jeff] I read about a zoo that was said to be

being driven by elephant dung.

But it turned out to be the elephants

didn't even produce enough manure to heat the elephant barn.

Yes, we really are not doing enough

and what we had, elephant-wise, couldn't even do that.

We would need a lot more.

[Jeff] More elephants?

[Zookeeper] Yes, (woman laughs) more elephants

or crap.

[Jeff] Ethanol plants seem too

to have a secret ingredient.

This is the most productive farmland in the world

and we're not that far west of the biggest coal mines

also in the world.

Bring the two together and you have an ethanol system.

[Jeff] Great, so ethanol needed two things.

A huge industrial agricultural system based on fossil fuels

to produce corn and more fossil fuels,

in the form of coal.

All of this when trying to replace fossil fuels?

It was enough to make my head explode.

(pulsating music)

I had the uncomfortable feeling

that green energy would not save us.

And I wasn't the only one.

I counted something

like 25 different alternative energy options.

So sure among all of these

there are enough energy sources

to basically keep us alive

like we are in eternal ways.

That is not the reality.

We are currently getting in some cases

No energy from these possible options.

[Jeff] Richard York from the University of Oregon,

published a study in the journal Nature

asking a question:"Replacing non-fossil energy sources

actually fossil fuels?

What we often implicitly assume

is that the replacement squeezes out

what you want it to replace.

What you will find is:

Nations that don't build fossil energy sources don't seem to be

to realize special suppression of fossil fuels.

[Jeff] This is pretty amazing.

Billions of dollars are spent

and green energy doesn't even replace fossil fuels?

You don't even know it's a question, yes.

The story we're in right now is fine

We are in ecologically hot water,

However, there are technological improvements

and if we're just creative enough

if we're just awesome enough

and if we work hard enough, we will triumph.

Searching for technological solutions one by one

will just take us to another level of disaster

sooner rather than later.

We want to believe that these things will be available to us.

So if we worry a little bit

and someone comes up with a new thing and promises

let us believe that this will do it for us.

(Guitar sounds)

[Jeff] Because we're a little worried

Do we really want to accept an idea that sounds alternative?

Or green?

(Strum guitar)

Do we avoid looking too closely?

because we don't want to know the answer?

Ozzie Zehner, visiting scientist at UC Berkeley

and Northwestern University introduced themselves

some similar questions.

I mean, I thought the solar

and wind were probably very good solutions.

It's not that long ago.

One of the most dangerous things right now is the illusion

that alternative technologies like wind and sun,

are somehow different from fossil fuels.

What I often hear is that solar cells

are made of sand.

[Announcer] Have you ever thought about sun panels?

The main ingredient which

they work is silicon or sand.

[Announcer] This is what the commodity chips are made of

consist of sand.

They don't use sand at all.

I'll show you something ...

(Chair click)

So this is one of the ingredients

It is actually quartz that has been mined.

(Stones rattle)

(Stone explodes)

[Announcer] Spruce Pine, North Carolina,

is considered the best source in the world for high-purity quartz

for semiconductors, solar

and communication applications.

You cannot use sand because sand contains too many contaminants.

So you start with very high quality quartz

and coal of very high quality. Then be

these two put together in an arc furnace and fused.

[Woman] The quartz is then melted with coal

in a large oven at temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees.

and you need more coal to do this.

I get another coal out.

If we melt them together,

we get silicon metal and carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide just goes off

and you got rid of the carbon

and have silicon metal left.

It is not clean coal. (laugh)

[Jeff] Not clean coal.

Ozzie Zehner said it was an illusion

that renewable energy will replace coal or any fossil fuel.

Environmental groups continue to tell a different story.

We have already seen that more than 25% of the U.S. coal fleet

has already withdrawn

or has a decommissioning schedule.

[Jeff] Coal-fired power plants closed, but Ozzie said

that well-meaning people have been misled.

NV Energy will now shut down the plant

and go with renewable.

One of the largest solar systems

and that will happen right behind me.

since you cannot replace a coal-fired power plant with solar,

they actually replace the coal-fired power plant

through two natural gas plants.

And natural gas is a fossil fuel.

This is the Las Vegas CoGen natural gas plant.

This is one of the facilities

which replaces the decommissioned coal-fired power plant.

This is the Sun Peak generation facility.

This is the second natural gas plant

that was used to replace the coal-fired power plant.

And you hear the same story in Iowa.

[Woman] Instead of the generated energy

from coal-fired power plants,

the solar park is now

avoid about 2.1 million pounds of carbon pollution.

But then they build a bigger natural gas plant.

This is a 650 megawatt natural gas plant.

That is four times more megawatts

than the coal-fired power station over there that it replaces.

And they do the same in North Carolina,

which was the topic of all things

this series "Years of Dangerous Life"

Duke Energy is currently operating a coal-fired power plant

outside of Asheville, which is the largest

Climate pollution source in western North Carolina.

And we are working on decommissioning this plant

and replace it with clean energy.

But what they don't tell you is

that we are also building a larger natural gas plant.

So we will pull a 376 megawatt coal-fired power plant out of circulation.

We're going to invest $ 750 million

to build a state-of-the-art natural gas plant.

When Michael Brune gets up and talks about clean energy,

he uses solar cells and wind turbines.

It is the new world.

100% clean energy.

When Michael Bloomberg gets up and says:

Cleaner energy, he speaks of natural gas.

Create cleaner energy, sun, wind and natural gas.

[Ozzie] The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign is actually falling

actually with one of the biggest production expansions

fossil fuels that we have ever achieved.

Most of it is natural gas.

[Jeff] Ozzie's claim

that renewable energies do not replace fossil fuels:

if this is true, all of our assumptions would

about green energy and what would save us upside down.

(calm piano music)

What would happen if I asked the same question?

for industry experts?

Such as. where do sun panels come from?

Well, you have to start with a mine.

[Jeff] Wait until you see mine

(laugh)

Or what prevents us from governing the world?

on 100% sun and wind?

Inconsistency is one of the biggest challenges.

Good stability.

The sun is everywhere except when it's not there.

There were a lot of developers out there

flocked to California for their solar parks

and to connect wind farms.

The utilities would contact me and my team

to help them investigate the impact on their network.

[Jeff] If we have solar cells

or add wind turbines to a network,

can we shut down a coal-fired power station?

That is certainly the goal, the problem is

or the difference is that renewable energies are inconsistent.

Suddenly a cloud cover could come

and your solar energy could decrease drastically.

And if you have nothing else there

balancing whatever the burden is at that moment,

then there will be power cuts.

[Jeff] So we can't

turn off a fossil fuel power plant

when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing?

It's not that easy.

We have to be able to secure this power output

to keep the system stable all the time

so it doesn't break down

Most likely it will be through fast acting gas systems,

but also what we call base load systems,

either nuclear power or coal that is in constant use

but maybe shut down during the day

and started up again when the demand increases.

[Jeff] Does it affect efficiency?

Switching power plants on and off with fossil fuels?

Oh yeah.

You don't like being driven up and down.

It does ... that's wear and tear for them.

When you turn it on, turn it off, energy is used

and lost and anytime,

a bit like turning your car on and off,

You use a little extra gas

to turn it on.

I still think you

have to maintain a kind of base load.

[Jeff] Then what's the solution?

You need energy storage.

You can't rely on it without storage.

If you can save the generated energy

of things that are intermittent like sun and wind,

you can save them, so you reduce

Your base load requirements.

[Jeff] But would add memory

how batteries increase their carbon footprint?

Yes absolutely.

Actually to a large extent.

And when more energy storage devices go online,

it has a massive implication.

(Piano music)

[Jeff] When I looked up how much battery storage

there is, it is less than a ten

one percent of what is needed.

They will start to decompose in a few years

and have to be replaced a few years later.

I learned that sun panels don't last forever.

Some solar panels are designed for a lifespan of only 10 years.

So there is nothing with this magical free energy ...

I don’t know it’s the solution

and here I help sell the materials

which would go into photovoltaics.

[Jeff] And so, about the profound limitations of sun and wind

to overcome which are seldom discussed in the media.

A new generation of technology rose

in the California desert.

[Woman] What is this?

What we use is a mirror field

Focus sunlight on a tower.

The power plant will have 377 megawatts

be the largest of its kind in the world.

This will be the largest solar system in the world!

(Crowd claps and cheers)

There are some people who look at a desert

and see km after km of emptiness.

I see miles and miles of a gold mine.

[Jeff] But this next generation

also has a fossil fuel secret.

This solar system burns quite a bit of natural gas

every morning to get it up and running.

[Jeff] How long do you have to burn it for?

Usually hours.

This is the incoming natural gas for the plant.

This plant would also work without natural gas

how I would be without coffee in the morning. (laugh)

[Jeff] Or maybe how you would be without food.

Without food, yes. (laugh)

You have to apply for a permit for acid rain,

Permits for nitrous oxide emissions,

You have to apply for CO2 compensation permits.

Because carbon dioxide is produced here

so they have to make up for it.

The whole thing is built using the fossil fuel infrastructure.

from concrete to steel to mirrors,

and the back of the mirrors.

The sun is renewable, but the solar system is not.

[Jeff] Oh come on.

There has to be something renewable.

Glass is renewable.

Glass. (laugh)

Glass is not renewable.

[Jeff] Iron is renewable.

(laugh)

Aluminum?

It is renewable.

I recycle my beverage cans.

(laughs) I know it's renewable.

Yes, the problem with all of these materials is

that it takes an incredible amount of energy to extract

and process all materials

which goes into building something like that.

They use more fossil fuels for this

than you benefit from it.

You'd be better off if you just burned the fossil fuels

in the first place, instead of playing like that.

[Jeff] That green energy is nothing

dealing with fossil fuels is obviously a story

just for you and me.

Here is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,

in conversation with insiders from oil and gas companies.

It is a combined solar gas system.

It is a turbine that we are taking out of a gas system.

hang it on a large scaffold, a tower,

and surround it with huge mirrors in the desert.

The plants we build, the wind turbines

and the solar systems are gas systems.

[Jeff] What game is being played?

Well (gusty wind), we are basically fed only a lie.

For example you will hear

over Germany that runs on wind and sun.

35% right now.

50% of their electricity.

There were days last summer

than the Germans 80%

their electricity was generated by the sun.

[Ozzie] But Germany

is still Europe's largest coal consumer.

(speak in foreign language)

Uhh.

[Ozzie] Just a small fraction

their energy actually comes from wind and sun.

In fact, Germany has just built a large terminal

to import natural gas from the United States.

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla,

when he announced his Gigafactory battery system,

he said it would get wind and solar energy.

Through a combination of geothermal wind and sun,

it will produce all the energy it needs.

[Ozzie] But actually it has power lines that connect it

to the same power grid to which we are all connected.

(rapid dramatic music)

Electric cars, wind turbines

and solar panels use rare earth metals.

And the rare earth mine is actually mine

right up the street from here.

When these deep deposits are mined, they contain about 90%

of what they pull out of the ground, uranium,

Thorium and a small amount of other radionuclides.

Radioactive waste that has to be disposed of somehow.

They turn it into a paste and spread it out

over the desert floor.

[Jeff] Well that's good for the desert, right.

Yes, the desert loves it.

(laugh)

Tesla’s electric cars are made of aluminum,

which uses eight times more energy

to manufacture as steel.

They use lithium, which is also dependent on toxic degradation.

And more graphite, one

is the rarest form of carbon.

Indeed, the investors wanted

open several new graphite mines

after Tesla announced the Gigafactory.

Apple claims to be 100% renewable.

We never stop thinking about what's best for the planet.

We now run Apple 100% on renewable energy.

(applause and cheers) All of our facilities worldwide.

[Ozzie] And they cut down a forest

to set up solar panels near their North Carolina facility.

But they have not disconnected from the power grid and cannot.

Herzog says that energy-hungry companies

how Apple can never go completely off the grid.

You are still connected to our power grid.

(rapid energetic music)

[Ozzie] Despite all claims

I haven't found a single entity anywhere in the world

which runs 100% with sun and wind.

(exciting music)

[Jeff] It turns out that you don't need fossil fuels

to run a place like Ivanpah, you need the devil yourself.

or in this case yourself.

[Ozzie] All the mirrors you see there are built

by the Bruedern Koch, Guardian Glass Industry,

a company they control.

Koch Carbon generates many of the inputs used

to produce the cement and the concrete and the steel.

And not only that, they build the systems

which manufacture polysilicon for solar cells.

You actually have

their own solar line called Solar Molex.

The Brueder Koch are there at every step of the process.

[Jeff] But they're the bad guys.

Yes (laughs), the fun part is

that if you criticize solar systems like this,

You are accused of working for the Brueder Koch.

(laugh)

That is the idiocy in all of this.

This absolutely cannot prolong the life of civilization.

This is due to the most toxic and industrial processes

that we have ever created.

(Roll drum)

(small triangle rings)

(pulsating dramatic music)

(Building music in intensity)

(Tempo dramatic music)

(Music building)

(Music tempo increases)

(Music ends dramatically)

The beauty of a solar system,

and especially this technology,

is that it's so environmentally friendly.

(Roar of large machines)

[Jeff] I thought once too

that deserts could be victim zones.

(powerful drum-based music)

I was wrong.

Deserts are not dead.

Indeed, they are full of ancient life.

(powerful music)

Joshua Tree stands in the desert and waits

waiting for the giant ground sloths

and the mammoths that will never return.

The joshua tree depended on the giant mammals

reaching up and eating their seeds,

and thus to scatter the Joshua tree.

(mystical vocal music)

But now, stranded in time and space,

the Joshua tree awaits a new fate.

To be sacrificed

in the name of progress.

Joshua trees are torn down to make way for solar projects.

Cassie Carlisle from 23ABC travels

in the Mojave desert to talk to neighbors.

[Cassie] They're not your usual tree.

More like something out of fiction,

But these Joshuas are causing a stir.

No, it makes me sick to clear them

kill them very quickly

Now grind them up

to get rid of all the evidence.

(powerful dramatic music)

[Jeff] Not far from Ivanpah Solar,

Daggett, California was at home

to several generations of solar systems.

Including some of the first on the planet.

(loud machines)

Ozzie and I thought we were going on a trip

to see where it all started.

(Wind blows loudly)

This is really one of the sunniest places on the planet.

and it is the center of the solar industry

and they built and dismantled plants here

for about 40 years.

(Male voice on loudspeaker)

[Jeff] Then we ran randomly

in the mayor of Daggett.

And then the solar panels out there, my husband,

back in, I would say '83, '84, they have there

these solar systems built out there.

Yes, the SEGS.

and everyone here worked.

How does that hold

Are the jobs still there?

No.

Jobs said goodbye.

They have their normal people running the facility

Plant operator and the like,

The big wigs, you know, they have.

I don't know where this energy goes.

[Jeff] Were you originally optimistic?

that the sun would bring more jobs

and development for people?

Yes, we really meant it. We really meant it.

Many things come into this city, they come and go.

They go very quickly.

(loud wind blows)

Do you see that?

[Jeff] Then Ozzie and I discovered

that the huge solar panels had been razed.

Oh my God.

(Wind roars)

[Jeff] I mean that was huge.

I suddenly realized what we saw.

A solar death zone.

Look at the blowing sand.

Yes.

There is sand everywhere

Sand dunes form in this area.

[Jeff] Wow.

(Buzz of the solar factory)

(festive music)

So, after all the mining,

the fossil fuels,

the toxins,

environmental degradation,

Here's what happens next.

(dark music)

Just a few years after construction,

things started to fall apart in Ivanpah.

Broken mirrors lay in the desert.

(Music intensifies)

Yes, this huge solar energy

and wind technology plants

last only a few decades

(dark music)

then tear off and start over.

(dark music)

If there is enough planet left.

(dark music)

It became clear that

What we called green, renewable energy

and industrial civilization are one and the same.

Desperate measures not to save the planet

(Thunder cracks)

but to save our way of life.

(dark music)

Desperate measures instead of facing reality

people experience the limits of the planet

all at the same time.

every other perspective that I look at

and imagine we could do more of that

or go to a larger area, or use more of it.

Well, it turns out that there is no more.

I have looked at sea production and fish production

and found that the high point was 20 years ago.

We eat more and more from fish farming.

The current hectares of actively managed land,

that has also reached its peak.

The rivers are already drained

beyond the limits of what they can maintain.

The Colorado River no longer reaches the sea.

Well, then start looking at the groundwater.

the southern great plains,

and I think you can almost predict when the groundwater will run out

and it's in a decade or two.

(dark music)

Human vulnerabilities on a global scale,

that each of them we could possibly prevent

but we see them spread

cross-topic about society and the earth system.

And I don't think those responsible

are not nearly nervous enough.

[Jeff] Although everyone

of them takes climate change seriously,

Every expert I spoke to wanted

to draw my attention to the same underlying problem.

There are too many people who consume too much and too quickly.

As a global community, we really have

to deal with the topic of population.

The population growth continues,

not the elephant, but the herd of elephants in the room.

[Jeff] Can be a single species

that has come to rule an entire planet

be smart enough to voluntarily limit your own presence?

[Jeff] Is there a precedent in nature for that?

(laugh)

Impressive.

We have to limit our ability to consume.

Because we're not good at curtailing them

when there are seemingly unrestricted resources.

Species often hit the wall of the population and then crash.

I mean, that's a common story in biology.

If that happens to us in a way,

it’s the natural order of things.

And I don't think we'll find a way out here.

Not me.

[Jeff] As a scientist

What leads you to this conclusion?

Well, because right now a large percentage

of which is supported by industrial agriculture,

which is heavily subsidized by oil.

And it is not sustainable.

And there is no going back.

Without any wave of death in the population,

there is no going back.

[Jeff] what has nobody asked you about

that you want

(laugh)

Nobody ever asked me if I'm scared.

[Jeff] Yes.

and I have it.

I'm actually scared.

I lose sleep because of all of this.

(dark music)

[Jeff] Modern people needed tens of thousands

of years to reach a population of 700 million.

And then we have stored energy for millions of years

developed, known as fossil fuels.

Our human population exploded.

It has increased tenfold in just 200 years.

Our consumption has also exploded.

On average ten times per person,

and many times more in the western world.

You put the two together,

The result is a 100 times greater overall human impact

than 200 years ago.

(soft music)

And that's the most terrible knowledge I've ever had.

We humans face a fall from an unimaginable height.

Not because of one thing.

Not just climate change.

But all the man-made changes

from which the planet suffers.

(slow tempo music)

Why are bankers, industrialists?

and environmental leaders only on the narrow solution

of green technology concentrated?

Is it the profit motive?

And why am I, almost all my life

fell for the illusion that green energy would save us?

(Waves on the shore)

(squeaking door)

Sure, to answer this question

I needed professional help.

Keep my things.

No, I never heard ...

I'm just being honest with you about my dilemma.

You can be my clinical social psych (laughs)

It's like the right has a religion.

And they believe in infinite fossil fuels.

Our side says, "Oh, everything will be fine,

we will have solar panels.

we'll have wind towers. "

As soon as I heard you talk about our denial of dea

I was like, "Could it be?

Could it be that we cannot face our own mortality?

absolutely.

Could we have a religion without realizing it? "

I think you hit the proverbial nail on the head.

What distinguishes people from all other forms

of life that is, we are not just here

but that we know we are here.

If you know that you are here, you will recognize

at least weak that one day you won't be here.

And on top of that, we don't like that we're animals.

So, we don't like that one day we'll die.

We don't like that you can go outside

and be hit by a damn meteor.

What people have done in the past

is to envelop us

in culturally constructive belief systems.

Call them cultures

Let us call them worldviews, schemes of things.

Whatever you call them, every human community has them.

Every culture has a view of the origin of the universe.

Every culture has a recipe

for how to behave while you are here.

And every culture offers its inhabitants hope for immortality.

either literally or symbolically.

Then the question is what happens when you

encounter people who do not share these beliefs?

Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not,

but that undermines trust

that you allow your own views.

And expose you to fear

for which these beliefs were constructed

primarily to destroy them.

If we want to make progress, whatever that word means,

or even to exist as a form of life, we will

need to radically revise our basic concepts,

of who and what we are and what we appreciate.

Because the people you used to refer to

both left and right

who think we will be able to discover more oil.

Or solar paneling us into the future,

where life will look like now

you know, just cleaner or better.

[Jeff] Either with more oil or greener oil.

Or both.

I think it's just a delusion.

What I hear is when I am not

found my own concern for life and death,

and faced with a reminder that I most likely

make some tragic decisions for the community.

Yes.

The only solution in principle is, as Albert Camus put it,

He said:"There is only one freedom to deal with dea

after that everything is possible.

I find that almost inspiring.

[Jeff] As for our environmental leaders,

which linger in comfortable illusions

How tragic were decisions they could make?

I wanted to find out.

(Buzz of machines)

(Leaves crunch)

[Josh] They claim that they only use forest remains,

but actually a lot of what the McNeil facility,

and many biomass facilities burn are whole trees.

As you can see from this stack that is properly stacked

These are trees outside the facility.

[Jeff] It turns out to be the greatest source

of green energy in Vermont is something called biomass.

Burn trees to generate electricity.

This is definitely not the way to go.

The first step is actually to look at our lifestyle.

how we can reduce our energy consumption.

This is all the ashes that contain different amounts of toxic metals.

a lot of radiation

because these trees have absorbed ...

Oops, there is the ...

(Machine hums)

You are in a prohibited area there.

[Jeff] Are we?

May I ask you both to come to our office, okay.

[Josh] Is that something you're interested in?

It's no interest, you have five seconds

or I call 911.

[Jeff] Okay.

[Security guard] We have two people here

(loud grating steps)

The police will be down here in about two minutes.

[Josh] You asked us to go and we do it.

[Security guard] I'm not asking you to go.

I ask you to come to the office.

[Josh] Okay, thanks for the offer.

Maybe next time.

(electronic beep)

(Machine hums)

You have everything here.

You have the number one polluter in the state

what people think and it's magical fairy dust

from the chimney.

Reality is what you have is an institution

that burns 400,000 green tons of trees a year.

This plant burns 110 m3 per hour.

[Jeff] That's a hell of a lot of wood.

[Josh] And on top of that,

it actually burns natural gas.

[Jeff] And to think you have to have 10 of them

as a replacement for an average coal-fired power plant.

It just won't work.

It's just crazy.

It takes a lot of fossil fuels

to cut down all these trees

to invite them to use the big machines

to dump the wood chips everywhere.

So the idea that somehow that doesn't do anything

with fossil fuels just doesn't make sense.

This would not be possible without fossil fuels.

[Jeff] How were the environmental groups

drawn in?

Obviously, the main factor is deception.

Many of these environmental groups claim that

for example, all we have to do is

our fossil fuel economy

to switch to a few solar panels and windmills,

and we can continue our life as usual.

Some of the environmental groups have

advertised such facilities for years and say

Number one, it's carbon neutral,

and that this will actually help us ward off climate change

because there are no CO2 emissions.

It actually emits over 400 thousand tons

carbon dioxide per year.

Oh, but if we graft them on, they'll grow back.

and will grow back over a period of decades to centuries.

If we felled every tree in the United States

it could supply the country with electricity for a year.

What happens when these trees have disappeared?

(Wind blows)

[Jeff] I discovered that biomass plants

were not always biomass plants.

It is actually a waste incineration plant

which is represented as a biomass plant.

The impact in this community is serious.

The facility is located right next to the Head Start School

for preschool children.

There is Green Hill Manor and

this is a supervised senior residence.

And there is also a Catholic elementary school

next door.

[Jeff] How do you know they're polluting?

Can you ever see it

We can see it.

The snow in elementary school

and in preschool is covered with black,

a kind of black soot.

We just had it analyzed

and it came back mostly as tire chips.

You have to add processed fuel from tire

to raise the temperature of the fire

because anyone who has tried to burn green or wet wood

knows that it doesn't burn very well.

[Jeff] But this biomass plant had ...

another surprise.

They admit that they are 20.1 tons per hour

burn with cresol treated railway sleepers.

They are also allowed to pay £ 500 an hour

PCP treated railway sleepers burn.

These will be shipped from Canada.

It's not green, it's not renewable, it's not carbon neutral,

It is not what they claim.

Still, they received a $ 11.5 million grant

because it was classified as renewable.

The plant owner told us

that they had problems getting enough wood shavings.

And he even asked us if we had old wood

where we lived and whether we would call the facility

to let them know so they could come and pick it up.

[Jeff] We don't talk

over an old industrial area,

We are next to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

We are next to Lake Superior. This is Keweenaw B ...

This is actually L'Anse Bay, it is part of Keweenaw Bay.

It is Lake Superior, our lake. (Voice breaks)

Therefore it is a very sacred place for many people.

(Horse feet rattle)

Are you with the news

[Jeff] No it should

a climate change rally is taking place.

Oh.

(Group singing)

[Jeff] Michigan State University students,

Inspired by 350.org, they held a rally

for the clean energy future that was promised to them.

(Crowd screams and cheers)

Imagine when I found out

that it is the largest oncampus coal-fired power station in the nation.

The goal is to get the whole world moving

beyond fossil fuels.

(Crowd cheers and claps)

[Student] Who wants to make a 350 sign on the steps? "

[Jeff] But it turned out that the state of Michigan was sort of

of green energy that the students did not support.

The university has signed a contract

with an energy company.

You put together a modeling tool.

The first two or three months

that the steering committee used this modeling tool

it didn't even contain data for wind or sun.

So there was (voice fades)

[Jeff] Adam told me they were going to do it

Replacing coal burning with biomass burning.

But the permit that is currently being examined

is a state approval for 24,000 tons of biomass,

I think every year.

And that is planned in all four boilers.

Unfortunately the steering committee takes into account

Biomass is currently renewable.

Which we are not satisfied with.

(Students laugh)

[Jeff] Michigan State wasn't the only university

which has turned green.

I am happy to inform you that Carolina

going beyond coal in the next decade.

Now that we're starting to wean ourselves off coal, we're roughly

turn to try another alternative energy source, biomass.

[Jeff] And who was here

to help the University of North Carolina switch,

from burning coal to burning trees?

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today

to celebrate the remarkable step

that the university is going to say:

we will do our part.

(festive music)

[Jeff] A remarkable step.

We should do our part by:

get off bed with coal company

and to bed with timber companies?

Where did the idea come from anyway that colleges

green by burning trees?

A small college called Middlebury in the heart of Vermont.

Welcome to the celebration of the opening

of the new Middlebury biomass gasification system.

It is a great pleasure for me now, you

this afternoon's speaker to introduce Bill McKibben.

(Audience claps)

What drives a learning community?

And from this afternoon the simple answer

with it is wood chips.

It is incredibly nice to stand there

and look at this big bunker full of wood shavings.

You can use any kind of wood, oak, willow,

whatever you want.

We can throw pretty much anything that burns in there

if we can reduce it to the right size.

And there are very few similar cases anywhere

in this country with this kind of change on this scale.

But it shows that it can happen anywhere

and it should happen everywhere.

In fact, it has to happen everywhere.

[Jeff] It has to happen everywhere.

(dramatic piano music)

And now it's time for a nature break.

Enjoy our sustainably managed forests in Michigan.

(classical piano music)

If you go through and look here

Practically nothing grows.

Occasionally a bit of grass.

(increasing classical music)

[Jeff] And it seemed that biomass plants actually did

were suddenly everywhere,

like this one in Cadillac, Michigan.

(Truck engine rumbles)

A waste incineration plant in Detroit

was considered green.

(classical piano music)

The Detroit incinerator is known to emit terrible smells

and pollutants that neighbors say they feel sick

and their health is at risk.

It is a stench, it is a terrible stench.

[Jeff] A proposed biofuel plant

would be trees for the upper peninsula of Michigan

of tens of thousands of square miles.

To produce 40 million gallons of ethanol

they will be over a million tons

green wood must be used.

We indicated that they would use more natural gas

when they were going to produce ethanol

to displace the natural gas.

If you keep doing this,

You will fertilize the forest.

[Jeff] Forests fertilize?

Fossil fuels?

Fertilizer based on fossil fuels.

[Jeff] Made from natural gas?

Yes.

(frenzied piano music)

[Jeff] Then came an election proposal supported

by Bill McKibben and almost every large environmental group,

Michigan has to draw 25% of its electricity

from renewable sources by 2025.

[News] This year Michigan voters have a choice:

Keep burning dirty coal and oil, or move Michigan

to clean, renewable energies like wind and sun.

Vote yes to proposal three.

[Jeff] surprisingly proposal three,

also known as 25 by 25, the brainchild

was an organization that is 100% biofuels and biomass.

It allows America's agriculture, ranches, and forest areas

as an active participant in the contribution

to be America's energy future.

[Jeff] These are the biomass

and biofuel plants in the United States

(to pop)

How did it happen?

And it wasn't just the United States.

It was all over the world.

Wood chips, which is just a euphemism for trees,

are exported from America to Europe,

British Columbia, Brazil and Indonesia.

wherever you can get them.

(classical piano music)

Biomass, especially if you add biofuels,

is by far the largest part of green energy

all over the world, also in Germany,

Source of the sun miracle.

(classical piano music)

But maybe I was missing something.

Maybe I was wrong.

(Female voice on speaker)

I decided to ask people who are protesting against fossil fuels

how they perceived biomass and biofuels as green energy.

Would you say we don't need biofuels?

and food and forests for energy?

no, no, definitely not.

Of course not, of course not.

Burning biomass, any kind of combustion,

is something we just have to move away from.

The more trees we have, the better.

Much of it didn't grow overnight.

If we reduce it, we don't know how it works.

[Jeff] You are here as an oak tree?

Yes.

If I had a chainsaw

that wouldn't save the planet, would it?

No, it's painful.

It is a painful way.

I can tell you that now.

[Jeff] It would take a while for you to grow back.

(laugh)

Yes, oh yes.

But I wouldn't be, it would be a child.

With so many people doing it on such a large scale,

suddenly it's pretty serious.

No, I don't think we should burn trees.

[Group] No, no.

Why should we cut down trees?

We shouldn't replace a terrible way to get energy

with another terrible way to get energy.

Because it's one thing.

(Girl's voice fades)

[Jeff] Obviously most citizens are against it

on biomass and biofuels.

(soothing guitar music)

But what about environmental leaders?

Sometimes they produced biomass, but sometimes,

sound as if you were against biomass.

Like this Sierra Club policy,

We are deeply concerned about the effects

of wood energy for indigenous forests.

Or signed this statement from 75 environmental groups,

that burning forests for energy is one

destroy our best defenses against climate change.

On the other hand, their language leaves gaps

the biomass enables.

The NRDC says you need to use the "right types of biomass".

The Dogwood Alliance says

Maybe small biomass plants are fine.

And the Sierra Club says with high pressure:

Biomass can be sustainable.

(thoughtful guitar music)

Which side are they really on?

I sure thought when the camera rolls,

Environmental leaders would speak for the trees.

[Group] Not at all.

Where's the science, where's the science?

We are here to tell a story about what

the forests of this state, our communities, mean us.

[Jeff] Does your organization have an attitude to this?

I am not sure if I would say that we support it as well

that we can wrap our heads around it.

We have almost made peace with the timber industry.

[Jeff] I'm just curious, what's your group attitude?

on the use of forests for biomass?

Biomass is renewable, biomass is sustainable.

And I'm at Clean Water Action,

We don't really have a point of view on this.

If the director of the Sierra Club were here

you would be able to chew your ear over it.

I am the director of the Sierra Club in Pennsylvania.

[Jeff] Supports the Sierra Club

Biomass or not?

I am not quite ready to date

to talk about our current position in relation to biomass.

Our position is somewhat nuanced

so I just want to be careful not to ...

(Crowd talks)

[Jeff] So you're at 350?

I am.

350 have a position on biomass

because I'm actually somehow ...

I can't really speak for 350.

Do you personally have an opinion

should we burn green trees for green energy?

No, I have no opinion on this.

I like a fire. (laugh)

[Jeff] One of my biggest concerns as an environmentalist

is we we try to burn trees

There are tree power plants.

Do you know the problems with biomass or biofuels?

Yes, yes, I'm not so aware of that

how it could or should be me.

Jeff Gibbs is working on a documentary.

In Michigan, where I live, where I come from,

there are large plants that burn trees for energy

and pretty much felled trees.

Have you thought about whether

that should or shouldn't be part of the green energy?

The great thing about green energy is

You don't have to select a favorite.

Jeff Gibbs.

Oh hello.

My biggest concern is that in Germany for example

They move towards the sun and wind

but 60% of their actual energy comes from biomass.

60% of renewable energies.

Are trees burning for energy?

I don't know the details from Germany.

What Germany really does is a lot

sun related and that's really powerful to see.

[Jeff] I would like to see how we get out

against the burning of trees.

All right, go and do it.

For clean energy

Would you?

Although I confess that I am heating my wood stove

almost every night of winter,

So I'm not really the right person to ask that.

But green energy for power plants.

Yes, yes, I don't know.

That's not what it's about today.

[Jeff] But if we burn trees

instead of fossil fuels.

(Crowd drowns) from Taiwan.

Oh good.

We wonder what role you have

want to play in it (voice fades)?

[Jeff] I think the biomass question is a non-starter.

(dark music)

I only found an environmental leader who was ready

Reject biomass and biofuels.

So we're talking about

the old oil industry, which is now tried

to keep up

through another raw material, the green planet.

The only reason why corn and soybeans were planted for biofuels

in this country is that the subsidies make it profitable.

I think the big crisis of our time is that

our minds have been manipulated to give strength to illusions.

We have shifted to measuring growth,

not in terms of how life is enriched

but in terms of how life is destroyed.

(peaceful guitar)

[Jeff] Your honesty was refreshing.

But for the rest of them I wondered:

What are they hiding

And why are they hiding it?

Is it your ignorance?

Or is it something else?

(Music increases in tempo)

What if you were misled yourself?

(Intensification of the dramatic music)

What if you made some kind of deal?

that they shouldn't have done?

And do they all lead us off the cliff?

(light happy music)

It was long overdue for me

get along with the other elephant in the living room.

The profit motive.

The only reason we were force-fed this story:

Climate change plus renewable energies mean that we are saved,

is because billionaires, bankers

and companies benefit from it.

And the reason why we don't have overpopulation,

Consumption and the suicide of economic growth speak

it is bad for business.

Especially the cancerous form of capitalism

that rules the world.

Now hiding under a green blanket.

Today Bloomberg makes philanthropies,

I am happy to announce a new investment

$ 30 million in the Beyond Coal campaign.

(Crowd cheers and claps)

We have more.

I am happy to say that more

than a dozen additional donors committed

have to reach that $ 30 million.

(clapping and cheering)

[Jeff] And who were these new partners?

One of them was Jeremy Grantham,

Billionaires, world leader in wood investments.

(Man speaks in the background)

They didn't invest in trees

to turn them into nature reserves,

which could answer another riddle,

why is this name excluded in the Sierra Club tax return?

Would you be embarrassed to accept three million dollars

from a man making a living selling the forest

earned in the whole world?

That Bloomberg is a billionaire for wood investments

brought to the party was no accident.

Bloomberg sponsored a climate meeting at the United Nations

about the recycling of biomass and biofuels

to discuss around the world.

Billionaires were in love with the idea

to convert what was left of nature into green profits.

Remember when Al Gore was able to convince Richard Branson

Invest billions in saving the planet?

[News anchor] Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic,

powered a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam

with a coconut oil blend to unlock the potential of this amazing

to emphasize oil as a clean energy biofuel.

[Jeff] Branson had actually invested in biofuels.

He tried the dune fuel that damaged the planet

with biofuels to replace that consumption

of the living planet required.

And it was the start of the game for the aviation industry.

[News anchor] Dozens of researchers

gathered from all over the northwest

in Missoula the last two days to explore the idea

the mass of the region's wood reserves

to convert into jet fuel.

Mainly because of the growing demand for aviation fuel

a billion gallons was expected in the northwest alone.

[News] United Airlines will have a share of $ 30 million

buy from the biofuel company Fulcrum BioEnergy.

The airline used 3.9 billion gallons of fuel last year.

[Jeff] What technology did Silicon Valley billionaires hope for?

Vinod Khosla to benefit?

Nature takes a million years to produce our crude oil.

KiOR (bankrupt biofuel company) can produce it in seconds.

[Lesley] The company took over this old paper mill

where tree trunks are picked up by a giant claw,

dropped into a shredder and pulverized into wood shavings.

Pure gasoline?

clean, green gasoline.

There must be a disadvantage.

There is no disadvantage.

[Jeff] The bank that crashed the economy

Millions of lives are ruined and their tentacles

on the levers of power

what would be your favorite form of green energy?

one of the very interesting markets

we are dealing with is Brazil.

It's different from any other current market by

alternative energy is not really alternative energy.

It is so much part of the fabric of society.

The country started using its enormous sugar cane resources

to use for the production of ethanol.

[Jeff] There was a man from Goldman Sachs

who was particularly in love

with the conversion of forests into profits.

Does everyone have enough coffee?

Maybe you want to get more.

[Jeff] Meet David Blood, the former CEO

by Asset Management for Goldman Sachs.

How much money did Mr. Blood think that

should be invested in green energy?

A natural orientation for something on the order of magnitude

of $ 4050 trillion in capital.

[Jeff] $ 4050 trillion!

And who would help the Goldman Sachs man?

Help him raise this astronomical amount of money?

A gentleman, some of you may recognize him

and know Bill McKibben.

It all depends on what type

of political will we can muster.

And if we don't do it very quickly,

then we won't make it.

[Jeff] So Bill McKibben went forward

for the political will for trillions of dollars

to produce in green investments.

Our next guest was called

our nation's leading environmentalist.

And you are in a sense

the big poobah of the environmental movement.

My guest is on a global crusade tonight.

[Jeff] On a global crusade for what?

The obligation to withdraw from fossil fuel investments.

We cannot justify investing our money in companies

which basically runs back to genesis.

[Jeff] So if you part with fossil fuels,

and invest in green funds, what do you invest in?

I have worked intensively on securities

and Exchange Commission filings to find out.

For example in the Green Century Funds,

recommended by 350.org and Bill McKibben,

I found less than one percent sun and wind,

and 99% of things like mining,

(increasing dramatic music)

oil and gas infrastructure companies,

(dramatic music)

including an oelsand exploiter.

McDonald's is one of the companies that consume meat

drives across the planet.

Archer Daniels Midland,

one of the world's largest producers of biofuels,

Coca Cola, the greatest creator

plastic pollution on earth,

Wood and paper companies, including one

which boasts of burning biomass and banks.

(dramatic music)

Many banks.

(dramatic music)

Including BlackRock, the largest

Deforestation financier on earth.

The business you are dealing wi

is actually destroying our life support system.

(dramatic music)

[Jeff] The Sierra Club, also a partner

with a green fund called aspiration.

Aspiration also includes dozens of companies that

benefit from the destruction of the planet

Including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Chesapeake Energy.

[Announcement] About the production potential

to maximize the borehole

the shale formation is hydraulically broken.

[Jeff] The Russian gas giant Gazprom.

[Announcer] Gazprom owns the largest

explored gas reserves in the world, 36 trillion cubic meters.

[Jeff] And in perhaps the most bizarre turn of all,

the largest holding of the Sierra Club green fund is in Viva,

the world's largest consumer of forests,

which are burned in green energy biomass plants.

(dark piano music)

An investment option is of course a green fund,

led by Bill McKibben's buddy David Blood.

And who was the chair of this fund?

Someone familiar.

Use capitalism, there are incentives

so that people can do their best.

[Jeff] Al Gore and David Blood have teamed up

to start a company called Blood and Gore.

No, delete that, Generation Investment Management.

And within that fund have Blood and Gore

determines a particular asset class with one goal

$ 650 million in biomass and biofuels.

The funny thing was that they got together

before Al Gore’s film came out.

(dramatic music)

Was this film just about climate change or something else?

On the one hand we have gold bars.

Mm, mm, mm. (Audience laughs)

Don't you look good?

I just want to have some of these gold bars.

On the other side of the scales, the entire planet.

(Audience laughs)

If we do the right thing

then we will create a lot of prosperity.

[Jeff] And when it was time for Al Gore

to choose between the entire planet and a couple of these

To get gold bars, what choice did he make?

Here Al Gore makes a living by pretending to be himself

to care about the rainforest while lobbying the congress

on behalf of the sugar cane ethanol industry.

Let me go into the Brazilian efforts here:

with the question of the possibility of enlargement in

the Amazon basin and other deforestation

to produce more ethanol from sugar cane is a concern.

And apparently you're not so worried about it.

No, no, I just forgot about it.

(Engine roars)

(Children scream and cry)

What is going on there is really very worrying.

(speak in foreign language)

And with your permission, I'll show you a very short example

of which over a period of 25 years.

(loud knock)

[Announcer] The invasion of sugar cane into the crops

the region violates land rights

the indigenous people together.

These are pictures of a last trench attempt

from the GuaraniKaiowá to resist eviction.

It is important to note that the exploitation

the sugar cane growing areas in Brazil do not have to

inevitably have the consequence

to cause the destruction in the Amazon.

Burn sugar cane fields.

They are lit before the harvest

to remove the leaves and tips of the plant,

That makes cutting more efficient.

(dark music)

Environmentalists apparently accuse them

endless sugar cane fields, air and water pollution

on an epic scale.

And along with deforestation and the threat it poses

presented to the environment becomes clear.

(dramatic music)

Once the indigenous families were driven out

the landowners lit their houses.

(dramatic music)

[Jeff] Is there anything too terrible?

qualify as green energy?

Thank you very much, Secretary Mabus and US Navy for

today's invitation to speak to you again.

The work of the Navy in the establishment

this new fuel industry is invaluable.

(roaring aircraft engine)

[Announcer] The U.S. Navy has a special message

this year.

It's time to go green.

Joining the ships is what the U.S. Navy calls

it's a great green fleet of warships,

fueled by fuel from renewable sources such as algae,

Grass and animal fat.

[Jeff] Animal Fat?

(Hitting and pounding)

the next time you fill up

at a gas station in your neighborhood,

you might find that you have a small alligator

pump in your tank.

That's right, U.L. Lafayette researcher

have alligator fat as renewable

Developed source for biofuels.

[Jeff] And once we drive through the animals, what's next?

GE, which brings you nuclear energy and wind turbines,

is ready with a plan.

I believe that liquid fuels, chemicals,

have to be done sometime

from sustainable raw materials.

We believe that seaweed is one

of the most attractive options.

(majestic music)

[Jeff] Hurry up.

The algae forest was dead a year after filming.

(dark music)

You might be wondering how people like what nature has to offer

Is there anything left to destroy to enrich yourself?

That's why they're billionaires and you aren't.

(laugh)

The takeover of the environmental movement

through capitalism is now complete.

Environmentalists no longer resist

those with a profit motive, but work with them.

The nature conservation is now the timber management area.

We will record the most important pieces biologically

and it will be another big block

sold to wood investment groups.

The union of the scientists concerned is a union

of concerned sellers who have taken millions

not for science,

but to create markets for electric cars.

The Sierra Club sells electric cars

and solar panels directly from their website.

The best thing about Sungevity (solar company) is

that they make it easy for you

All you have to do is say yes.

[Jeff] The New York Times works with ExxonMobil

to bring you the good news about biofuels.

[Announcer] Fuel derived from algae

could help us to meet the growing demands.

[Jeff] Treehugger.com who claims

To be the biggest single source of environmental news

was founded by Georgia Pacific, a timber company,

founded and financed.

In fact, they are neighbors.

Georgia Pacific belongs to our friends, the Brothers Cook,

which are probably the biggest recipients

of subsidies for biomass and green energy in the United States.

(dark music)

Yes, the fusion of environmental protection

and capitalism is now complete.

But maybe it was always complete.

How is 350.org funded?

So, not very well.

(laughs) Who are your financiers?

To the extent that we have any money at all,

it comes from some foundations in Europe and the USA.

[Karyn] Which one?

Ah, let's see.

I'm trying to figure out who the biggest donors are.

There is a foundation in Sweden called:

I think it's called the Rasmusson Foundation

that I think it was the biggest donor.

So you don't get any money from Pew or Rockefeller

or one of these big foundations?

[Bill] Not true, we have it.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave us some money

when we started.

That was also useful.

But they no longer finance you?

I don't know, I don't have something like that ...

[Karyn] (laughs) Really?

Donors sitting in front of me.

[Karyn] People usually know that.

Rockefeller was one of ours, is one of ours

is a great ally in this fight.

[Interviewer] You just sold your TV network to Al Jazeera.

Correct.

[Interviewer] And this government is basically nothing

but an oil producer.

Mainly gas and oil.

They take that, about a hundred million dollars before taxes

from a country whose wealth is based on fossil fuels.

Isn't that a bit of hypocrisy?

Well, I understand the criticism, but I don't agree with it.

I am proud of the transactions.

If you couldn't do one for your business,

find a more sustainable choice?

What is not sustainable about it?

because it’s covered by fossil fuel money.

I understand, I understand, I understand.

[Jeff] And if you yourself

have gotten an environmental movement and environmental leaders,

why not buy the holy day yourself?

[Man] (crowd screams) Happy Earth Day!

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ You make me say ♪

♪ Ah, you make me say ♪

Now we are facing the biggest sets of problems

that we saw during my lifetime.

It is now time for a new generation

the stage jumps in and creates a habitable land,

a habitable planet that we can all enjoy.

Are you this generation

(Crowd screams and cheers)

I have to thank Building Energy

that provided so much solar energy

that we could run the entire event with solar energy.

(Crowd cheers and screams)

[Jeff] But when I went behind the stage to see

what was really going on.

It's not all there, Jack,

I can tell you that.

For a toaster it is 1200 watts.

This system there could operate a toaster.

[Jeff] I found the installer.

Hi.

[Jeff] Are you leading the festival?

with these solar panels?

The concert is powered by a diesel power system.

They did not ask us to provide the concert with energy.

[Jeff] Oh, okay.

And we want too

thank our incredible company sponsors

which were behind the move to end extreme poverty

and fight climate change from the start.

I want to thank Toyota.

(loud roaring engine)

Citibank.

(Ringing and cheering)

We would like to thank Caterpillar.

We are at the point of destruction

the Dakota supply pipeline.

It looks that current

at least three bulldozers are leveling the country.

(Group screams and cheers)

People came through the fence

the bulldozers are still driving,

(People scream)

and they march over the mounds.

(loud furious screaming)

[Man in orange shirt] Get out!

Get out of here!

Without these partners, this would not be possible.

All please:give a round of applause.

(Crowd cheers and claps)

(slow festive music)

[Jeff] Now I know that all of this may seem overwhelming.

It's kind of a thing

that we don't normally try or think about it.

(slow festive music)

But by not thinking about it

it has a good chance that we will succeed.

(slow festive music)

I really believe that the path to change

comes from consciousness.

(slow festive music)

This awareness alone can be the beginning of the transformation.

(slow festive music)

There is a way out.

We humans have to realize that this infinite grow

is suicide on a finite planet.

We have to accept that our human presence

is already far beyond sustainability.

And everything that is implied by it.

(slow festive music)

We need control over our environmental movement

and our future, of billionaires and you

permanent war against planet earth, take over.

(slow festive music)

You are not our friends.

(slow festive music)

The new must be less

and instead of climate change

we finally have to accept

that it's not the carbon dioxide molecule

that destroys the planet,

(slow solemn music) It's us.

(slow festive music)

It's not one thing, it's everything we humans do.

A man-made apocalypse.

If we get ourselves under control, anything is possible.

(slow festive music)

And if not.

(threatening music)

(Chainsaw buzzes)

(Trees crashing)

(sad sad music)

(Trees crashing)

(slow festive music)

(Scrape trees)

(Orangutan chirps)

♪ AhOoh ♪

(sad orchestral music)

(Music fades)

(Snap branch)

(slow festive music)

(blazing crackling fire)

♪ AhAhOoh ♪

♪ OohOoh (with increasing intensity) ♪

♪ AhOoh ♪

(Orangutan chirps)

(Woman sings sadly)

(Orangutan Squeak)

Yes Yes Yes.

(speak softly)

♪ AhAhAh ♪

♪ O OhOhAh ♪

♪ O OhOhAh ♪

♪ OohAh ♪

♪ OhOhOh ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

(dark music)

A week after the premiere of this film, Sierra Club campaigned against biomass burning.

Days later they awarded a green award to a college that burns biomass ...

After the first screening of this film, Bill McKinnen said he was wrong about biomass.

The Middlebury plant and thousands more are still burning trees today ...

Al Gore and David Blood have a new billion dollar sustainability fund ...

opened in the Cayman Islands.

Shortly after the second screening of this film ...

the Sierras Club's "green" aspiration fund was abruptly closed. "

"Mankind is challenged to maturity like never before to prove their mastery - not by nature, but by itself "

"Mankind is challenged to maturity like never before to prove their mastery - not by nature, but by itself " Rachel Carson 1962 "