Fame, Power, Wealth & Adoring Fans trump the Truth...
Curious Case of Al Gore's Ego
and his ongoing failure to tell the world the
complete truth about climate change
SOS #195 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (1-31-23)
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I have used the slide below in several SOS Memos over the past few months. It features the images of seven well-known, highly regarded men who are respected around the world for their individual efforts to slow or stop climate change.
I am fairly sure that former VP Al Gore knows more about climate change than each of the other six men pictured below. And I believe that they would all agree with that statement.
In fact, it is possible that Mr. Gore knows more truths about the topic than all of the others combined. That's partly because he hasn't shared the particular truths about climate change that would likely make him less popular with his fanbase.
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Former VP Gore earned the "top climate guy" distinction by producing an alarming film in 2006. It was entitled "An Inconvenient Truth" and literally woke up the world to the silent monster that was threatening our very existence as a species.
Since 2006, Mr. Gore has retained his prominence on the world stage of climate change experts. I would expect that if you asked 1,000 people around the developed world to name a single individual who has done the most to fight climate change -- that his name would possibly be mentioned more frequently than all other names combined.
As for these seven men, Gore may be the only one who knows the truth about the leading driver of climate change. The others may be ignorant of that fact because Gore and the UNFAO has been keeping that info a secret for over ten years.
That brings up another "inconvenient truth." That truth would be about Gore no longer telling us all the facts about the most crucial issue in the history of humanity -- climate change and the primary driver of it.
For years, he has been tip-toeing around the delicate issue of talking openly about animal agriculture being the leading driver of climate change -- and the ONLY major driver that would be possible to completely eliminate worldwide in less than ten years.
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He no doubt knows that if he spoke up candidly about the fact that our love of beef, pork, chicken, eggs, milk, fish and cheese is, by far, the leading driver of climate change -- that his popularity would plummet like a two-ton boulder falling out of a giant Boeing 777 at 30,000 feet.
So, rather than state the cold, hard facts, he just dances around the issue -- and he's been dancing for fifteen years. Meanwhile, as the world's population grows by over six million people every month (births minus deaths) -- guess what is happening to the leading driver of climate change. That monster gets bigger every month.
Many climate scientists have quietly suggested that we should try to cut back on red meat. You can see here how well that lame advice has been working.
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While you're digesting the reality of the runaway climate change monster illustrated above, let's shift gears and begin talking about a friend and colleague of mine.
He's quite likely the world's leading authority when it comes to what we must do to provide a chance at halfway decent lives for the billions of young children in the world.
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I am talking about Stanford-educated, Dr. Sailesh Rao,
a tech industry expert who was inspired by Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" film in 2006 and soon joined his presentation team.
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Dr. Rao was born in India, went to college in the USA and earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1986. In 1991, after working at Bell Labs for six years, he co-founded Silicon Design Experts in New Jersey. |
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Five years later, Level One Comms bought their company in order to get access to his Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) -- a product that made the entire internet more robust and more available to the general public.
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Dr. Rao left Intel after completing the Gigabit implementation in 2003.
Later in 2006, after watching Al Gore's slide show that was featured in the climate change documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and presented to over 1,000 audiences worldwide, he changed his career to work on the environment full time.
Dr. Rao then became one of the presenters -- and after three years of working on the "Inconvenient Truth" lecture team, he sent a letter directly to Mr. Gore -- a letter of deep concern that was co-signed by 72 other slideshow presenters.
It was a letter about the "elephant" in the global climate change conversation that no one was talking about: animal agriculture.
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August 2009 letter to Al Gore from Dr. Rao, co-signed by 72 other slideshow presenters
August 11, 2009
Subject: The Elephant in the Room
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Dear Mr. Gore,
We are Climate Project presenters who have worked to convey the urgency of the climate crisis for nearly three years. As we portray this crisis as a planetary emergency; however, we find it increasingly difficult to ignore the impacts of the Western diet on the state of our planet – in particular, the climate impacts of eating beef and other meats.
The 2006 United Nations FAO report, “Livestock's Long Shadow,” estimated that humans use nearly one third of the ice-free land area of the planet, or nearly twelve billion acres, for livestock production. According to many scholars, such as Professor David Pimentel of Cornell University, just over one-fourth of humanity consumes most of these livestock products.
To put that number in perspective, the Global Biodiversity Assessment of 1995 estimated that the Earth can sustainably support just one billion human beings at American levels of consumption.
We also feel that this moment provides us a unique opportunity to address the healthcare dilemma in tandem. As preventative health care increasingly becomes a focus in our struggle to remake the US healthcare system, we believe that a potential synergy exists with our two campaigns.
For the last fifty years, various US Surgeons General have recommended a reduction in beef and red meat consumption as part of a heart-healthy diet. Indeed, the 2007 Second Expert Report of the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research – the world’s most definitive report on cancer prevention, involving scientists from thirty countries – underscored the cancer prevention implications of these recommendations.
The consumption of beef and red meat could thus become a nexus in the relationship between personal and global health, and greatly help invigorate individual involvement in the fight against global warming.
We strongly believe that your public stand on meat consumption, in conjunction with Dr. Pachauri's forceful stand, would truly be world-changing. Please count on our unflagging support in taking such a courageous step.
Respectfully yours, Dr. Sailesh Rao + 72 co-signees
(Climate Project Presenters)
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Gore's response to the above letter
A huge disappointment for the team
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September 2009
Dear Sailesh and other team members,
Thank you so very much for taking time to express your thoughts about the planetary impacts of our Western diet - especially as it relates to eating meat.
While it isn't possible to personally address every email and letter that you send (simply due to lack of time), I want you to know that I care deeply about your thoughts and viewpoints, and sincerely appreciate hearing from you - my fellow presenters.
On this particular topic, you can expect to hear a bit more from me when I update my slideshow and after the release of my new book on November 3rd. I also look forward to sharing some new slides with you next year as well.
I wouldn't say that there's an elephant in the room, as your letter indicated. Rather, there are many factors that contribute to the climate crisis, with meat production as one of them.
While I've spent most of my energies focused on other aspects of alleviating the crisis (e.g. reducing fossil fuel consumption), I'm not unaware of the impacts of eating meat, and indeed mentioned the importance of eating less meat in An Inconvenient Truth.
As a matter of fact, I'm in ongoing discussions, and have been for quite some time now, with various experts on this issue. Once again, thanks for your thoughtful and impassioned letter. I appreciate your feedback and support more than you know.
Sincerely, Al Gore
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Three years later, in 2012, Dr. Rao
sends Mr. Gore a second letter.
Again, with the same 72 co-signers
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Subject: The Elephant in the Room Revisited
Date: August 10, 2012
Dear Mr. Gore,
It has been three years since we wrote to you on the subject of "the Elephant in the Room" concerning the climate impacts of animal agriculture and the Western diet, in a letter dated August 12, 2009. Thank you for your gracious reply to that letter.
Since then, two developments have occurred in the scientific literature that lead us to believe that the Elephant was just a baby in 2009 and that it is now growing into adulthood, making it even more impossible to ignore.
Firstly, in December, 2009, the Worldwatch Institute published a paper by Dr. Robert Goodland, former lead environmental advisor of the World Bank Group and Dr. Jeff Anhang, environmental specialist at the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC). The paper was entitled, "Livestock and Climate Change," and it contained the bombshell estimation that:
"livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32,564 million tons of CO2 per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions (their emphasis)."
They go on to write, "This is a strong claim that requires strong evidence, so we will thoroughly review the direct and indirect sources of GHG emissions from livestock. Some of these are obvious but underestimated, some are simply overlooked, and some are emissions sources that are already counted but have been assigned to the wrong sectors."
Data on livestock vary from place to place and are affected by unavoidable imprecision; where it was impossible to avoid imprecision in estimating any sum of GHGs, we strove to minimize the sum so our overall estimate could be understood as conservative."
Since that report was published, the authors of the 2006 UN Livestock's Long Shadow (LLS) report and Dr. Goodland and Dr. Anhang conducted peer-reviewed defenses of their respective estimates (18% vs. 51%) in the Animal Feed Science and Technology Journal.
In the issue dated Dec. 28, 2011, Dr. Goodland and Dr. Anhang published the definitive defense of their estimation to counter the original critique, and to which the LLS authors declined to respond. In the scientific process, this means that the 51% estimate for the contribution of livestock to anthropogenic GHG emissions is now more credible than the original 18% estimate.
Secondly, in our previous letter three years ago, we had stated that "almost one-third" of the ice-free land area of the planet is used for livestock production. Since then, in November 2011, scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) have announced that:
"Livestock systems occupy 45% of the global surface area," which makes it an even more burdensome industry on the planet.
In light of these developments, we feel that the lack of emphasis on the diet issue in our TCRP slide decks is detrimental to the credibility of our fellow presenters and needs to be corrected.
Respectfully yours, Dr. Sailesh Rao
+ the same 72 co-signees (Climate Project Presenters)
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Mr. Gore NEVER responded!
Sailesh recently told that whole story in this August 2022 YouTube video with Rip Esselstyn
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In the video, he talks a lot about his 12-year-old grand- daughter, Kimaya. He also shares a poignant story about the time she asked him who the very first humans were.
Before answering, Sailesh thought for a moment and then brilliantly explained to her how she was related to all of the other creatures on planet Earth. He began thusly:
I'm going to explain to you how evolution works. So imagine that you are standing on the street and you are holding your mother by the hand.
And you ask your mother to bring her mother to stand by her side and so on. So you create a long line of mothers on this side of the street.
On the other side of the street, you ask a chimpanzee to do the same thing with her mother, grandmother and so on. By the time these two lines travel 113 miles from Phoenix to Tucson, they would merge. Because both lines are going to say,
"Hey, that's my mama too!"
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Immediately, she just sat up in bed and said, "What, are you telling me that all other animals are my family?"
You know, I had never put it together like that. Although, I knew the theory of evolution, it never had occurred to me to put it together like that.
So I say to Kimaya, "Now that you put it that way, yeah, they are your family." To which she said, "then, why are people eating my family? Grandpa, make them stop. They're eating my family!"
So, here is this five-year-old bawling away and I realized I had created a world full of monsters for her -- by explaining the theory of evolution.
In trying to console her, I told her "Look, it's my job to make them stop. Please stop crying. It's my job to make them stop."
As soon as I said that, she stopped crying, looked at me and said "This is your job! You know you haven't done your job. So, do your job. When will you do your job?" I told her that I had better do it by 2026; otherwise, we're all in big trouble.
The above conversation took place seven years ago when Kimaya was five years old. It was in 2016, which meant that Sailesh still had ten years to get "his job" done. Now, we're only three years away from 2026 and the clock is ticking.
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The origin of Dr. Rao's 2026 deadline |
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At the 19:45 point in the podcast with Rip, Dr. Rao explains that in 2014, the World Wildlife Fund had issued their Living Planet report stating that between 1970 and 2010, we wiped out 52% of all wild vertebrates -- in terms of total weight.
So, Dr. Rao did a calculation at that point, saying that if we continue wiping out wild vertebrates at the same rate (and assuming that the rate we are killing them is proportionate to the size of the global economy) -- If we extrapolate that out, we're on track to eliminate ALL of the wild vertebrates by 2026.
In other words, all the wild vertebrates will have been driven extinct unless we change course very quickly. This graph from my public talks ended in the year 2000, but projects that the steady decline will continue.
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Here's another way to look at the biodiversity crisis. Notice in the chart below that in 10,000 BCE, virtually ALL of the vertebrate biomass on this planet was comprised of wild animals.
By 2015, the human biomass ALONE was greater than all vertebrate biomass on the planet 10,000 years ago. Guess what animals make up most of the the planet's total vertebrate biomass?
You guessed it. Cattle, pigs and chickens aka burgers, bacon and chicken nuggets.
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Dr. Rao admits that he was really shocked in 2014 when he realized just how rapidly we were destroying the natural world -- thinking that "my God, if this is really true, why isn't everyone screaming about this?"
Thinking that maybe his calculations were wrong, he decided to wait until the next report came out two years later in 2016. Looking back, he deeply regrets that he waited for two years -- when the WWF report found that between 1970 and 2012, we wiped out 58% of wild vertebrates...up six percentage points in just four years.
He then concluded with just a linear extrapolation that we are on track to wipe out ALL wild vertebrates by 2026.
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The Bottom Line
We're running out of time. We all must urgently do what we can to get the rest
of the world to stop eating Kimaya's family!
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Like all of the other reports about climate change, species loss and Earth's declining ability to keep us alive -- the authors of the latest WWF report cite a long list of issues that must be addressed, but they never single out the one issue that is causing the most harm AND just happens to be the easiest one to completely eliminate. |
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But for that to happen, we desperately need strong, well-known leaders who have the courage to loudly broadcast the simple truth to the entire world.
But, pictured below is a group of nine women who are capable of getting the job done. A few days ago, I encouraged a world-famous female athlete friend of mine to leverage her own fame to make contact with, and inspire, a few of these well-known, highly regarded, women.
Just "google" her name, Ruth Heidrich, and you'll instantly find an 88-year-old PhD, the winner of over 900 racing trophies -- and she's still going strong in Hawaii. Dr. Rao and I would love to help her inspire and enlighten this group of nine courageous women of integrity.
By partnering with the first five below, they could all help to convince the other four to begin urgently focusing on the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture.
My guess is that this group of women, that includes a couple of multi-billionaires, could accomplish almost anything that they set out to do.
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The final word from our creator |
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Again, Our creator gets the final word in a conversation with a UN rep after a 50,000 year absence.
She ain't happy with what she sees upon her return. She wants to know what happened to half of the six trillion trees she left here to moderate the climate.
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Finally, are you among the rare group of humans who are taking the direct connection between food choices, your own health and climate change seriously? If so, I would love to collaborate with you. Contact me and tell me your story: jmorrishicks@me.com.
Here are handy links to my five most-recent SOS Memos (in chronological order) on this same theme. It's always the same theme...as long as our children's futures are in peril.
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Do you want 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.
Also, scroll on down to the Big Picture Documents and Video Section where you will find links to a plethora of references regarding the validity and the urgency of the information contained herein.
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FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health. Our planet. Our future as a species.
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Here is the first book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I published with Stuart Scott in 2020. Just click below for individual links to every chapter. |
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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.
"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 that is now free: 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 Memo with everyone.
Click this image to watch my May 2022 presentation.
A 45-minute talk whose title says it all.
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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, our "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture" Documents & Video Section
Chronological timeline of climate change research
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Also in 2022. A conversation with our creator after a 50,000 year absence.
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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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