Greetings and welcome to the 200th consecutive weekly SOS Memo, a series that was launched in April of 2019. Here's a link to SOS #1 (4-18-19) Doing our “best” won’t get it done

As for truly "getting it done," in our 2020 book, OUTCRY, we described a vision for the future that could maximize our chances for longterm survival as a species. Those chances hinge on three variables:

This SOS Memo is all about how we choose to live.

Without a doubt, the smaller and more efficient our residences, the less stuff we will need. I believe that with proper planning, we Americans could lower our individual impact on the ecosystem by more than 80%.

Of course, that kind of shift will never work in an economic system like capitalism that depends on maximizing the consumption of "stuff" in a world of finite resources.

We covered that topic in OUTCRY, now FREE to the public. Just click on the book cover above to read the entire book.

I also refer to OUTCRY as a

A little background. In the first decade of my work in this arena from 2003 to 2013, I was primarily focused on promoting whole, plant-based eating for human health reasons.

My focus began to expand in late 2013 after I learned about World Bank researchers, Robert Goodland & Jeff Anhang, and their alarming 2009 paper, entitled: Livestock and Climate Change. What if the key actors in climate change...are cows, pigs and chickens?"

I was just getting to know Dr. Goodland before he died in 2013 -- and have since met and communicated a number of times with his colleague, Jeff Anhang, who reads my SOS Memos regularly -- and who I now consider a friend.

Their powerful World Bank paper changed the trajectory of my work.

It shocked me into realizing the incredibly important consequences of our food choices and it inspired me to look at an even "bigger picture" regarding how we humans are living on this planet.

And that led to envisioning a totally-sustainable civilization -- one in which future generations will be born into an overall way of life that nature can sustain indefinitely.

But, it's our generation that must get that process started -- and, so far, we are failing miserably. And I include myself in that group -- but this SOS Memo documents a huge step in the right direction for one J. Morris Hicks.

For the past twenty years, I've been investigating, envisioning, writing and speaking about what we must do to survive as a species...

If enough of us start "walking" as greenly as possible -- maybe others will follow.

Our lives are frittered away with details. Simplify, Simplify.

Yes, you read that right! But, before you declare that you could never live in such a small space, take a quick look at what one-third of my 443 square feet looks like -- and then continue reading about this amazing, Thoreau inspired, way of living.

After just two weeks of living this beautiful, organized, efficient and convenient lifestyle, I am feeling a gradual, but steady lessening of stress and an ever-growing sense of calm and joy (FLOW) -- inspiring me to help others feel comfortable as they choose this pleasant and highly efficient way of living.

Near the end of Chapter 10 in OUTCRY, I write about experiencing that special kind of mental high, or flow as it relates to an anecdote regarding my former boss, Ralph Lauren.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million -- count by half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail… Simplify, Simplify.

To be sure, Thoreau did indeed walk the talk when it comes to living simply.

Here's the way I see it. If he could find joy in a 150 square foot cabin, I can certainly find it now in my "flow enriching" modern home that is three times that size.

For him, finding happiness was via simplification of his life and freeing up his mind for other pursuits. For me, in my luxurious 443 square feet, I'm already feeling like a load has been lifted from my shoulders as I settle into a simple, yet comfortable, calming, efficient and ultra-sustainable way of living.

Here are a few features of my new abode as it relates to living sustainably:

Believe me, those four features are just the beginning of my new lifestyle. During my first two weeks of living here, I have driven my 2016 Subaru less than 50 miles. Compare that to the 1200 miles/month that I have averaged for the past seven years.

In addition to Amtrak, I can ride the Shoreline East commuter train (which I am on right now) from New London to New York for less than $17 (with my senior discount). It's a 126-mile trip that I take often, and the price is the same -- no matter how close to departure-time I book the ticket.

I am convinced that the more people who choose this way of living -- the sooner we'll get around to promoting an ultra-modern and ultra-green overall way of living throughout the world.

As stated in the Field of Dreams, "Build it and they will come." I also wrote all about that way of living in Chapter 10 of OUTCRY: Living Large in the Great Big Northern in 2050.

Check out this example below of my new lifestyle:

Having lived in the nearby borough of Stonington, Connecticut from 2003 to 2013 -- I've probably made this trip to New York more than 200 times. But this is the first time I ever walked to the train station from my home.

Above: Changing trains in New Haven

Below: Arriving at Grand Central Station in NYC

As I began getting settled into my new place, I realized that I am now living similarly to the futuristic lifestyle that we had envisioned in our 2020 book, OUTCRY.

If you haven't read the book, you might want to do so after checking out Chapter 10 that described a way of living that is quite similar to the one I am now enjoying in New London, CT. Here is a link to that chapter: Living Large in the Great Big Northern (2050). As mentioned earlier, it also includes a rare anecdote about my former boss, Ralph Lauren.

Here are five more photos of the interior of my simple, livable, affordable, convenient and stress-free abode. I should have taken this step a long time ago.

In addition to those five interior photos of my new place, I have one more photo to share with you. It is a photo of the community lounge on the top floor -- complete with outdoor sundeck overlooking downtown New London, Amtrak, the local boatyard and Long Island Sound.

The beauty of this top-floor lounge (below), and others in the building, is that they are almost always completely vacant during the weekdays. That's because the average age of my neighbors is under 40 and most of them have to leave the building to go to work -- five days a week. I don't.

My writing studio is wherever I happen to be sitting with my laptop at any given moment.

Unlike the spartan conditions in which Henry David Thoreau lived, I am talking about an ultra-comfortable, yet ultra-sustainable, way of living for all humans.

One more key opportunity regarding the efficiency of my new way of life. In the envisioned 3,000-mile, green living corridor of the future (in OUTCRY) -- the moving industry will not exist. That's because the basic furniture never moves -- only the personal effects like wall decor and linens will need to be moved from one ultra-efficient dwelling to another.

In our book OUTCRY, published on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in April of 2020, we describe a future way of living that we believe could make it possible for around four billion humans to keep living in perpetuity on this finite planet -- the only one in the known universe capable of keeping us alive.

The more people who choose to live this way now, the sooner we'll get around to promoting an ultra-modern and ultra-green overall way of living throughout the world. I wrote all about that way of living in Chapter 10 of OUTCRY: Living Large in the Great Big Northern in 2050.

That said, let's summarize four goals we must accomplish in order to have a decent chance at surviving longterm as a species:

It is this fourth action item that can buy us the time needed to address the other three items. For example, overpopulation -- even if we could quickly cut the birth rate worldwide by 75%, it would still take the better part of two centuries to reach a sustainable population of around four billion people.

Two of the other three steps will take from four to ten decades to get done -- and we simply don't have that much time.

That leaves the urgent necessity of switching 100% to plant-based eating all over the world ASAP.

Eliminating animal agriculture is the only step capable of buying us enough time to complete the other essential, yet time-consuming tasks.

Anyone in the developed world can easily change their diet in four weeks -- while reducing their grocery bill by at least 50%

How should you start? Take a half day and read that user's guide referenced above...better known as OUTCRY.

Then read our other FREE book, The 4Leaf Guide -- a book about healthy eating that I wrote with a medical doctor.

Both of these books are also available as e-books on Amazon for $7 and $4.44 respectively. If you want to help this starving author tackle more humanity-saving projects, I encourage you to spend the big bucks and go for the e-books on Amazon.

Also, please consider giving these e-books to others for Christmas, birthdays and other special occasions. No gift-wrapping, no shipping, no manufacturing, and no trees are killed -- all while helping as many people as possible learn how to live green enough to ensure the future of the billions of innocent children in the world today.

The 4Leaf Guide is also available in paperback for $8.88 -- as is our first book, Healthy Eating, Healthy World (2011)

(The GBN, a 3,000 mile, ultra-green living corridor from

Boston to Seattle -- housing 90% of all Americans)

We love the above quotation, especially the last line about making the existing model obsolete. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do with the GBN. We figure that after folks get used to living in the stress-free world of the GBN for a few years that they would never want to go back to the hectic, worrisome and mostly unfulfilling lives that they’re living now. The question remains: How much greener must we live to survive? How close are we to living sustainably now?

(Managed by the American Green Region Authority -- AGRA)

No doubt a transition period will be required as we fully deploy the economy of the future — a period during which we will all have attractive incentives that reward us for helping to actually improve the natural world. In the design of our future lifestyle, we should also consider what psychologists know about what makes us happy. What makes us joyful? We need to make sure that whatever it is—that we provide an abundance of it in our new world. Some call it flow.

Have you ever heard of the word flow as it relates to positive mental feelings? It is a word that describes an innately positive experience that is known to produce intense feelings of enjoyment — an experience that is so enjoyable that it leads to overall happiness in the long run. It turns out that the accumulation of wealth and lots of stuff is usually accompanied by plenty of stress but not that much true happiness. 

Flow is not about owning a lot of stuff—it’s about doing something that truly makes a person happy and contented while involved in that activity.

In the GBN, the basic furniture shown below stays with the unit, a feature that will eliminate the moving industry. Each resident brings their own clothes, linens, wall-decor and other personal items.

"Moving" will not be stressful in the GBN. The whole process can be completed in one or two days.

As I think about it, the building in which I am now living and writing -- embodies many of the efficiencies that would be ubiquitous in the envisioned GBN corridor across the northern USA: ultra efficient building, small well-designed living spaces, walking distance to groceries, drugstores, trains, ferries, restaurants, hair care, entertainment and more.

Finally, are you among the rare group of humans who are making the direct connection between our lifestyle choices and our future as a species on this planet? 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.

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.

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 each chapter.

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.

We've also started calling this book a "User's Guide for Planet Earth." We are giving it away because of this troubling fact that was stated by Jeremy Rifkin early in this recent 15-minute video:

"the most important info in all of humanity

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.

Here is the 2nd book that is now FREE: a quick and easy read that I wrote with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.

We want everyone to completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diet. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood. 

It is #200 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.

Don't have time to watch the entire Honolulu video? Click here to view all 60 slides in that talk

jmorrishicks@me.com 

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

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.

This section begins with a conversation with our creator after a 50,000 year absence.

And Mama ain't happy.

A very revealing and entertaining (2022) 15-minute video. Watch it and share it with everyone you know.

Nine more handy "big picture" documents and/or videos:

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 $2.99 on Vimeo.

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.

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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