Michael Moore Drops New Documentary on Climate Change ‘Planet of the Humans’

Michael Moore has released a new documentary on climate change from director Jeff Gibbs, Planet of the Humans; it will be available to watch on YouTube for free for the next 30 days. Moore served as an executive producer on the film, which first screened at the Traverse City Film Festival last August.

The documentary pointedly arrives the day before the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22nd. Its focus is not just the devastating effects of climate change — it also offers a critical view of the ways in which, per a press release, “the environmental movement has lost the battle through well-meaning but disastrous choices, including the belief that solar panels and windmills would save us, and by giving in to the corporate interests of Wall Street.”

Planet of the Humans was initially slated for a wider release later this year, but Moore and Gibbs said they decided to release it now, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the hopes of getting people to reflect on “the role humans and their behavior have played in our fragile ecosystem.” To coincide with the film’s release, Moore shared a new episode of his Rumble podcast, featuring Gibbs and the film’s producer Ozzie Zehner. Moore and Gibbs will also host two livestreamed Q&A sessions Tuesday, April 21st, one at 8 p.m. ET and another at 8 p.m. PT, on YouTube and Facebook Live.

“We have ignored the warnings and instead all sorts of so-called leaders have steered us away from the real solutions that might save us,” Moore said in a statement. “This movie takes no prisoners and exposes the truth about how we have been led astray in the fight to save the planet, to the point where if we don’t reverse course right now, events like the current pandemic will become numerous, devastating and insurmountable. The feel-good experience of this movie is that we actually have the smarts and the will to not let this happen — but only if we immediately launch a new environmental uprising.”

Planet of the Humans marks Gibbs’ directorial debut, although he’s a long-time collaborator of Moore’s, having co-produced Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore’s last directorial effort was 2018’s Fahrenheit 11/9, which examined the rise of President Donald Trump.