New Blockbuster Film for Saving Humanity?
Global leaders are clueless; a great film just might work!
SOS #159 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (5-24-22)
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Winner of eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, TITANIC was a James Cameron-directed blockbuster movie released in 1997 that was seen, enjoyed and praised by hundreds of millions of people around the world. It was also the first film ever -- to gross over a billion dollars.
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That was twenty-five years ago. Now, in 2022, we could use another wildly popular film that delivers the most urgently needed message in the history of humanity.
Hopefully, this master story-teller will choose to tell humanity's most important story ever -- to the entire world -- a revealing tale about our best pathway to the longterm survival of Homo sapiens.
Mr. Cameron has an exceptionally rare understanding of our predicament, coupled with an equally rare understanding of actions we must take in order to maximize our chances of survival.
I know this because he was kind enough to provide this concise description of humanity's desperate situation on the cover of our 2020 book, OUTCRY.
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The answer to his question. All of the world's citizens must quickly learn that individual actions by billions of people everywhere have the collective power to greatly reduce the leading driver of climate change; thereby, sharply raising our chances for survival.
Humans everywhere can accomplish that amazing feat by simply changing what they put on their forks three times a day. In that envisioned blockbuster movie, Mr. Cameron could very well trigger a much-needed, climate slowing, tipping point by reminding adult citizens everywhere about the mind-boggling enormity of what's at stake.
I am convinced that enough action by individual citizens around the world could prevent the collapse of our civilization and the near-term extinction of our species. Unfortunately, I don't think the conventional, top-down approach is going to work relative to the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.
We must accept the reality that the UN, the IPCC, the G20 heads of state and the established institutions around the world are simply not getting it done.
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With great sustainability-minded stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver and many others — the entire world can be entertained while learning about the most important topic in the history of humanity: the urgent need (regarding climate change) for billions of humans to simply stop eating ALL animal-based foods.
We don't need the UN, the IPCC or the actions of feckless government officials. We've tried that route for thirty years and we've learned that it has no chance of working. Now, we're running out of time.
That said: we must take this crucial life-saving message directly to the adult citizens of the planet. The innocent children of the world deserve no less.
With that thought in mind, what story should be told in that envisioned blockbuster film? What story will influence the most people to walk away from the Standard Western Diet (with meat & dairy at every meal) as soon as possible?
I am envisioning an emotionally compelling story about innocence, ignorance, greed, power and justice.
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Starting with the Innocence of Youth
They all deserve our very best efforts -- even if some of those efforts are not initially popular.
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Most of the children in the world today were simply born into the set of living conditions where they now find themselves. Some were born into poverty while others were born into great wealth and privilege. |
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Whether rich or poor, none of the world's children in 2022 -- are in any way responsible for the grossly unsustainable manner in which we are living in the developed nations. And right now, those innocent children are not getting the best efforts from the adults who are calling the environmental shots on planet Earth.
Why are the world's adults failing our children so miserably? I see it as a combination of three primary contributors:
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Ignorance, Greed and Power |
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As for ignorance, a lucky minority of the world's billion children are the offspring of thoughtful, caring, educated, well-to-do parents who teach them the most important lessons and encourage them to keep on learning for the rest of their lives.
For all of the other children, they will inherit the beliefs and biases of their parents and will likely spend their lives just drifting along with the masses. That said, ALL of the world's children deserve a chance to survive the reckless actions of previous generations of adults.
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My observation has been that the wealthiest people in the world spend the majority of their lives focused on one simple goal: trying to build more wealth and power for themselves.
Now in my late seventies, I realize that fact more and more every day -- that the people in power will stop at nothing to retain that power. That's why we must bypass the powerful governments and individuals and take our life-saving message directly to the people.
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My question is this: How can today's innocent children have a chance for a decent future, or a future at all -- if most of the world's adult leadership is unable or unwilling to reveal the truth about our best chance to slow, stop or reverse climate change?
It is simply not fair that all of those children, whether born into wealthy families or poor, are likely facing a miserable future of pain and suffering -- even without ever doing anything wrong themselves.
Unless we can somehow jolt the current generations of adults into taking urgent steps in the direction of eliminating the single largest driver of climate change -- we will all be sentencing our children to an unimaginably horrible future.
Their future might look something like this UNICEF picture of the year in 2017.
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Collectively, the most powerful leaders of the world have all failed miserably in dealing with a reality that they have known about for thirty-five years.
Let's talk about that failure and what can be done about it before we pass the point of no return with runaway climate change.
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Beginning with COP26 last year,
where the #1 driver of climate change was NEVER mentioned!
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The "Code of Silence" about food. Dr. Sailesh Rao and I have concluded that that there must be some kind of un-written and un-spoken code of silence among the vast majority of world leaders when it comes to the #1 driver of climate change, animal agriculture.
Without admitting it publicly, they know that animal agriculture is the fastest, cheapest and easiest driver of climate change for individual citizens everywhere to completely eliminate. Once the public is fully informed and motivated -- animal agriculture could be completely eliminated in as little as five years -- with zero governmental involvement.
Here's the latest example of the continuing failure of prominent leaders to acknowledge the #1 driver of climate change: a brand new 10-minute video of Al Gore on the TED stage. He never once mentions animal agriculture during his rant about climate change -- simply because he knows that such a stance would not be popular.
Surely U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President Joe Biden, the USA's Climate Envoy, John Kerry, and many others all know the scientific truths about food choices that have been further expanded in both the 2009 WorldWatch paper and in the more recent 2019 position paper published by Dr. Sailesh Rao in the peer-reviewed Journal of Ecological Society.
Down deep inside, all of them must know the truth. But the "code of silence" continues among the world's most powerful leaders for a number of reasons:
- They know that over 90% of the people in the developed nations are eating some combination of meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish at almost every meal. They also know that those billions of people have been eating that way for many years and they do not want to stop.
- They also know that the industries who produce all of those foods have powerful lobbies that could wreck the careers of any elected official -- if she or he even quietly suggested that people everywhere should eat less meat and dairy.
- Deep down inside, they all know that without an urgent dismantling of the animal agriculture industry, we will never be able to stop climate change. You can't save the Titanic if you can't quickly repair the #1 reason that she is sinking: a giant iceberg-inflicted hole in her starboard hull.
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To be clear, all of those leaders know that since there is almost zero chance that more than a handful of them will ever actually speak out -- they justify their own silence and inaction by the rationalization that it wouldn't do any good anyway.
What ever happened to just doing and saying what's right? What ever happened to integrity among our most powerful leaders?
I refer to the "really leaning into what's right" mentality of NYC Mayor Eric Adams as described in one of my recent SOS Memos. To me, his actions reflect an an almost non-existent combination of courage, integrity and leadership in a publicly elected official.
Unlike Mayor Adams, the world's spineless leaders have simply agreed among themselves to not talk about the subject. They have all tacitly agreed to a deadly pact that will keep them in office but will almost certainly ensure an early, painful and miserable death for almost every child in the world today.
In essence, they have all made a deal with the devil -- silently agreeing among themselves to never talk about it. That's the "code of silence" that Sailesh and I believe has been established at the U.N., the IPCC and in the majority of all governments around the world, including the United States.
So what about that blockbuster movie? Here's an idea for a possible solution to this deadly conundrum in which we find ourselves. What if a first class, tell-it-all blockbuster movie could deliver the truth about all of the above with a cast that included the most prominent and universally-respected actors and actresses in the world?
What if they could tell their powerful story with scientific and ecological integrity?
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Fast-Forward to 2026
Halfway through Biden's second term, this is a story about global disasters we will face if we don't take urgent actions now -- in 2022.
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Spoiler Alert: This section is simply an idea for the final scene in an envisioned "tell it all" movie that I am hoping will become an in-theater blockbuster AND an in-home streamed hit all over the world before the end of 2022. I am hoping that the greatest story-teller of all time will decide to make that happen.
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Her character plays a key role in the movie that I am envisioning.
--A possible plot of an envisioned 2022 film begins here--
In the movie, set four years from now in 2026, President Joe Benton is in the middle of his second term, and his veteran press secretary is still on his team -- a gay black woman by the name of Karen Jennings.
A lot has happened since Karen became the White House press secretary back in 2022. She married another gay woman and in 2023, the couple adopted twin newborns, a boy and a girl. They celebrated the third birthdays of those twins in early 2026.
As for the state of the world in 2026, things have gotten much worse year by year -- politically, socially and environmentally. As for climate change, everyone in the world knows that it is definitely real and that it is now taking millions of lives every week.
Since mid 2024, the world's wealthiest one percent have been moving as far north as they can get -- shortly after it became crystal clear -- to almost everyone -- that we weren't going to be able to slow, stop or reverse climate change by making emission-cut pledges at fancy conferences every year.
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Tragically, among the millions of lives taken so far -- were the three-year old twins of Press Secretary Jennings.
A few months later, she and the president are having a one-on-one conversation in the Oval Office.
That's when President Benton begins to talk candidly, openly and truthfully about everything. He begins by tearfully repeating his sincere condolences about the passing of her little twins.
As for climate change, he solemnly tells Karen the truth about what has been going on behind the scenes at the annual climate "COPS" for the past six years.
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He admits that there was indeed a "code of silence" around the primary driver of climate change being animal agriculture.
He admits that if any of the G20 heads of state had taken a stand against eating meat that they would probably have been run out of office -- never to be elected again.
As the conversation continued, Karen speaks out bravely with a great deal of emotion and conviction. She begins with a what-if question:
Have you ever thought about where the world might be today if you and President Obama had shared your knowledge about the fact that the true drivers of heart disease, cancer and climate change were all one and the same: the world's love affair with eating animal-based foods?
Early in Obama's second term, in 2013, you and the president could have simply summoned the press secretary at the time and asked her to release a tell-all story about the leading driver of climate change and how billions of individuals around the globe could slow or stop climate change by simply choosing to eat plant-based foods exclusively.
That story would have been in the headlines all over the world in a matter of hours -- and it would continue to be in the headlines as long as new information was being fed to the media every single day.
It is unlikely that you would have ever been elected president four years later, but you and the president may have been able to wake up the sleeping masses in a manner that would have earned you a very special place in history.
Also, if you had taken that route, maybe my two precious babies would still be alive!
- As the president silently weeps, she continues with her monologue and asks him why he had not shared these truths about animal agriculture with her when she joined his team back in 2022. He may not have been re-elected in 2024 if he had come clean back then -- but the world may have fared much better during the next four years. Karen continues...
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One more thing, I recently learned that when you and Barack Obama were first running for office in 2008 -- that he was very much aware of the negative impacts of animal agriculture on the environment AND on human health.
I am pretty sure that you have seen this 5-minute video of then Senator Obama in 2008 (when you and he were running for office together) as he answers a question from a young woman in the Florida audience with "Vegan Outreach" on her tee shirt?
Click image below to view this revealing video:
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Karen continues: Surely, if Barack Obama knew all about the health and environmental impacts of our food choices in 2008, then you must have also known those truths. I just recently found this December 2012 article: Did you know that Obama really “gets it” about food?
After doing more research on this topic, I ran across more information on the website of J. Morris Hicks, a climate activist and author of three books about the supreme importance of eating a health-promoting whole food, plant-based diet.
He even sent a letter to you multiple times during your Cancer Moonshot project in 2016, just before you and President Obama left office.
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But, alas, he still didn't hear from you. It turns out that not only can eliminating animal-based foods from our diets make a huge difference in slowing climate change, it can greatly reduce one's risk of cancer.
But then that wouldn't have been good for the trillion dollar cancer treatment industry, now would it?
It's getting very late sir, but before we wrap up this session, I feel that I must submit my resignation. If you really want me to stay, I will -- but on one condition. You agree to authorize me to start working on multiple press releases regarding climate change tomorrow.
It's high time for complete transparency on this crucial topic and, in the memory of my deceased
twin babies, I will no longer remain silent!
You and I can hold a special press conference on Thursday and announce that this administration will continue taking urgent actions that should have been taken years ago.
We can announce that we are now leveraging all of the powers of the United States presidency to urgently promote the steady reduction -- and ultimate elimination of -- animal agriculture around the world.
This new posture won't bring back the millions of lives that have been lost, but if we move quickly enough, we just may be able to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Maybe, if we're lucky, we will be able to slow it down enough to prevent our ultimate demise as a species.
This must be our #1 priority for the remainder of your presidency. Do we have a deal?
- After he gives her a thumbs-up, Karen excitedly tears up her resignation letter. By Thursday evening, this will be the lead story in every newspaper and televised news show in the world -- and humanity will have taken one giant step toward learning to live in harmony with nature. This will continue to be the lead story indefinitely and, hopefully, it will prevent the suffering and deaths of millions of innocent children all over the world.
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The Bottom Line
Integrity. Courage. Leadership.
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The good news about this envisioned movie is that the horrible loss of millions of lives (conveyed above) have not happened yet -- and a late 2022 movie could play a huge role in making sure that those horrendous events never happen.
That film could reach enough people around the world to perhaps start moving the needle when it comes to sharply reducing the leading driver of climate change.
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We still may have enough time to get that done, but the current world leaders are simply not ever going to have the courage to share the whole truth about the primary drivers.
That's why we must have a massive grass-roots movement. And we must have it now. This story must be told very soon and it must be told often.
It is my sincere belief that a first class, well-funded blockbuster film by the world's best movie-maker could get the ball rolling toward a possible happy ending for humanity.
It could possibly succeed in accomplishing what all of the scientists, heads of state, economists, legislators and professors in the world have failed to do. As for those billion+ innocent kids out there...we've still got time to prevent most of the suffering and dying of countless innocent children.
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We've still got time to replace their massive suffering with the joyful innocence of youth that most of us adults experienced during the early years of our lives. They all deserve no less. |
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While we still have time, let's insist that all world leaders begin telling us the truth about the most important topics (like food choices) related to our long-term survival on this magnificent planet -- the only one in the universe capable of keeping us alive.
Conveniently, the same dietary choices that still have the ability to slow, stop or reverse climate change ALSO have the ability to reverse most chronic diseases, help our bodies seek their ideal weight, and save us a ton of money on food.
At the end of the day, we can all take comfort in the fact that history will be kind to those of us who took bold, courageous actions in 2022 and beyond.
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One more thing. Please share today's timely SOS widely.
As you might expect, this topic was featured in my 5-22-22 presentation that I delivered to a group in Honolulu.
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Since today's topic is all about the innocence of youth -- this special SOS Memo is dedicated to my youngest and oldest granddaughters pictured here: Sofia (4) and Peyton (21).
Please contact me about delivering my latest talk on this subject to your group via Zoom for free. They will get a lot more out of my talk if they read my latest book in advance.
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
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The ongoing "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics.
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PS: The Prevention of Human Extinction |
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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.
The section below will provide you with an abundance of handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics.
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"Big Picture"
Data and Info Section
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This section has been appearing at the end of my weekly SOS Memos for six months. It contains links to relevant information that form the foundation of what our options appear to be for responding quickly and appropriately to our global crises.
In order to respond appropriately, we must first grasp the all-important "big picture" regarding how we got to where we are in the first place. The various links below will help you do that.
Added to this section in April of 2022 is my list of five powerful videos that tell the whole story about the health AND the many environmental reasons we should be eating only plants.
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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 free at waterbear.com
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Next is a half-hour video that 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.
Dowd has a pretty good handle on most things, but he seems to be unaware of the simple weapon that we can all use to fight the leading driver of climate change. Our forks.
That said, he does a terrific job of describing our ever-worsening dilemma. Click the link below to view this very informative 33-minute video, published November 15, 2021.
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This next item is a free 83-minute documentary film that is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
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This powerful film is still relevant and will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture."
Just click on the hourglass image. Dr. Emmott delivers a very compelling message.
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More Data re Leading Driver of Climate Change.
Beginning in September of 2021, I have been including links to world-changing scientific information that thought leaders everywhere should read and and share with others.
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What can you do? For starters, you can buy the new documentary -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix -- and watch it often with your friends and family.
Also, you can:
- Share this SOS Memo with everyone you know.
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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.
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- 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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A final word. Hopefully, the kind of crucially serious situationsexpressed in these SOS Memos will soon replace meaningless and trivial topics that dominate a ridiculously large percentage of all of the conversations in the world.
We must all start talking much more about what's really important. That is , we must start doing everything possible to maximize the chances of a meaningful and pleasant life ahead for the young people of the world.
I volunteer to help you do that. For Free. Invite me to collaborate with you and your group via Zoom. To help you jump-start that all-important conversation, I will be happy to present and discuss this topic at length. Here's an advance link to my standard presentation: 65 slides.
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The image above is a clue regarding the essence of my "family game plan" that is revealed only in my talks. I do not put that in writing.
Want to share some of my SOS Memos with others? Visit my SOS Memos page where the most recent ones are listed first.
Finally, 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.
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Regarding the free Zoom conferences with your group,
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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.
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One more thing. I first started learning about the supreme importance of our food choices in 2002. After studying the topic for eight years and getting to know many of the medical and ecological experts in the field, I co-authored the book below with my son Jason.
You can find it on Amazon in all formats by clicking on the image below:
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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