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There is a recent review of the reviews of Planet of the Humans that is worth reading (http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/2020/20200501-planet_of_the_humans.html) in conjunction with Phillips's review. Especially given that Phillips is a friend of the neofascists at Spiked and the utterly reactionary folks at the Breakthrough Institute. Jacobin claims to be a left-wing magazine, but publishing Phillips would seem to belie this.
As for the film itself, like any documentary, this one has flaws, such as the somewhat decontextualized discussion of population growth. And as the review referenced above points out, there are recent analyses that should have been referenced. However, there are at least three main points in Planet of the Humans that are on target. First, alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass are problematic to say the least. They must use inputs that are environmentally destructive, sometimes to an extreme degree. These resources are not themselves renewable. In addition, to date, wind and solar must always be supplemented with oil, gas, or coal to generate consistent and sufficient power. Little to no concern is given to the Global South in any of this, the Global South, the exploitation of whose workers and peasants allows alternative energy to exist in the Global North. The simple-minded partisans of the GND give lip service to subsidies to the poor countries, but we all know this is not in the cards.
Second, mainstream environmental groups take money from billionaires and their foundations at their peril. They will always, one way or another, set the agenda. Watch Bill Gates on CNN yattering about the pandemic, with very little clue about so many things, as a good example of the dangers.
Third, and most important, there is just no way, none whatsoever, that ecological disaster, including more and worse pandemics, can be avoided if "normal" economic growth continues, especially in the Global North. And this is what Phillips and fanboys like Doug Henwood cannot imagine happening and have no desire to do so. They will devise any number of cover stories---jobs are needed by the working class, mass death will be the result of degrowth, the poor will suffer even more, we must have industrial agriculture to feed so many people, de-growthers are really genocidal, technology is neutral and all we need is to have social control over what we already have, and on and on---to mask their naked desire for things, always and in endless supply, for them and their children.
The owner of Jacobin is a self-proclaimed hustler. Unfortunately, hustling isn't the same as clear, radical thinking. If Phillips is Jacobin's idea of a radical, well that's a hustle in itself.
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