Would you trust a 'documentary' about the importance of maritime safety looking at the Titanic made by the life-boat manufacturers association?

????????????????? ?????????: ???????????????????? c?????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? (#??????) ????????????? ???? ??????????! Imagine: Silicon Valley money and hubris meet the life-boat gild and they decide to produce a film about the ?importance of ?maritime safety, using the Titanic as an example. They hire ?renowned Leila Conners director ?of ‘ The 11th Hour’ & ‘ Ice on Fire’? starring climate action devoted Leonardo DiCaprio, et voilà a superb film is to come to life after 2.5 years hard work. ?

Lo and behold, the above has just happened : Silicon Valley techno-optimists and venture capitalists got together and shoot a multi-million dollar stunning ?film about their very own investee companies operating in the field of Planet-saving, ?engineered carbon dioxide removal ( abbreviated as #CDR).

However, the producers made one inexcusable decision: they called their film a documentary not an infomercial* (= an advertorial in a form of a film, see Cambridge Dictionary entry). See the screenshot below from the website of the film, Legion 44.

Reactions to my initial post about ?the 26th November, first ?European screening of the film has resulted in a confirmation that ?the venture capital financiers of the film and the venture capital backers of the featured CDR enterprises have a major overlap:

"Of course the film is financed by commercial players, including VCs. How else would you get such an incredible, large production done? Of course there are commercial interest behind the film (like pretty much any film)." stated one of the backers of the film, Sebastian Manhart , one of the most active and prolific advocates of engineered ?CDR on both sides of the Atlantic. ? I responded: "?I am glad that you have admitted what I have only suspected: the film is financed by those who are investors in CDR, such as Max Zeller of Carbon Removal Partners: There is a huge difference between making money FROM a FILM, or making money by persuading the audience to buy something featured and promoted ?in a film!" ( ) I am hopeful that anyone, even with limited ?knowledge ?of engineered ?carbon removal, will have a good ability to spot a ?‘taking someone for a fool’ situation, such as calling something a documentary, that is actually a commercial promotion. Commercial promotion of new ideas and solutions is essential but cannot be passed off as a ‘documentary’. ?

Would you trust the objectivity and impartiality of a film about the Titanic made by the ?life-boat manufacturers?

As we need trust for building a new industry – gigatonne scale of carbon removals as we have so badly messed-up climate change mitigation at the first place ?- ?let’s agree that such a trust cannot ?be built on disguised commercial promoting messaging by a bunch of Silicon Valley tech-bros and venture capitalist complacently presenting their own start-ups as saviours of mankind.

I think it is high time for the engineered CDR community to take a deep breath and reset. Then we have a chance to promote the creation of a regulatory, compliance ?system in which CDR scaling and speeding up is plausible.

Or do you think that impatient venture capitalists and super-rich IT guys would be able to both (1) create and then (2) operate a Public Good, the removal of highly diluted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? ?Let’s remember, one of the largest industries, oil & gas, has been unable to scale-up capturing CO2 in chimneys, called #CCS (carbon capture and storage)?where it ?has an at least 200 times higher concentration, ?in the last half-century in the absence of stringent regulations. CDR could, would and shall work, but not in the manner just demonstrated by Legion 44 . ?

Let me emphasise once more: ?I am with the IPCC re. the need for scaling and speeding up CDR to gigatonne scale. However, I am not buying the approach what ?Legion 44 is trying to sell! Hubris and money are not substitutes for effective, just and fair climate action with speed and scale.

+++ I appreciate the reaching out of Leila Conners to me "hey Zsolt, happy to discuss, we can record it as well, I can address all points and obviously don’t appreciate some of what you have intimated here without reaching out to me directly first." However, I am afraid that it is too late. The damage by screening Legion 44 as a documentary has already happened! +++

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