I will circle back to that question in a minute, but first, here's where we stand right now when it comes to leadership in this most important of all arenas.

The general consensus around the world is that climate change is the greatest single threat to our civilization and our future as a species.

Yet, not a single, globally-recognized leader has talked openly about the fact that its proven #1 driver -- is animal agriculture. As stated in this recent NY Times video: "Meet the people getting paid to kill our planet." (15 minutes).

What about Al Gore? Mr. Environment, right?

Click on his image to watch a recent video on CBS, where he doesn't even mention the need to sharply reduce the world's consumption of animal-based foods -- much less eliminate them completely.

It is entirely possible that very few globally-recognized leaders actually know the truth about the primary driver of climate change -- yet, those who do know the truth, apparently lack the courage to share that truth with the world.

Former VP Al Gore appears to be one of those leaders.

Why does Mr. Gore continue to suppress the truth? Because acknowledging it would not be popular for many reasons -- and he might temporarily lose his lofty position on the world stage where he can sit on corporate boards like Apple and speak at the funerals of famous people like Steve Jobs.

To be sure, Mr. Gore is not alone. In a nutshell, it's all about leadership. The rare, well-known leaders who are aware of that crucial information -- are not sharing it with us because they lack the integrity required for such a bold move.

They know that in 2022, acknowledging that world-changing truth would not be popular among most people in the developed world -- because well over 90% of those folks definitely do not want to give up their burgers, eggs and cheese anytime soon.

It would also be bad for the economy in the near term and it would, temporarily at least, damage that person's reputation. Great leaders have to make tough decisions that they know will hurt their popularity in the near term -- particularly if the future impact is one of great importance: such as the continuation of life on Earth as we know it.

Sadly, most world leaders are like Mr. Gore and, even if they know the truth about climate change -- they are reluctant to admit it.

But don't give up yet. I am confident that if Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple since 2011, were to learn the whole truth about what is driving climate change -- I believe that he would move quickly to leverage his global fame as the leader of the world's most valuable company -- to urgently share that news with the entire world.

I believe that scenario is possible because of my conviction that Mr. Cook is a man of integrity. As such, I believe that he cares more about the future of billions of innocent children than he cares about basking in the glory of running the world's most valuable company for another decade or two.

Obviously, he would need to step down from Apple if he chose to take on the crucial role we are envisioning. Dr. Sailesh Rao and I believe that, once Mr. Cook learns what we know to be true about climate change -- that he will want to pursue its possible reversal on a full-time basis.

If he took that courageous step, he could quickly attract a host of other powerful leaders and celebrities to join him in his world-saving efforts. Read on...

That's because, no matter how much we reduce our CO2 emissions, we won't be able to stop or reverse climate change without making urgent changes in the way we feed ourselves. We'll also need to eventually re-engineer our entire "system" of living.

Maybe this situation is an opportunity. As a former owner of an executive search firm for the final one-third of my business career, I see our worsening global dilemma as a leadership problem -- a screeching wake-up call for a few great leaders to step forward and tell the complete truth to the world about what actions must be taken.

We are convinced that if a handful of globally recognized leaders with sufficient integrity -- had the knowledge and conviction to speak candidly about the leading driver of climate change -- that we could completely eliminate that leading driver (animal agriculture) within five years.

The good news is that we may very well need only one great leader to get started. Others will follow someone like Tim Cook, a leader with conviction, confidence and credibility.

According to Google, "Apple became the world's first $3 trillion company for a brief time during the intraday trading on Jan 3, 2022. The iPhone maker also holds the distinction of being the world's first company to reach $1 trillion and $2 trillion."

Google also had this to say in August of 2021 regarding the first ten years of the Tim Cook era at Apple: "Since 2011, Apple stock has gone from $12 a share to nearly $150, revenue has more than tripled -- and most importantly, Apple has continued to innovate."

Another source revealed recently that Mr. Cook has a net worth over $2 billion, lives a modest lifestyle and rises at 3:45 am -- beginning his day by going through some 800 emails. Apparently, to stay on top of the pulse at Apple, he reads email from people at all levels from within and outside the company.

When I heard that, I decided that I would begin writing a series of very concise emails to Mr. Cook. I decided that my goal with each message would be the same: Influence him to open this SOS Memo that you are now reading.

Why do I think that Tim Cook might take the time to open an email from me and then take the time to read this SOS Memo?

Because it turns out that we have a lot in common. It all starts with Auburn University, where we both earned degrees in Industrial Engineering.

Beginning today, I will send a daily email encouraging him to click on the SOS Memo that you are now reading. That link is near the top of the list on my SOS Memos page. If you work for Apple or know Tim personally, perhaps you can send that link to him.

My concise daily emails to Mr. Cook will be a little different each day -- with all of them encouraging him to read SOS Memo #148.

I am confident that if he takes the time to read the letter below, that he will grant Dr. Sailesh Rao and me an in-person visit with him at Apple Park in Cupertino.

March 8, 2022

To: Mr. Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

Subject: Engineers Can Solve Climate Change

Dear Mr. Cook,

I begin with ten things we have in common:

I will add one more: We are both pulling for Auburn's basketball team to win our first ever national championship during March Madness of 2022.

You earned your MBA at Duke and I earned mine at the University of Hawaii while serving as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu.

Since then, I have enjoyed a career in business — including over fifteen years as the president of an executive search firm that I founded in Atlanta in 1999.

This letter to you is an example of one of the skills I leveraged during the executive search portion of my business career — skills I initially learned during a brief stint (1986-1987) with one of the world’s most prestigious search firms, Egon Zehnder International.

As CEO of Apple, now the world’s most valuable company, for the past eleven years, you have earned the genuine respect of a large percentage of the world’s population.

Naturally, we want to focus on you, your remarkable career and your un-equaled ability to literally change the world -- and while in the process, greatly raise the odds that humanity will survive as a species beyond the end of this century.

Speaking of Apple, we have something else in common -- an appreciation for similar logos.

While your logo is looking back at me every time I open one of my three electronic devices -- this one on the left appears at the top of my SOS Memos and on the cover of my first book, Healthy Eating, Healthy World. published in 2011 -- a book that is even more relevant today after eleven years in print.

Building on your overwhelming success in business, I am writing today regarding the global importance of leveraging your unique combination of engineering savvy, leadership skills, global name recognition/respect and most importantly -- integrity.

I am writing you today on behalf of myself and Dr. Sailesh Rao. He is about your age, holds a Stanford PhD in Electrical Engineering, enjoyed a spectacular career in the technology sector and is now working full-time to ensure that his only granddaughter, age 11, will have the opportunity to live a long, healthy and satisfying life.

In addition to his 2019 peer-reviewed "87% paper" regarding the primary driver of climate change, I draw your attention to his 2021 paper, entitled: Engineers' Solutions to Scientists' Warnings, which I co-authored with him.

Here's our request. Sailesh and I would very much like to visit with you ASAP (at Apple Park) to discuss a crucial world-wide initiative aimed at SOS (saving our species) — a process that I’ve been writing about every week for three years.

Right now, the chances are not looking so good for the children of the world -- due to the near ubiquitous "code of silence" regarding the primary, albeit inconvenient, truth about the leading driver of climate change.

You see, the main problem with our world is that top leaders — whether elected heads of state, corporate CEO's or high-powered execs running NGO’s — are unable to address the leading driver of climate change for this multi-faceted reason:

It wouldn’t be good for the economy, it wouldn't be good for their popularity and it wouldn’t be good for their future. 

Now, before you reach out to discuss this topic with your fellow Apple board member, Al Gore, we sincerely request that you meet with Dr. Rao and me first. You see, Sailesh Rao worked very closely with Mr. Gore for almost ten years -- beginning shortly after his film, An Inconvenient Truth, hit the world’s theaters in 2006. It did not end well.

You can read that sad story in another one of these SOS Memos that featured you and Steve Jobs and this once-in-a-lifetime moment, pictured below, that you and the entire world remember well. Just click on this image to enjoy this magical event once more.

Tim, I saw this terrific video for the first time last month. Norah Jones (at the 23 min. mark) was absolutely spectacular. What a heartfelt moment that must have been for you!

The Bottom Line, Mr. Cook, is this. The entire world needs a prominent leader like yourself to focus one hundred percent of his/her efforts on launching an all-out attack on climate change -- loudly broadcasting to the world exactly what we must do to slow, stop or actually reverse this phenomenon that threatens to drive millions of species extinct, including Homo sapiens.

To do that, as engineers, we must leverage the power of the Pareto Principle (known as the 80-20 rule) every day:

We can explain the details when we meet, but would like to end this letter with one final thought for you to consider.

You've already built the world's first trillion dollar company, now you've got the chance to top that feat -- by being the primary leader that drives the awakening of environmentalists all over the world -- a crucial intervention that will likely prevent our near-term extinction.

When we meet, we’re going to request that you resign from Apple and immediately work to launch and lead a totally new kind of environmental NGO -- one dedicated to bringing the absolute truth about sustainability to the entire world.

We're not talking about the typical kind of NGO that is fearful of talking about the leading driver of climate change -- because it wouldn’t be good for their fund-raising. Instead, we envision you leading a fully-independent kind of NGO that is focused 100% on the truth — and the leveraging of that truth — for the future of all of the world's children.

Some of the truths that your new NGO will promote -- won't be what people want to hear at first -- but our future as a species may depend on us grasping those truths now.

Unless I am wrong about you, the word below represents the quality that sets you apart from most prominent leaders.

We envision you as being the first domino of radically urgent, "big picture" thinking leaders -- driven by integrity -- when it comes to eliminating the #1 driver of climate change.

Perhaps you will reach out to other highly-respected superstars like Melinda Gates, Elon Musk, Angela Merkel and others. As you build the most influential NGO ever -- other superstars will follow your lead as the dominoes of change begin to fall all over the world.

Other environmental NGO's will quickly become obsolete and fade away -- because, for many decades, they all have lacked the courage to identify, and work to eliminate, the single largest driver of climate change -- even though we know that some, if not all of them, knew the whole truth.

Acknowledging the truth linking animal agriculture and climate change would not have been good for their fundraising -- since most of their donors are still eating some combination meat, dairy, eggs and/or seafood at every meal.

Tragically, they never bothered to tell the world that truth.

Back to those dominoes. As they begin to fall, eventually there may be only one environmental NGO in the world -- the one that you are running -- that is dedicated to telling the entire world the complete truth about climate change and all other matters related to the health of the ecosystem that gives us life.

While climate change is being tamed, your mission will be just beginning -- as your team will be evolving to assist Mother Nature in bringing planet Earth back to the overall state of harmony that existed prior to the era of human civilization.

Your role becomes one of guiding the re-invention of our entire way of life -- a process that we envisioned in our 2020 book, OUTCRY.

That book begins with this heartfelt message from Mother Nature, followed by conclusions of nine "big picture" scientists who describe the unprecedented dilemma in which we find ourselves -- but they don't tell us what we must do about it.

The world needs engineers to answer the question on this slide that appears twice in the book, OUTCRY.

Right now, in March of 2022, the world desperately needs an engineer with integrity, a well-known track record of success, global respect and a burning desire to do what’s right.

This moment reminds me of what Steve Jobs famously asked John Sculley when he was trying to hire him for the role that you are in now:

Only this time, the question is not whether you want to change the world -- but whether you want to urgently promote a sustainable way of living for all of humanity?

Hopefully, Apple will want to retain you as a board member -- a move that might enable the corporation to become even more-admired by the public -- because it will have made the tough decisions that, in the long run, will benefit all of Earth's creatures, including humanity.

Looking ahead, with you building the strongest, most transparent environmental NGO organization ever, your team will have the world's media eating out of your hand -- as you boldly and courageously attack humanity's greatest threat with confidence, integrity and good old engineering basics.

Your team and its accomplishments will be front page, and top of the hour, news in every media organization in the world.

Oh, by the way, there are two engineers who will want to join your team for as long as they live: Dr. Sailesh Rao and me.

In closing, I should mention that you have been featured in two other recent SOS Memos:

SOS #142 (1-25-22) Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Me

SOS #143 (2-1-22) Urgently Searching for the Best Leaders

J. Morris Hicks jmorrishicks@me.com

PS: Need more data regarding the animal agriculture problem on planet Earth? Please read the endorsement that I wrote for this book shown below and then consider reading the book. This kind of concise information about humanity's #1problem is not available anywhere else.

The author, Glen Merzer is a friend of mine and Dr. Rao. I strongly encourage you to read his book. The good news is that just switching from animal-based to plant-based not only saves money and improves human health -- it is by far the most powerful, easiest and quickest move that everyone can make on their own.

With a highly-regarded leader like you -- running a huge global team imploring everyone to take this simple step, I like our chances for long-term survival.

PPS: Update on Dr. Rao. He has moved on from his disappointing experience with Mr. Gore and published this peer-reviewed paper in 2019 — concluding that animal agriculture is responsible for 87% of climate change. He will answer your questions about his findings when we meet in your office, hopefully real soon.

Meanwhile, our colleague in Australia, Gerard Bisshop can explain in this 9-minute video (April 2021) why the numbers in the various studies are so different -- ranging from 14.5% to 87%.

*****************************

I encourage you to scroll down to the "Big Picture" Data & Info section below that follows all of my weekly SOS Memos.

What else can you do as an individual? Scroll on down past the "Big Picture Data" section until you see another list that is entitled: "What can you do?"

As always, I welcome the opportunity to deliver this Zoom PPT talk to your group of any size: “Food, protein, pandemics and the future of humanity.” Just contact me at the email address below.

jmorrishicks@me.com  

One more thing. Please share today's timely SOS widely. It is #148 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.

To clarify, we're not trying to preserve "civilization as we know it." Because it is that ultra-wasteful and harmful civilization 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 way of living in OUTCRY.

This powerful summary by Dr. Sailesh Rao was added on February 4, 2022. The FACTS about animal agriculture being the leading cause of climate change.

This powerful film will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture." Just click on the hourglass image.

I will continue sharing this TEN BILLION link in future weekly SOS Memos

More Data re Leading Driver of Climate Change.

What can you do? For starters, you can buy the new documentary -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix -- and watch it often with your friends and family.

A final word. Hopefully, the kind of crucially serious situations expressed in these SOS Memos will soon replace meaningless and trivial topics that dominate a ridiculously large percentage of all of the conversations in the world.

I volunteer to help you do that. For Free. Invite me to collaborate with you and your group via Zoom. To help you jump-start that all-important conversation, I will be happy to present and discuss this topic at length. Here's an advance link to my standard presentation: 65 slides.

Click on the image below to view the slides that I am currently using for those kinds of sessions:

Want to share some of my SOS Memos with others? Visit my SOS Memos page where the most recent ones are listed first.

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 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.

Send me an email and let's get started.

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. 

You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 

Want to see earlier SOS Memos? Click here

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