"We are f_ _ _ed if we don't change!"
Greta uses the right word to describe our situation
SOS #127 J. Morris Hicks (10-12-21)
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In this powerful video from Greta Thunberg earlier this year, she begins with this statement:
The climate crisis, ecological crisis and health crisis. They are all interlinked. We no longer see the links between them....So, what will we do?
My name is Greta Thunberg and I would like to connect the dots -- because, let's face it, we are fucked."
Click on image for this excellent 5-minute video
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Please come back and watch this exceptionally well-done and powerful video. Watch it with your family and talk seriously with them about how the entire world can begin making big changes in the way we are living --particularly in what we choose to eat.
One of the biggest barriers to our ability to slow climate change and, thereby, minimize its worst effects on our lives and our civilization -- is our reluctance to even talk about the primary driver of climate change.
The global news media, the environmental NGOs and the heads of state all over the world only talk about reducing emissions. It seems as if no one is grasping the "big picture" regarding the grave situation in which we find ourselves.
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Here is an exception from Rick. Last week, I received a note from a recipient of my weekly SOS Memos. Here is his note along with my response.
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Dear Mr. Hicks,
First, I want to say I loved your book. The need to have the tough conversations you talk about are long overdue. There are so many political, social and religious hurdles to get over before any real progress can be made toward a truly sustainable future -- we can't afford to let another year, day or even minute slip by.
My question is what are your thoughts about honest green energy? As of right now there are no fully green energy alternatives. All of the technologies in use today rely of fossil fuels either directly or indirectly to operate.
If you had to choose our best hope for a truly green energy source where would you look to? Thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have and want to share.
Please keep writing. It is people like you and books like yours that may be our last best hope if any movement toward a sustainable future will begin.
Regards, Rick B.
I responded right away and suggested to Rick that perhaps we could have a phone conversation to discuss his question in depth.
But since he was not available for a call last week, I sent him this note on October 7:
Dear Rick, As for the ideal/optimal source of energy, it all boils down to how many humans there are and how we are living.
According to my research, in a world with 8 to 10 billion people — without a massive change in our lifestyle — we have no chance for survival, no matter how “green” our energy systems happen to be.
I look forward to discussing this crucial topic with you via phone or Zoom sometime soon.
Best, Jim Hicks
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Rick's question gets to the heart of the matter: The entire world's obsession with the false impression that if our sources of energy are green enough -- that we can continue with business as usual in every other facet of our lives.
We Cannot!
Indeed, it appears that the entire world is thinking along those lines. As nearly 200 nations gear up for the climate talks in Glasgow next month, all we hear about is the need to reduce carbon emissions.
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We hear nothing about the easiest and most powerful step that all humans can take -- eliminating the #1 driver of climate change simply by shifting immediately to a 100% plant-based diet.
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We also hear nothing about the need to cut way back on consumption of stuff in general.
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We also hear nothing about the need to get real serious about another elephant in the room: OVER-POPULATION.
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On that crucial topic, I am reminded of what Dr. James Lovelock had to say recently.
He surmised that if Mother Nature chose to reduce our population to around one-half billion people, that we could probably live in almost any manner we chose -- without doing too much damage to the natural environment.
The problem is that we already have sixteen times that number -- and continue to add over six million people a month.
Most 3rd graders know that is not sustainable.
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Here's where we stand in 2021. Humanity is in big trouble and it looks like we will bring down the entire animal kingdom with us when we go extinct.
We're well on our way toward doing just that as you can see from this horrifying graph -- revealing that we're on track to wiping out all vertebrate species in the next half century.
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Apparently, we naively think that, along with our billions of food animals and pets, we can survive indefinitely -- even if all other creatures are driven to extinction.
How stupid can we be?
Why are no world leaders talking about the horror story behind that graph? What do they think will happen when there are no more birds, insects, and millions of other species that have not even been identified yet?
Do they not realize that we desperately need all of those other species to keep our delicately balanced biosphere from collapsing?
Here's another related chart that I have shared before. It shows that 12,000 years ago, the biomass of all of the vertebrates on Earth was almost 100% wild animals.
Now that number is down to 4%.
Why are none of our world leaders talking about this horrifying situation?
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The Bottom Line. We are running out of time when it comes to sparking an all-important, global conversation regarding the sustainability dilemma in which we find ourselves.
The short answer to the last question is that COP26 will very likely not matter as far as our future is concerned. That's because I doubt that there will be any progress toward addressing the elephant in the room -- our love affair with animal-based foods.
I hope I am wrong about that -- but I have seen no indication of even a remote likelihood that those 195 nations in attendance will get around to talking about that elephant -- much less taking any meaningful action to minimize his impact on the future of our children.
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In Outcry, we talked about the urgent need to totally reinvent the way we live on this planet -- beginning with the way we are eating.
Why? Because changing our food choices is the single most powerful step that most humans in the developed world can take quickly. The problem is that this world-changing topic will probably not even be mentioned in Glasgow.
If we don't address the global food problem first, we will not have time to address the many other unsustainable aspects of the way we live.
The chart below is featured in Outcry. Urgently changing our food choices now may buy us the time needed to carefully address the question at the top of this slide.
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Ending today on a positive note. As stated earlier, I sincerely doubt that very many of the 195 heads of state at COP26 are even aware that our collective food choices represent a major problem AND a major opportunity.
But that may be about to change. Read on...
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I know about ten people who are attending COP26. At least two of them are completely focused on making sure that the entire world soon becomes aware of humanity's single biggest problem -- and opportunity -- when it comes to climate change.
Their creative method of promoting that awareness remains under-wraps for now -- but millions of people around the world will be talking about it in a few weeks.
In case you want to refer back to some of the data in this memo, here are four links that you might want to keep handy:
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What can you do? For starters, you can buy the new documentary -- Eating our way to Extinction -- and watch it several times with your friends and family.
Also, you can:
- Share this SOS Memo with everyone you know.
- Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic.
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- 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 you take the above step, 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.
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A final word. Hopefully, the kind of crucially serious "conversations" expressed in this SOS Memo will soon replace the trivial topics that dominate a ridiculously large percentage of all of the conversations in the world.
We must all start talking a whole lot more about what's really important: doing everything possible to maximize the chances of a meaningful and pleasant life ahead for the young people of the world.
I volunteer to help you do that. For Free. Invite me to collaborate with you and your friends via Zoom. To help you jump-start that all-important conversation with your group, I will be happy to present and discuss this topic. Here's an advance link to my 62 slides.
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The image above is a clue regarding the essence of my "family game plan" that is revealed only in my talks. I do not put that in writing.
Finally, I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested OUTCRY, that there might at least be a more robust conversation taking place about our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world -- and what it will take to get us focused on maximizing our chances of survival as a species.
To be sure, we must do a lot more than change what we eat -- and OUTCRY helps explain the "why" and the "how" of that proposition.
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.
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
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PS: Regarding the free Zoom conferences with your group, Send me an email and let's get started.
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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, is less expensive, does not kill any trees and does not have to be manufactured and delivered.
The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018.
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As always, I am just trying to help spark the all-important "conversation" about what is needed. By sharing a vision of what I believe is possible, I hope to influence others to think bigger, faster, better and bolder.
You will find that there aren't many books that cover both the health of your body and the health of your planet. This is one of them -- a book that my son Jason assisted me in writing. It was published ten years ago this month.
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What else can you do to help? Two 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.
Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
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