Missed Chance to Stop Climate Change
When, where, how and why?
SOS #118  J. Morris Hicks  (8-10-21)
Just yesterday, climate change FINALLY became front page news all over the world!

The first "Code Red" article that I read yesterday morning was this one on CNN. Since then, I read dozens more and have watched lots of video.

Earlier today, I read a piece in USA Today, in which 24 scientists, activists and environmental groups weighed in separately -- a list that included Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg.

Only one of those 24 people, Jonty Whittleton, with World Animal Protection, mentioned a single word about the outsized role that our food choices -- and animal agriculture in particular -- play in climate change. Quoting him from the article:
"Our broken food system is fueling the climate crisis. Global meat production is five times higher than it was fifty years ago...our future depends on us re-thinking how we treat all animals."
What about that "missed chance" ?

Ironically, in the 1970's -- before climate change was even being discussed -- a nutritional scientist at Cornell made a discovery that might have played a huge role in stopping it in its tracks.

His discovery (more on that later) had to do with the fact that consuming animal protein (meat dairy, eggs & fish) promotes cancer growth. Questions come to mind:
What if Cornell and the global news media had promoted that story throughout the 1980's?

What if that story had triggered a steady global decline of meat, dairy, egg & fish consumption?

How much better off would our oceans, forests and humanity be today if that had happened?

And would those five animal-origin pandemics (since 2002) have ever come to pass?
Let’s go back 40 years. The year is 1981 and there are two world class scientists, both tenured professors, on the faculty at Cornell University. Both are 47 years old. Both are hitting their stride relative to their careers and both appear to be destined for greatness. 

Both of them have followed the scientific method of inquiry at Cornell as they each set about uncovering powerful truths that would most certainly play major roles in the future of humanity.
One of them became one of the world's most famous scientists during his prime, received well-deserved global acclaim for his breakthrough work in astrophysics, suffered a premature death at the height of his career and 20 years later -- had a Cornell Institute established in his honor.

He is still revered by the university as well he should be.
The other one uncovered some dirty little secrets about the meat and dairy industries. And while the world desperately needed to hear those Earth-shattering truths, their discovery didn't work out too well for the career track of the scientist who discovered them.

Those "secrets" were all about the fact that our wildly popular, animal-based foods are strongly associated with most chronic diseases, including cancer -- AND the industry that produces them is the single largest driver of climate change.
What about those two Cornell scientists? The scientist who is still revered by Cornell University is Carl Sagan.

The other one is my good friend and colleague, T. Colin Campbell -- and he is alive and well at 87. 
As for the animal agriculture connection with climate change, I refer you to these scientific papers: A 2009 paper by two World Bank researchers and a newly published (April 2021) peer reviewed paper by a Stanford PhD who once worked with Al Gore on climate change.
According to both papers, the global animal agriculture industry is responsible for well over 50% of ALL human-induced greenhouse gases.  
Although Campbell’s career suffered mightily when his scientific findings began to implicate the meat and dairy industries, he went on to have a major positive impact on the health of millions of people around the world.

One of those beneficiaries was President Bill Clinton, who is pictured below as he appeared in AARP Magazine in 2013. View the article.
In the article above, with regard to his decision to shift to 100% plant-based foods, our former president credits T. Colin Campbell, along with prominent medical doctors, Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic and Dean Ornish of the University of San Francisco, the latter of whom worked in the Clinton White House in the 90's and appeared on the cover of Newsweek.
From the AARP piece. Prodded into action, Clinton started by rereading Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, which urges a strict, low-fat, plant-based regimen, along with two books that were, if possible, even more militantly vegan: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., and The China Study, by Cornell biochemist T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.
Sadly, even widely-circulated articles like the AARP one didn’t deter the world's schools of nutritional science in their systematic process of ignoring and/or discrediting the scientific, life-saving, findings of T. Colin Campbell.

His experimental research at Cornell showed that a disease like cancer was not only due to genes, as widely believed -- but, as he clarifies:

Its development could be turned on and off (reversed) by increasing and decreasing animal protein, respectively -- a remarkable nutritional effect indeed.

He continues, "That remarkable nutritional effect"is similar to the food-related effect for other chronic diseases (ie. heart disease and type 2 diabetes) as demonstrated in human subjects by medical doctors Ornish, Esselstyn and McDougall."

"Health could be gained and disease prevented or reversed by a whole food, plant-based diet."
Sadly, those powerful truths about the connection between food choices, chronic disease and climate change have never been embraced by mainstream science and, hence, the public at large.
Someone should make a movie about these two “rock-star” Cornell professors: a story that could help restore some of Campbell’s life-saving science -- for the ultimate benefit of humans everywhere -- and for the billions of food animals who would no longer have to suffer and die. 

Maybe the legend of Carl Sagan will help. As you may know, he earned much of his fame by being the “resident astronomer” on the Johnny Carson Show for many years. In the short video below, Johnny and Carl discuss the “big picture” science relative to humanity’s apparent dominion over planet Earth -- the kinds of discussions that are now sadly missing on network television.
The image below was from a highly educational and entertaining conversation between one of the world’s greatest communicators (Carson) and one of the world’s greatest “big picture” scientists ever -- just 19 years before the premature death of Carl Sagan. Click here for an 11-min video of that conversation.
Oh, the possibilities! Just consider this, had Cornell, the US government and the media embraced and promoted Campbell's scientific findings about the relationship between animal protein and cancer — back in the mid-70’s, who knows what could have happened? 
At the very least, many thousands of deaths
could have been prevented.

At the very best, countless millions of deaths from cancer and other chronic diseases globally could have been prevented AND billions of people around the world may have chosen to eat plant-based because of his scientific findings. 
And don't forget climate change!

Just think about the impact that a global dietary shift away from meat and dairy could’ve had on reducing the #1 driver of climate change: animal agriculture

Campbell's work could have changed the entire trajectory of humanity — and quite likely may have played a crucial role in the prevention of our ultimate demise as a species.
But it didn’t work out that way. Sagan dies at a young age, gets well-deserved prizes, worldwide acclaim and a Cornell institute named after him.

While the man who had the greatest chance to save billions of lives AND quite possibly prevent the demise of our civilization and our species — doesn't even get an honorable mention.
In spite of all the above, Colin Campbell still speaks well about the university that enabled him to pursue his ground-breaking science on the world stage. He just mentioned to me last week that, within his family, there are a total of seven Cornell degrees.

The photo below is Savage Hall, where in 2010, I attended Colin's last public lecture at Cornell University.
Had prominent schools of nutrition embraced the findings of T. Colin Campbell back in the early 80's, the world's staggering animal consumption numbers might look a great deal different today.

As you can see from the chart below, the consumption of those foods has continued to skyrocket long after Campbell started broadcasting the simple truth about the health-promoting, disease-reversing, traditional diet for the human species: a diet that Campbell defines as whole food, plant-based.

You can easily see below that global animal food consumption has more than doubled since 1980.
Meanwhile, back to Carl Sagan

Over the past few weeks, I have read numerous articles about this great scientist and have watched many hours of his videos on YouTube. My sense is that, similar to Campbell, he was a sincere scientist who totally believed in, and was solely guided by, the universal laws of nature: physics, chemistry and biology. 

Neither of them ever let politics or commercial interests get in the way of reporting the truths that resulted from the scientific method of inquiry.
The Bottom LineCarl Sagan earned the honors and respect that his legacy enjoys today.

Colin Campbell deserves that same kind of honor and respect.

And, if we can jumpstart that process right away, his long-overdue legacy may play a huge role in preventing Homo sapiens from near-term extinction. 
There is one more thing I would like to say about Carl Sagan before ending this memo.

After watching many hours of his videos and reading most of his book, Pale Blue Dot -- I would like to think that as a true scientist, and a man of great integrity, that if he were still alive -- he would have been there to defend Colin Campbell's pursuit of the truth on a much more controversial topic: our food choices.

Had that happened, we might be in a far better place today.
What can you do to help spark the global conversation regarding these crucial topics. Invite me to conduct a free Zoom session (from 30 minutes to one hour) with your group.

Click this link to view all 62 slides: “Food, protein, pandemics and the future of humanity” This is the latest title slide that I am currently using for those kinds of sessions:
The image above is a clue regarding the essence of my "family game plan" that is revealed near the end of my talk. 

Finally, please do whatever you can to help spark the global "conversation" about our need to urgently transform our way of living into one that has a much better chance of keeping us alive indefinitely. 

The billions of innocent children 
of the world deserve no less! 

I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested OUTCRY, that there might at least be a more robust conversation taking place about our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world -- and what it will take to get us focused on maximizing our chances of survival as a species.

To be sure, we must do a lot more than change what we eat -- and OUTCRY helps explain the "why" and the "how" of that proposition. 

To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.



J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
PS: Regarding the free Zoom conferences with your group, Send me an email and let's get started.
Our book, for a host of environmental reasons, is only available as an e-book on Amazon. As such, it contains hyperlinks to hundreds of references and videos, is less expensive, does not kill any trees and does not have to be manufactured and delivered. 

The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018.
You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 
As always, I am just trying to help spark the all-important "conversation" about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, faster, better and bolder. 

You will find that there aren't many books that cover both the health of your body and the health of your planet. This is one of them. It was published in 2011.
Order e-book on Amazon
What else can you do to help? Two things:

1. Live as greenly as possible while doing all that you can to raise the awareness of "big picture" solutions that are crucially necessary for saving our civilization.

2. Share this BSB and my "Mama Ain't Happy" BSB with prominent journalists, thought leaders and/or elected officials whom you respect. They need to learn a lot more about the many reasons why Mama ain't happy.

Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
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