Most Brilliant People...
are ignorant about one crucial fact!
SOS #187 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (12-6-22)
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As a daily reader of the opinion section of the New York Times, I have a small list of favorite commenters -- people who tell it like it is -- and whose logic and style appeal to me. |
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One of my favorites is Glen who goes by the handle Socrates and lives in downtown Verona, New Jersey.
Whenever he chooses to comment on a piece, what he has to say usually finishes up among the top ten "most read" -- out of thousands of comments.
That was the case on 9-27-22, after he commented on this fine Tom Friedman piece about Putin's War. To put his featured comment below into context, here is the opening paragraph of that column along with the image from the NY Times piece:
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"There was no good time for Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked, idiotic invasion of Ukraine. But this is a uniquely bad time. Because it’s diverting worldwide attention and resources needed to mitigate climate change — during what may be the last decade when we still have a chance to manage the climate extremes that are now unavoidable and avoid those that could become unmanageable."
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Socrates, from downtown Verona, New Jersey (below) commented brilliantly as he succinctly explained how we humans have created such an unsustainable way of life. |
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September 27, 2022
Human beings have had ample time to evolve, adapt and adjust to modernity, science and education in the last fifty years.
Too many people chose ignorance, religion, patriarchy and authoritarianism...and the net effect of choosing the cancer of growth and 'being fruitful and multiplying' has led us directly to environmental collapse from human overpopulation and human over-consumption.
We have eight billion (and counting) humans on the planet thanks to a total contraception planning failure of humanity -- largely attributable to medieval religion and the various champions of poverty, i.e. political corruption, the lust for power, greed and narcissistic selfishness in state and religious institutions and the commercial addiction to endless 'growth'.
It turns out that if you grow humanity into a big enough, monstrous sponge of Earth's limited finite resources -- you wind up suffocating, defiling and exterminating your natural host.
It's probably too late to save the planet from the worst instincts of the world's dictators, authoritarians and clueless consumers stepping on their gas pedals -- but a Manhattan Project on global contraception sure would be a humane way to put the brakes on the runaway freight train of manmade environmental collapse.
- Birth control is step one.
- Step two is a solar panel on every roof.
Unfortunately, the lowly human is a slow learner and can't handle basic evolution.
Sad. Tragic. Fatal.
Socrates, from downtown Verona, NJ
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The Bottom Line
Hey Socrates, do you know what's really
Sad, Tragic & Fatal?
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It's the fact that the vast majority of the brightest, best-read and most educated people on the planet, people like yourself -- are unaware that our best weapons against climate change are the decisions we make three times a day. It's our food choices.
Why are billions of brilliant people so ignorant when it comes to what is arguably the most important topic in the world?
The reason is simple. It is because the entire world has depended on globally-recognized "experts" (like the seven men on the billboard below) -- and hundreds of other spineless leaders like them -- to tell us what we can all do about climate change AND what we should be eating.
And, like billions of lemmings, we continue to follow leaders who we assume know what they're doing. The problem consists of one of these two possibilities:
- Either those leaders are simply ignorant and don't know the truth themselves or...
- They lack the courage to loudly broadcast to the world -- the unvarnished truth on this most crucial of all topics.
With all due respect to some of them, they might simply be ignorant about how climate change works. Very sad indeed!
The Climate Billboard of Shame
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Simple 5-point summary of the Truth
- The Leading Driver of Climate Change is Humans Eating Animal-based foods. (For references, see "Big Picture Data & Video section below)
- In order to make a huge difference immediately, most can simply begin eating plant-based foods exclusively; they don't need anyone's permission.
- That said, animal agriculture is the only major driver of climate change that is possible to completely eliminate worldwide in less than five years.
- It's also the only major step that is FREE. Actually, it will save trillions of dollars for billions of consumers.
- In the process, it will put a huge dent in two huge global industries: the producers of animal-based foods AND the healthcare industry that earns trillions of dollars managing the diseases that are driven by humans eating the wrong food for our species.
That last bullet is why it will be very difficult to make this happen in a world economy that depends on eternal growth
of industries that produce the animal-based foods and the industries that deal with the health issues that it causes.
With apologies to Socrates. While I agree that the two steps he mentions need to be taken (birth control and a move toward green energy) -- they both pale in comparison to the dramatic positive impact on climate change, if billions of people started moving rapidly away from eating animals.
As for your his recommended steps, I must comment on the limitations of those two steps to make enough of a difference:
- Most of the billions of people in the world who are over 45 -- can't do much of anything about birth control.
- Also, there are billions of people who do not have roofs on which they can install an array of solar panels.
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But everyone does have to eat; therefore, we all have a chance to help eliminate the climate change monster -- by simply choosing health-promoting, plant-based foods at every meal.
Most people think that eating those kinds of foods will cost them more money.
Wrong! That false assumption is thrown out the window once they realize that the vast majority of their calories in the future will be comprised of grains, legumes and potatoes -- foods that average less than 25 cents per hundred calories.
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Although I featured a Tom Friedman column in this SOS Memo, I have observed that he too, in all of his brilliance, has never mentioned a single word about the leading driver of climate change.
Maybe I should add his picture to that "climate billboard of shame" pictured above. He has earned the right to be there -- along with Gates, Hawken and McKibben.
If we keep adding names -- it will be like the famous line from the movie JAWS, we're gonna need a bigger billboard.
One more thing. I didn't provide many sources for some of the information cited today. So, if you'd like to verify that what I write is not just my opinion, I encourage you to read the last ten SOS Memos that I have written; particularly these three over the past month:
As always, at the end of these SOS Memos, we provide tons of FREE data & "big picture" reference materials, beginning with free access to our two latest books. After the books below, scroll on down to the:
"Big Picture" Data and Video Section
In closing, would you like to do your part to help people get healthy...while slowing, stopping or even reversing climate change at the same time? Then, share this SOS Memo and the free books below with everyone you know.
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FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health, our planet and climate change
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To our knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of "outcries" from the natural world, along with consensus conclusions of nine big picture scientists regarding our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future, using today’s technology.
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In mid 2022, we began giving this book away free of charge.
"the most important info in all of humanity is going undiscussed."
We're talking about the crucial information regarding how we can possibly slow or stop climate change within a few years.
Want to help relieve the desperate situation in which we find ourselves, read OUTCRY as soon as you can and send it to everyone you know. Just click on the book cover above.
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Here is the 2nd book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I wrote with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.
Using the Power of Food
to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet
This compact book is still highly relevant, focusing on helping people take charge of their health and reverse chronic disease by urgently shifting to a whole-food, plant-based way of eating.
A fringe benefit of their efforts is the steady downsizing of the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture. Merely suggesting that the masses cut back on their meat, dairy, egg and fish consumption will accomplish very little.
We want everyone to completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diet. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood.
For your children and grandchildren, just do it!
Please share today's timely SOS with everyone.
Click the image below to hear my recent (May 2022)
45-minute talk regarding much of what has been covered in my recent SOS Memos.
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Finally, please contact me about arranging a FREE "live" Zoom talk for your group. They will get a lot more out of my talk if they have read our two FREE books in advance of my talk.
Sincerely, J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
PS: Scroll on down for more "big picture" information that is mainly in the form of powerful videos, most of which are free.
For a concise summary of "big picture" information about our situation, take a look at the landing page of my primary website that I recently updated. Just click hpjmh.com
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What about the "preservation" of civilization? |
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To clarify, we're not trying to preserve civilization as we know it. Because what we have now is extremely wasteful, harmful and grossly unsustainable. It's an incredibly reckless way of living that is now threatening our very existence as a species.
We're talking about replacing it with an entirely new, ultra-green civilization of the future -- and we do our best to paint a picture of that envisioned way of sustainable living in OUTCRY. For what one Ohio State professor emeritus of history had to say about that book on Amazon, click here.
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As for making our stand on the only planet in the universe capable of keeping us alive, this "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture" Data and Video Section
Beginning with the timeline of research
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Five World-Changing Films
That People Everywhere Must See
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Film #1 in 2014
In 2014, Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn produced their first documentary film Cowspiracy. Executive producer is Leonardo DiCaprio, it runs 90 minutes and has been on Netflix since 2015. In 2020, I met Kip and Keegan in Sedona where I was honored to be able to speak at the same conference with them and other great leaders in this movement like Dr. Sailesh Rao and Dr. Michael Greger.
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Film #3 in 2021
In 2021, Kip Anderson teamed up with British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, to produce Seaspiracy, an 89-minute film that vividly and alarmingly reveals what is at stake when it comes to the crucial importance of our oceans to our future as a species. Most people have no idea regarding the environmental horrors of commercial fishing -- a disgusting industry that kills dolphins by the thousands and tosses them back into the ocean. It runs 90 minutes on Netflix. Click here to view the trailer.
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Film #4 in 2021
As our situation becomes more desperate, the documentary films become more terrifying. As alluded to earlier, we are literally Eating Our Way to Extinction, a process that is vividly covered in this 2021 film (81 minutes). Narrated and produced by Kate Winslet, you can watch this great film on Amazon Prime or on YouTube for $3.99. The great ocean scientist and former head of NOAA, Dr. Sylvia Earle lends powerful credibility to such a crucial topic.
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Film #5 in 2022
This new film (89 minutes) features a young activist who travels around his country, New Zealand in an effort to find out the truth about the horrors of the dairy industry in his native land.
The film uncovers alarming information about the environmental and health impacts of the industry -- leading up to the discovery that we are on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history. This new film is now available for $2.99 on Vimeo.
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Grasping the "Big Picture"
These 2 films will help in understanding
our unprecedented dilemma.
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This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
He brilliantly describes the grossly unsustainable way of living that has brought us to the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. Since I met him in London in 2013, he has become much more serious about the need to abolish the practice of eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish at almost every meal.
Just click on the hourglass image. Dr. Emmott delivers a very compelling message from the stage of a theater in London. This 2013 film is still relevant and will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture."
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Finally, this half-hour video was published in November of 2021. It was produced by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and our survival as a species.
As do practically all researchers, Dowd focuses entirely on the problem; not the solution. I prefer to focus on both.
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What else can you do?
Probably a lot more than you think
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Start with the new documentary (Film #4) mentioned earlier -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix. Watch it often with your friends and family.
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Share this SOS Memo widely: Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities by J. Morris Hicks.
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Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
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Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
- Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.
- As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
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I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested this book that there would be a more robust conversation around the world regarding our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world.
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.
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The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018. |
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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