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The Quotes Below Help to Frame Our Predicament along with what the Solution Must Include.
As you know from earlier SOS Memos and/or from reading our new book, Outcry, our extremely reckless, wasteful and harmful way of living in the developed world is quickly destroying the planet's ability to keep us alive.
The ten quotations below clearly outline the extent of our problem AND offer a hopeful "vision" for how we can leverage our brains, skills and ingenuity to get back on the right track of treating Mother Nature with the deference that she demands.
Beginning with a 19th century quote from Chief Seattle, the first six quotes below suggest the kind of human behavior that can coexist with the natural biosphere.
The last four quotes reinforce the crucial importance of exceptional "vision" as we plan for a replacement civilization that will satisfy Mother Nature. Without her approval, our days are numbered.
1. Chief Seattle, 1854.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
2. E.O. Wilson.
The one process now going on, that will take millions of years to correct, is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
3. James Lovelock, 2005.
We have to stop thinking of human needs and rights alone. Let us be brave and see that the real threat comes from the living earth, which we have harmed and is now at war with us.
4. Robert Wilson Lynd.
There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
5. Jay Inslee.
We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.
6. James
Lovelock (2010 BBC). If the Earth improves as a result of our presence, then we will flourish; if it does not, then we will die off.
Now for that all-important "Vision"
7. Jack Welch, legendary CEO of GE.
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
8. Theodore Hesburgh.
The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.
9. Iyanla Vanzant.
If you don't have a vision, you're going to be stuck in what you know. And the only thing you know is what you've already seen.
10. Buckminster Fuller.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
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Buckminster Fuller. Architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist - standing in front of his Montreal Biosphere, built in 1967.
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As we tackle the massive project aimed at totally re-inventing how we live on this planet, we should keep another one of Fuller's quotes in mind as we encounter and address the widespread ignorance regarding the most important topic in the history of humanity - our survival as a species.
There is no energy crisis, food crisis or environmental crisis. There is only a crisis of ignorance.
--Buckminster Fuller
In
Outcry, we decided to address that widespread ignorance head-on: providing critical information in such a manner that it could be easily understood by the average 11th grader.
- The first six chapters of the book comprise the "outcry" from nature in response to our collective failure to live in "harmony" with the biosphere that gave us birth.
- In the last nine chapters, our goal is one of helping to spark a global "conversation" about an essential, massive re-design of our entire way of life - ending up with a model that is as GREEN as it can possibly be.
The Bottom Line. We believe that it is possible, using today's technology, to design and build an entirely new human habitat that can totally replace the grossly unsustainable manner in which we are living now.
Toward that end, we must begin an urgent
conversation on the replacement of our civilization - a process that believe we have concluded essential to our survival. To help jumpstart that process, I am now offering to conduct
Zoom conferences
free of charge for any group of four or more people.
I have developed a one-hour format consisting of an opening statement followed by a slide show, discussion and Q&A with the attendees. These sessions will be far more productive if you have read
Outcry in advance.
As stated before, our goal is to help spark a global conversation on this most important of all topics. The more Outcry
is read, the more its content will contribute to the volume of that
conversation.
Hopefully, it will be loud enough to make a difference.
Before hosting our Zoom conference, please send all of the attendees to my website's landing page at
hpjmh.com
for lots of free "big picture" information that will result in the generation of more questions that we can discuss during our virtual conferences.
I look forward to my Zoom call with you and your group in the near future. Shoot me an email and let's get started.
PS:
Our book, for a host of environmental reasons, is
only available as an e-book on Amazon
. As such, it contains hyperlinks to hundreds of references and videos, it is less expensive and it does not have to be manufactured and delivered.
As always, I am just trying to spark a global conversation about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, better and bolder.
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As for speaking, I continue to search for mainstream audiences who may have an interest in learning more about a realistically hopeful vision for our future - and their role in making that vision come true. During the pandemic, let me know if you'd like to set up a Zoom virtual talk with your group.
In the months ahead, I will continue to focus on the urgent need for a totally reinvented greening of our civilization - beginning with a model in the USA that could be applied globally over the next fifty years.
Upcoming talks
: There are lots of open dates on my calendar as my next scheduled public talk is
at
Camp Plant-Stock
in Black Mountain, NC, in August, a "live" week-end affair that is now being converted into an online, virtual event.
As for the specifics of my topic, I invite you to
contact me directly
about how I might tailor my presentation to best suit an audience you may have in mind:
Universities,
churches, think-tanks, legislative bodies, environmental
organizations, alumni associations, leadership clubs, PTA's
and/or civic groups who may appreciate a message of reality and hope for our future.
What else can you do to help?
Three things:
1. Live as greenly as possible while doing all that you can to raise the awareness of "big picture" solutions that are crucially necessary for saving our civilization.
2. Share this BSB and my
"Mama Ain't Happy" BSB with prominent journalists, thought leaders and/or elected officials whom you respect. They need to learn a lot more about the many reasons why
Mama ain't happy.
3. Here are a few more GRATOLA-related blogs that you can share with your most powerful friends, leaders, journalists and movie producers.
Until next time, just remember...
Humanity is on a collision course with Nature.
A damaged Nature will survive. We may not.
We must change course to avert an ecological disaster.
This SOS Memo series was created by:
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
CEO, 4Leaf Global, LLC
In the past two years, I have spoken at a
VegFest in
Fort Myers, at
vsh.org
in Honolulu and Kahului, Maui, the
College of the Holy Cross
in Worcester, MA, a
Plant Powered Manhattan
event in New York, at a lakeside health conference in
South Haven, Michigan, in Buffalo, NY, at the
University of Scranton, at Dr.
Fuhrman's
Golden Gate Health Getaway
in California and at the
Healthy World Sedona Health and Sustainability Conference in AZ.
To schedule a presentation at a venue near you, please contact me at
[email protected]
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