EVERYTHING IS “CARBON NEUTRAL” INCLUDING THE ALBERTA TAR SANDS
Companies convince consumers that their products are eco-friendly. But what is the truth behind the marketing?
A conversation with Jeff Gibbs, Producer of “Planet of the Humans”
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JEFF GIBBS: Climate change is real, and climate change is extreme but in the name of climate and carbon we can get away with anything. It's being used to rationalize every destructive thing we're doing to the Earth.
I just went to the store. What did I get? I forget the product, but it was labeled carbon neutral. Everything is carbon neutral right? Even Walmart is carbon-neutral.
Mining is now carbon neutral. Imagine that.
One of the things that I've learned and hope to put in my next work is something called the Site C dam in British Columbia, Canada. The environmental assessment done by the Canadian government deemed the Site C dam to be the worst environmental project ever initiated in Canada, even worse than the Tar Sands.
And what are they going to use the hydro electricity from the Site C dam for? It's going to be directed to the Tar Sands, so they can claim the extraction of Tar Sands oil is carbon neutral!
HART HAGAN: We're not looking at what we do with the energy. We're talking about changing how we generate energy, supposedly changing from fossil fuels to solar and wind and even biomass calling it renewable but we're not talking about the end use of the energy.
We're not talking about what we do with the energy once it's generated. It's like let’s slap a solar panel on a McDonald's drive-thru and now it’s clean, green and renewable. Put solar panels on the headquarters of Monsanto and now that's clean, green and renewable.
JEFF GIBBS: I actually think a world in which we're attempting to power up with solar, wind and hydro is dirtier than the fossil fuel world.
HART HAGAN: I agree.
JEFF GIBBS: It's the same world.
Let’s talk about hydro. Hydroelectricity was the secret behind Standord Professor Mark Z. Jacobson’s plan for 100% green energy. This doesn't make the national news. There are research scientists in, I think, Manitoba, Canada who analyzed the greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectricity and calculated that they were somewhere between a natural gas power plant and a coal power plant.
So this hydroelectric dam in Canada is a microcosm of what's going on. You think the Tar Sands is bad enough. But when you add the hydro destruction, you get double the greenhouse footprint. You get double the environmental impact. Like you say, even if there was a carbon neutral, clean energy source, we're still using it to deforest, to catch all the fish, to plow up all the landscape, to pave the planet with cement.
And speaking of McDonald’s, if McDonald's has cage-free carbon-neutral chicken--I'm just making this up--or they agree to have paper cups instead of Styrofoam, suddenly they get a little green gold stamp.
In Planet of the Humans, there were all of these corporations such as McDonald's and Monsanto that are all in these green investment portfolios. How did this happen? Exactly like you said, they do something that gets a little green gold star and then they get accepted into this supposedly green portfolio.
HART HAGAN: That brings to mind the issue of divestment. When people divest from fossil fuels, what are they re-investing in? You covered that in the movie.
JEFF GIBBS: That’s one of these shocking things that has not been followed up on because--I hate to say this and those of you that this applies to, but there's nothing you can invest in that's clean. It doesn't exist? We took a deep dive into that, and it was just shocking what's in these “green” funds.
I believe Climate Change is real, but I’m not convinced man can do anything to effect Climate Change good, or bad. Especially after hearing Malcom Robert’s analysis. If Governments are involved, I tend to believe it’s a scam for money laundering.