Finally, a welcome leak in the global dike of ignorance...
A Glimmer of Hope?
It came in the form of an article in The Guardian
SOS #199 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (2-28-23)
News broke last week from the UK that the University of Cambridge Student Union had just voted to push for a completely vegan menu in its catering facilities on campus. The story was in The Guardian.
From the piece: "The motion was backed by 72 percent of non-abstaining student representatives, calling for a change that could help fight the climate and biodiversity crises."

There was a disturbing "however" part later in the piece: 

  • "However, the move does not guarantee that Cambridge’s catering services will go fully vegan, as that power lies with the university. It also does not apply to the university’s 31 colleges, although the campaign said it provided an extremely strong mandate for colleges to begin transitioning to 100% plant-based menus."

When I heard the news about that glimmer of hope, I thought of my prominent English friend and sent him this note.
2-24-23 Message to Dr. Peter Wadhams
Professor Emeritus of Ocean Physics
The University of Cambridge
Hi Peter, 

Good news for a change. I found this to be among the most-encouraging news stories about climate change that I have ever read. It’s not happened yet, but -- as with gay marriage, once it starts, that small leak in the dike could likely become a gusher.

I wonder how long it will be before Al Gore will jump on that bandwagon. It’ll be interesting to see him explain why he didn’t stress the supreme importance of abolishing ALL animal agriculture long ago.
As for yourself, Peter, I know that you have been moving in the direction of plant-based eating for awhile. Now, those students at your alma mater, arguably the most prominent university in the world -- have voted that the university go completely vegan in ALL of the its dining facilities. Of course, it’s not a done deal yet.

Published on my 78th birthday earlier this week, this may very well be the best birthday gift of my life. But, it better not take another 78 years to roll out this change around the world. Our creator, Mother Nature, is not likely to give us more than ten years to get this done. 
In closing, Check out her conversation with the UN official that was published recently. In this powerful, 15-minute video, she asks what happened to half of the six trillion trees she left here to moderate the climate?

She is definitely not happy about that situation -- and promised a return trip in five years, warning the U.N. rep: "Don't disappoint me again!"

Best regards, Jim

J. Morris Hicks hpjmh.com
I got this prompt response from Peter:
Note: I added a few links in his text for those who -- like me,
are not familiar with ancient British speak.

February 25, 2023

Dear Jim,

That's great news. Whoever guessed that Cambridge students could be that intelligent? Still, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip.

One of them is the attitude of the senior academics who will no doubt insist on some bizarre set up of their own, involving larks' tongues, or swans. Yes, there's a college, St John's, where the senior staff have the right to have swans killed and eat them.

There's an obscene poem about this which I can' t repeat and I do fear there is still some way to go.

But good news nonetheless!

Peter
Coincidentally, I received another note last week from England; this one from a Junior School teacher:
Dear Morris,

I teach in a U.K. junior school and also have responsibility for running an Eco-Warrior Club that makes posters and PowerPoint presentations to educate the rest of the school.

I will be retiring in 18 months so have a limited amount of time to have any influence.  

I intently read your regular emails about the climate emergency and I am vegan.  

My main question is how can I impart this shocking information to the children (aged 7-11) without causing great upset and possibly losing my job?

Your hopefully,

Jacqueline 
Near the end of this reply to her, I emphasized the positive news above from her own country.
Hello Jacqueline,

Thanks for your thoughtful note from the UK. It’s uplifting to know that some British folks are benefitting from my work.

The challenge you describe is a tough one from many perspectives; not to mention the trouble that might come your way from school officials if you’re telling kids that they don’t need to drink cow’s milk for healthy bones. Using the V-word itself could even get you in trouble. 

One idea is to figure out a way to share the 4Leaf concept with the kids. There are many reasons why I rarely use the word vegan. Primarily, it's because the word only suggests what people “don’t” eat — when what is most important is what they DO eat.

The good news is that it is almost universally accepted throughout the world that eating whole plants like fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds is good for your health. 
By emphasizing the positive 4Leaf message, it lessens the chances that the administration might think you were urging your students to not eat meat or dairy. After all, 4Leaf is all about what you DO eat -- maximizing the percent of one's daily calories from whole, plant-based foods.

As you know, the 4Leaf level means that a person is likely deriving over 80% of her/his calories from whole plants. The definition has implied “wiggle room” and conveys the notion that tiny amounts of meat, dairy, eggs or fish are not going to be much of a problem from a physical health perspective. Here's something you can give to the kids and their parents: FREE 4Leaf Chart for the fridge.

Here’s another idea for you. I am going to give you unlimited free access to the Licensees ONLY page on our 4Leaf Program website. There is a ton of information on that page that we prepared for licensees whose annual fee is $44 for health coaches and $99 for physicians.
One more thing. There's a kids’s version of the 4Leaf Survey that might be handy for you. Here’s a link to it: Kids 4Leaf Survey 

I look forward to hearing back from you regarding your progress. Also let me know what you think about this recent Guardian piece.

Be well, Jim

J. Morris Hicks — hpjmh.com
The Bottom Line
Celebrating that small leak in the dike!
We should all be grateful for those young folks at the University of Cambridge. I have been researching and writing about this topic for twenty years -- and this is literally the first time that there has been any meaningful action promoting plant-based eating in one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world.

Earlier in this SOS Memo, I mentioned eight well-known men on the world stage -- and criticized them for not having the wisdom and/or the courage to ever even mention the leading driver of climate change.

And that wasn't just "any" group of eight men, it included the eight who are arguably the most environmentally-aware male leaders on the world stage. We know from his background with Dr. Sailesh Rao that Al Gore knows the horrible truth about this crucial topic -- and I wrote about his ongoing failure to divulge that crucial knowledge in this recent SOS Memo.

But, what about these nine women? With the help of the world's greatest female athlete ever, we're currently trying to attract the attention of one or more of these well-known women -- all of whom we believe have exceptionally high levels of courage and integrity. The first four know the horrible truth about the impact of animal agriculture on climate change.
Once again. Our creator gets the final word in a conversation with a UN rep after a 50,000 year absence.

She is not 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.

She can't believe that we've deforested so much land in order to grow animals that we weren't supposed to be eating in the first place. Near the end, she promises a return trip in five years, warning the U.N. rep: "Don't disappoint me again!"
Watch it and share it with everyone you know. A very revealing 15-minute video.
Finally, are you among the rare group of humans who are making 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.
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.
FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health. Our planet. Our future as a species.
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.

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

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
What about the "preservation" of civilization?
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.
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.
"Big Picture" Documents & Video Section
Chronological timeline of climate change research
  1. 2006 UNFAO report: 18% of climate change attributed to animal agriculture (far more than the world's entire transportation sector, combined). After pressure from the massive animal agriculture industry, they lowered their estimates to 14.5% a few years later
  2. 2009 World Bank Group researchers concluded that at least 51% of climate change is being driven by animal agriculture -- almost four times more powerful than the numbers being reported by the revised UNFAO study.
  3. 2012. What is the right food for humans to be eating? For our own health and for the health of the planet. Five-minute video with J. Morris Hicks
  4. 2019 Dr. Sailesh Rao peer-reviewed paper.This former member of Al Gore's environmental team concluded that 87% of climate change is driven by animal agriculture. His paper was recently featured in Forbes.
  5. 2021. A 19-minute video session with the producers of the new documentary, Eating Our Way to Extinction.
  6. 2021.The Animal/Climate Controversy? Dr. Gerard Bisshop, Director of World Preservation Foundation sorts out the various studies regarding the huge role that animal agriculture plays in climate change (9 minute video).
  7. 2021. This six minute video features Dr. Sailesh Rao, speaking candidly with Klaus Mitchell about the sad truths and commercial interests behind the leading driver of climate change. It will make you want to scream.
  8. 2022. Published in PLOS Climate (2-1-22) a paper by Michael Eisen and Patrick Brown, "Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize Gh Gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century."
  9. A summary of THE FACTS timeline from Dr. Sailesh Rao, wherein he explains how in 2012, the UNFAO scientists declined to continue the 51% debate with Goodland & Anhang in the Animal Feed Science and Technology Journal -- but they failed to admit that fact to the public.
Also in 2022. A conversation with our creator after a 50,000 year absence.

And Mama ain't happy. A very revealing and entertaining 15-minute video. Watch it and share it with everyone you know.
Five World-Changing Films
That People Everywhere Must See
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.
Film #2 in 2017
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.
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.
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.
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.
Grasping the "Big Picture"
These 2 films will help in understanding
our unprecedented dilemma.
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."
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.
What else can you do?
Probably a lot more than you think
  • 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.
  • Share this SOS Memo widely: Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities by J. Morris Hicks.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.


The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018.
  1. Creative "Idea" for Saving our Civilization (9-21-18)
  2. A Prayer for All Faiths. Taking Responsibility (11-9-18)
  3. If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy! Deming (12-7-18)
  4. How "Green is Green Enough? (12 20-18)
  5. In the age of Earthism, what about governance? (12-26-18)
  6. "Successor" Civilization? Dr. Rupert Read. (1-24-19)
  7. "I don't want to talk about it." Taboo. (2-7-19)
  8. A Change of Heart on Biosphere 2 (4-11-19)
  9. SOS #1 Doing our "best" won't get it done. (4-18-19)
  10. SOS #7 Willy-Nilly Planet Stewardship (5-30-19)
  11. SOS 13 Donkeys, Spaceships and Survival (7-10-19)
  12. SOS 21 Why Don't We Dream BIG? The GBN? (9-4-19)
  13. SOS 53 Outcry debuts on Earth Day 50th (4-22-20)
  14. SOS 129 Urgent Pre-COP26 message to the world (10-26-21
  15. SOS 131 Anger, Nausea & Disappointment -- COP 26 (11-9-21)
  16. SOS 132 Emerging Ray of Hope for Humanity. Mayor (11-16-21)
  17. SOS 133 Powerful, world-changing integrity (11-23-21)
  18. SOS 134 Crippling impact of ignorance, fear & greed (11-30-21)
  19. SOS 135 The sex, science and supper solution (12-7-21)
  20. SOS 136 Failure of the 4th Estate re climate issues (12-14-21)
  21. SOS 137 Slowing climate change should've been easy 12-21-21
You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 
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