Let's begin with that angry sea of distractions:

After dealing with Covid for two years, we are now four months into the devastating Russian invasion of Ukraine, our "United" States have never been more divided, nuclear saber rattling around the world is getting louder, mass shootings have never been more frequent, CO2 emissions have never been higher -- and finally, in a world where overpopulation is among our most serious issues, the United States seems determined to make birth control illegal.

It gets worse. After almost forty years of meaningless pledges to reduce emissions -- we continue to set all-time emission records.

Just last week, NOAA officials reported that CO2 emissions totaled 36.3 billion tons in 2021 -- the highest level in human history.

When will the IPCC and the governments of the world wake up to the necessity of addressing the single leading driver of climate change?

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Sailesh Rao, Dr. John McDougall, Glen Merzer, myself and many others -- are 99% Certain that we will never slow down the pace of climate change if we don't begin urgently addressing its #1 driver: the world's love affair with eating animal-based foods.

As of mid 2022, we are failing miserably.

Not only are we failing to urgently address the #1 driver of climate change, no world leaders anywhere are even talking about it. Tragically, our so-called "leaders" in the fight against climate change seem to have agreed on a cowardly "code of silence" on the subject.

Last week, I read the entire 2022 Doomsday Clock document and while climate change was featured prominently in the report, there was no mention of its most expedient solution -- a simple dietary move toward plant-based foods that individual citizens all over the world could take rapidly and independently.

That said, if we fail to significantly reduce, if not totally eliminate animal agriculture on planet Earth during this decade, our odds of surviving and thriving through the year 2050 -- approach zero. A near certainty.

As an engineer and former process improvement consultant, I know that it is virtually impossible to solve any problem without addressing its #1 cause -- particularly when that leading cause is greater than all of the other causes combined.

That is why I am leveraging the Pareto Principle in prioritizing where I devote my own initiatives aimed at giving ourselves the best possible chance of slowing, stopping or reversing climate change soon enough to prevent unprecedented suffering of the world's children.

As of mid 2022, we hardly ever hear anyone in authority in government or in the business world -- mention the prospect of doing anything about the leading driver of climate change -- and, by far, the easiest one to completely eliminate.

Are we running out of time?

Even if hundreds of millions of citizens in the developed world were to begin urgently moving away from animal-based foods this year, we still may not be able to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

Why such a long wait? Because the world's leaders never implored us to begin addressing the "vital few" drivers of climate change that were featured in last week's SOS Memo -- with animal agriculture being by far the most prominent.

Our Current Situation Assessment. There are many human activities that are driving climate change, but there is one that is driving more climate change than all of the others combined. That driver is humanity's love affair with eating animal-based foods.

That simple fact provides the foundation of my major definite purpose for the rest of my life. This engineer will be keeping things simple: totally focusing on the leading driver of climate change. This is what I refer to as my...

In keeping with the Pareto Principle (aka the 80--20 rule) all six of my ongoing initiatives below are aimed at maximizing the consumption of whole, plant-based foods throughout the world.

Conveniently for humans everywhere -- simultaneously, their collective health will improve, most chronic diseases will simply disappear and all of those new plant-based eaters will start saving lots of money on food purchases.

All of my initiatives below (Six from Hicks) are aimed at promoting the plethora of benefits associated with eating mostly whole plants -- simply leveraging Dr. T. Colin Campbell's definition of the optimal diet for humans:

So, we simply set the top bar at 80% (or higher) and we call that the 4Leaf level of eating. The 3Leaf level means that a person is deriving approximately 60% to 80% from whole, plant-based foods and so forth.

My answer is not necessarily. But, whereas the word "vegan" is all about what you don't eat, our 4Leaf definition is all about what you do eat. And, if you eat mostly whole plants, your own health will benefit along with the health of the planet.

That is why the 4Leaf approach to healthy eating plays a key role in all six of my top priorities. I call them...

for preventing human extinction

This project refers to our ongoing efforts to engage one or more well-known, highly influential leaders who are capable of building and leading an unprecedented trillion dollar media/environmental activist organization aimed at focusing solely on the complete elimination of the leading driver of climate change before 2030.

A little background. The final third of my career was in the field of executive search at a boutique firm that I founded in 1999. I refer to those last 20 years of my corporate career as comprising my two-decade stint in the "leadership" business.

We humans have a very serious problem on this planet and we are going to need serious leadership and messaging to have any chance to solve it. All of my SOS Memos are listed at this link. Here are a few recent ones on the topic of leadership:

A Software System Designed to

The acronym for the above idea is ARCH, an automated system that is built on the ability of our 4Leaf Survey to accurately estimate the percentage of one's daily calories that are derived from whole, plant-based foods.

This idea ties in nicely with my First Priority: The Leadership Project. It provides the world's most enlightened business CEOs -- with a simple tool to help them save billions on healthcare for their employees. At the same time, those millions of people who are now eating a lot less meat & diary (if any) will be steadily weakening the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture.

With our ARCH product, every employee in the company can take the 4Leaf Survey online and will receive automated messages of encouragement to add more whole, plant-based foods to their daily regimen.

As the first wave of CEOs begins to take advantage of the many benefits that come from a healthier workforce, other companies who don’t undertake similar initiatives will have trouble competing with those who do. — J. Morris Hicks

As more and more corporations around the world are forced to lower their healthcare costs to survive -- they will all be playing a huge role in the rapid downsizing of the global, animal-based food industry, which is the leading driver of climate change.

You can read all about this powerful tool at archby4leaf.com. For all things 4Leaf, visit 4leafprogram.com 

More and more large healthcare organizations are embracing various lifestyle medicine approaches that work wonders for the patients AND for the planet by encouraging employees and patients alike to add more whole plants to their diets as they move ASAP to the 4Leaf level of eating.

For all things 4Leaf, visit 4leafprogram.com. To get an estimate of what percent of your calories are derived from whole plants — in less than two minutes, visit 4leafsurvey.com and fill out a simple 12-question, multiple choice survey.

Since publishing our first book in 2011, I have posted over 1400 articles on my website at hpjmh.com.

The SOS Memo (Saving Our Species) era began in April of 2019 and the memo that you are now reading is the 161st in this weekly series. All of my SOS memos are aimed at promoting the consumption of more whole, plant-based foods -- for health AND for sustainability reasons.

Conveniently, such a dietary shift contributes mightily to the crucially-important downsizing of the animal agriculture industry — the leading driver (BY FAR) of climate change. 

In all of those SOS Memos, we are constantly promoting a plethora of vehicles for rapidly nudging millions of people in the direction of more whole plants in their diets as a way of promoting vibrant health for themselves and for the biosphere.

I also look at these weekly Memos as somewhat of a rudder in the constantly changing seas of our complicated, intertwined existence with the rest of the world. As such, I am always thinking that these weekly memos will someday help to open the doors for leadership collaborations that were discussed in Priority Number One.

All of this info is available for FREE to the international public at this SOS Memos page.

These are available to groups of any size for as long as I have time available for them. My latest talk (as of June 2022) consists of 62 PowerPoint slides that I can deliver in anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes -- followed by a Q&A discussion.

In other words, these free Zoom Talks can help to raise the chances that I will someday be able to collaborate with the influential leaders to which I refer in the Leadership Priority #1 above.

Promoting Our Three Books 

Healthy Eating, Healthy World published in 2011, the 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health published in 2015 and OUTCRY, Urgent alarms from our planet and what we can do about them published on the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day in 2020. Our most recent book, OUTCRY, is only available as an e-book for environmental reasons. 

If you’re truly concerned about climate change and the future of humanity, read OUTCRY just as soon as you can. It has much more compelling, up-to-date, info about sustainability than the first two books.

The recommendations in all of our books, if followed, will help people everywhere participate in the global process of totally eliminating animal agriculture, the leading driver (BY FAR) of climate change. 

To my knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of the "outcries" from the natural world, consensus conclusions of nine “big picture scientists" about our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future (using today’s technology). 

If you're really serious about doing your best to provide a truly sustainable future for your children, you will read and heed this book ASAP. Then, you will encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Let's face it; we live in an outrageously troubled world. To make matters worse, all of our troubles are constantly changing -- and distracting us from actions that are truly capable of getting us all back on a pathway to sustainable living.

That said, all six of my priorities have the same underlying theme: doing my part to help promote an urgent, global dietary shift in the direction of whole, plant-based foods:

I sincerely believe that we've still got time to replace a likely future of massive suffering with the joyful innocence of youth.

It is #161 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.

As you might expect, this topic was featured in my 5-22-22 presentation that I delivered to a group in Honolulu.

Please contact me about a free Zoom call with your group. Participants will all get a lot more out of my talk if they have read my latest book in advance.

jmorrishicks@me.com  

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.

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.

Also on Netflix, Kip and Keegan teamed up again in 2017 to produce What the Health, which is also on Netflix. It runs 92 minutes and may be the best documentary ever that focuses on the health reasons for choosing to eat plant-based. Click here to watch the short trailer. You can also watch the full movie for free on Vimeo.

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.

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.

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

This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.

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. Dowd focuses on the problem; not the solution. I prefer to focus on both.

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.

You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 

Want to see earlier SOS Memos? Click here

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Want to get started nurturing your own health and the health of our planet? Take our survey at 4leafsurvey.com

Click here to learn more about this free online dietary assessment tool.