Today, I begin with the sad news about the passing of the great engineer, scientist and inventor, Dr. James Lovelock. (July 27 obituary in the NYTimes)

Still suffering from a major fall about six months ago, he bid the world farewell last week -- on his 103rd birthday.

In his memory, take a look at this seven minute video that was recorded in 2019 on his 100th birthday -- ending with this question that he was asked:

I am saddened that I never had the pleasure of interviewing this great man. There is one question that I have always wanted to ask him: Why did he never mention animal agriculture as being a major driver of climate change?

Respecting Dr. Lovelock as I do, I am confident that if Dr. Sailesh Rao and I had ever had a one-hour conversation with him, that he would've quickly grasped the singular importance of humanity returning quickly to the natural diet for our species.

Or maybe he would've just informed us that we had passed the tipping point long ago -- and that climate change was simply not reversible, no matter what actions we choose to take now.

There are five unsustainable aspects of human civilization listed below. They are all getting steadily worse -- because we humans just keep on doing what we have always done.

Here are the top five villains that are responsible for our dire situation, with the first one causing more damage than all of the other four combined:

Tragically, since we've gotten such a late start, even if we resolve all five of the above before 2030, there is no guarantee that we will survive as a species.

That's why we must all start working immediately on the first one. It's the ONLY one that we, as individuals, can tackle all by ourselves. We don't need permission from the United Nations or from any government or agency.

This SOS Memo was inspired by a 17-minute TEDx Talk that was delivered by David Roberts at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2012. I just discovered that video recently when he was mentioned in a video by researcher Michael Dowd.

To be clear, Mr. Roberts is not a climate change expert -- but he grasps and explains the "big picture" of our situation better than any expert I have heard.

He is a writer/blogger like me who is constantly researching topics that are crucial to our survival as a species.

Here is a link to Grist.org, where you can find thousands of his articles.

Like 99% of scientists, ecologists and world leaders -- he never mentions the leading driver of climate change. Yet he pointed out (ten years ago) that we had better be well underway toward resolving our climate issues by 2022 or that we're toast.

Well, here we are.

From his Vox webpage: David Roberts has been featured in The Chicago Tribune, Reuters and The Atlantic and has made appearances on CNN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Before moving to Vox in 2015, he wrote for Grist.org on the same subjects for ten years.

My brief takeaway on his talk. The origins of the talk go back to a Twitter conversation during which the speaker stated, "You know, climate change is not actually that complicated, I could explain it to you in 15 minutes." (And that's what he does...)

In his 2012 TED Talk below, he starts at the beginning and talks about the threats of climate change and what we can expect in the future if we don't take action now. Bear in mind, this is ten years ago.

About halfway through his presentation, he talks about stopping the warming at 2C and states that making that happen would take a level of global coordination and ambition that was nowhere in evidence ten years ago.

So, he states that most climate scientists don't really want to tell you this because they don't want to depress you by admitting that 2C was probably off the table ten years ago.

What would it look like if the temperature goes higher than 2C? Oddly, there hadn't really been much concerted scientific attention to that question, because climate scientists honestly thought that we would never do that to ourselves.

Well, we are now doing it to ourselves as described in this NY Times article less than a year ago. Climate Change may have been locked-in back in 2012, but it is almost definitely locked-in now.

It gets a lot worse toward the end of David's presentation as he talks candidly about the great progress that would have to happen during the ten years between 2012 and 2022.

Well, we now know. We have made zero progress in slowing climate change in the past decade. It is now worse than ever.

He never mentions doing anything about the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture. And neither do the vast majority of today's scientists and world leaders. What's hopeful about that, you might ask?

This omission gives me hope that, with enough information, all of the world's scientists and top leaders will soon grasp exactly what is at stake with regard to the staggering, world-changing power of millions of people shifting quickly back to the natural diet for human beings.

Once that first domino falls, this crucial dietary shift toward a more sustainable world could turn exponential -- like in this amazing little 2-minute video.

Earlier in this SOS Memo, I mentioned five steps that we must take in order to give ourselves a fighting chance. I expand on those steps below.

As we explained in this 2020 book -- in addition to shifting completely away from fossil fuels, we must completely redesign our overall "system" of living all over the world.

As Mother Nature explains in the foreword of that book, she has just about run out of patience with our reckless and selfish behavior. If we move quickly enough in moving away from animal-based foods, maybe she will give us the time needed to make things right with respect to the other four unsustainable situations we have created.

It will take a long time (maybe forty years) for humanity to learn to live in complete harmony with nature. The good news is that an urgent shift toward plant-based eating may buy us the time needed to do just that.

Step One is the easiest and fastest step, and if done quickly enough, may buy us enough time to address the other four

As for Step #5, Dr. Guy McPherson and others agree that our modern civilization is a heat engine, regardless of what kind of fuel we are using to drive it. That's where Step #2 above comes into play -- completely re-designing every aspect of the way we live.

Like the title of this SOS Memo states: Climate Change is Simple. But no one ever said it was going to be easy to slow, stop or reverse it in time to prevent the deaths of well over four or five billion people.

Back to the 5-point list. Only the first step in that list is easy for almost all humans in the developed world: Stop eating animal-based foods. At least that step was EASY for me.

Oh sure, I missed some of my favorite foods for a few months, but, within a year, all of those cravings had disappeared. I can honestly say that in 2022, after eating ONLY plant-based foods for twenty years:

Want a visual of that last one? That's twenty rolls of hundred dollar bills -- with each roll containing fifty C-notes.

As the above list of five actions implies, the entire process will not be easy and some of the actions, like reducing global population to a sustainable level -- will take well over a century.

Only the first step is easy. No one needs anyone's permission to change what they eat. The evidence is overwhelming. Just do it!

This SOS began with a short Economist video in honor of the passing of Dr. James Lovelock -- and the fact that he rarely, if ever, mentioned the supreme importance of human beings migrating rapidly toward 100% plant-based eating.

This SOS ends with another six minute video (above) from the Economist. It was posted in 2018 and doesn't have all the facts completely correct but this overall message is real clear:

Last week's SOS Memo provided you with everything you need to get this essential shift to plant-based eating underway. See link below.

Read it. Heed & Share this electronic copy of the 4Leaf Guide with everyone you know. This powerful little book is now FREE. It will help you get healthy, save money and fight climate change:

As I have been writing and speaking about for over a decade -- after making the decision to take this vital step, you will soon come to the realization that moving urgently in the direction of a whole food, plant-based diet -- was one of the very best decisions you ever made.

It is #169 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 

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. 

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