A FREE "User's Guide" for Planet Earth
How to preserve nature's ability to keep us alive
OUTCRY
URGENT ALARMS FROM OUR PLANET
AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THEM
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OUTCRY was published on Amazon as an e-book on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020. In August of 2022, we began offering this e-book FREE to people all over the world.
Contained herein are links to every chapter of OUTCRY -- my gift to the world that I am hoping will soon be read by 750 million people, or about half of the world's English speaking population.
If it is widely read and its message is heeded, Mother Nature may decide not to kick "our kind" off of her planet after all.
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Consider this. If you bought a brand new Mercedes Benz and treated it the way we have been treating the ecosystem that keeps us alive, it wouldn't last six months.
Here's our main problem. The world's foremost sustainability problem is civilization itself. Quite simply, the way we humans live on this planet is the equivalent of a huge heat engine -- no matter what sources of energy we employ to power that engine.
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That said, if we are destined to survive as a species, we must urgently reinvent our civilization. In so doing, I am convinced that we must modify virtually all elements of our incredibly wasteful and harmful way of life in the developed world.
Our Planetary "User's Guide" -- in enough hands, can get that crucial process started.
Humanity's main problem is that we have been led to believe that once we shift completely to renewable sources of energy, that the threat of climate change will have been eliminated.
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That is simply not true! You see, our overarching problem is twofold: an exploding population that grows by over six million every month -- coupled with a host of grossly unsustainable "systems" of living all over the world. Any third grader knows that cannot possibly work for much longer.
Those "systems of living" include our homes, lawns, cars, trucks, suburban shopping malls, military, vacations, clothes, pets, church parking lots, recreation, all manner of unneeded STUFF, air travel, massive healthcare for totally preventable & reversible diseases, never-ending growth economy and most importantly: what we choose to eat.
Why is what we eat the most important? Because it is the only major driver of climate change that billions of citizens can eliminate quickly on their own, while saving lots of money and getting healthier in the process.
Let's put it this way. All other efforts to tame climate change are mere distractions from the "fire in the kitchen" or the "hole in the hull" of the Titanic. Quickly choosing to eat what is good for our planet just might buy us enough time to develop a truly sustainable, overall way of living.
Attempting to solve ALL other sustainability problems without getting rid of animal agriculture ensures the rapid demise of Homo sapiens.
What's it going to take to wake up humans everywhere to the overarching sustainability problem that must be eliminated NOW?
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If enough people take the simple step of just walking away from the consumption of ALL animal-based foods -- we will greatly improve the chances that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy meaningful and comfortable lives.
To reiterate, all of those lifestyle factors listed above comprise the heat engine of human civilization. But we can't fix everything at once.
For example, just changing 100% to renewable energy will take many decades -- and, even then, we will not have shut down that overall heat engine (our modern civilization) nearly enough to prevent our demise as a species.
James Cameron summed up our predicament in a short blurb on the cover of OUTCRY pictured here. This is the Planet "User's Guide" that we are now offering for FREE to the international public.
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The question we must answer in order to save our species is the one that Cameron asked on the front cover:
How do we make the crash as soft a landing as possible for some kind of continuation of human civilization?
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The purpose of this 2020 book was to help promote a serious global conversation about what it will take for humanity to learn to live in harmony with nature -- a condition that is necessary in order to ensure our long-term survival as a species.
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What is special about OUTCRY?
Why should you read it?
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As for being special. To our knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of "outcries" from the natural world, consensus conclusions of nine “big picture scientists" about our dilemma — AND an envisioned civilization of the future that is sustainable, using today’s technology.
J. Morris Hicks and Stuart H. Scott
Why should you read it? Because if billions of people are able to understand just how far away we are from sustainable living -- the greater the chances that we can turn this thing around before Mother Nature kicks "our kind" off her planet.
Another reason you should read OUTCRY is that we are now offering it for FREE to people all over the world. Scroll on down to learn how to share this book with everyone you know.
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Unsolicited Endorsement for OUTCRY
from former Ohio State professor of history
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July, 2020
Hi Morris, I read Outcry and am amazed at the book. The progression of your argument from the overwhelming evidence of the problem, through the conclusions of the nine scientists, to your vision of a sustainable future is most impressive.
I've never encountered a book in which the data was even nearly as up to date, and I loved the links to the wealth of online information. And no trees were killed!
Congratulations on your wonderful book. I admire your ability to become such an influential voice on this crucial matter.
Regards, Raymond Dominick, PhD, Professor Emeritus of History, The Ohio State University
Click this image to read what Mother Nature had to say about our situation and what we can do about it.
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The first few paragraphs of the Introduction.
When we started writing this book in late 2019, few people had ever heard of the Coronavirus that we alluded to on the cover as a possible silver lining relating to our future. If there is a silver lining, and we believe that there will be, we may not feel its beneficial effects for quite a few years.
Much later, historians may record that the Earth- shattering wake-up call we received in early 2020—ultimately jolted us into urgently working to reinvent our grossly unsustainable relationship with the biosphere that gives us life.
As the title suggests, this book is primarily about what Mother Nature is trying to tell us regarding how our civilization is rapidly destroying the biosphere that gives us life.
Her OUTCRY is abundantly evident in phenomena like declining insect, mammal, bird and fish populations, rising global temperatures, storms, fires, melting ice at the poles, and dead zones in the oceans; to name just a few.
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Below are individual links to every chapter
of this "user's guide" -- published in April of 2020
OUTCRY
URGENT ALARMS FROM OUR PLANET
AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THEM
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Part One covers the outcries from nature and science. Part Two explores what we can do about them.
Tablet or Laptop works best for reading OUTCRY
Part One of OUTCRY
Urgent Alarms from Our Planet
Part Two of OUTCRY
What Can We Do About the Alarming Outcries from Nature and Science?
As you read OUTCRY, I welcome your questions as well as any requests to discuss this book on a FREE Zoom call with your group.
As urgently as possible, I encourage you to share this FREE book with everyone you know -- while asking all of them to do the same. Maybe we should consider this process as sort of a modern day, paying it forward, kind of chain letter.
Just copy and send this link to at least ten people:
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I am confident that we humans can accomplish a great deal -- if millions of people read and heed this SOS Memo, along with the contents of OUTCRY above.
Consider this: According to Google, in the entire world, about 1.5 billion people speak English. If our collective chain letter reaches just 1/10th of that number (150 million), we will have taken a giant step toward enabling the world's citizens to come to grips with the sustainability realities we are facing.
Here's how that works: Roughly 2,000 people actually open my weekly SOS Memos. If each recipient pays this message forward to ten people and encourages them to send it on to another ten people -- it could reach all of the world's 1.5 billion English-speaking people in just five iterations. Think about it!
One more thing. In the video below, meet the co-author of OUTCRY, Stuart Scott, as he introduces Greta Thunberg and her father, Svante, to the world stage at COP24 in Poland.
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In this video, both Greta and Svante emotionally stress the huge importance of shifting to a vegan diet. You should take the time to watch this entire 19-minute video. The scene below is when Stuart was in Sweden, where 15-year-old Greta was engaged in one of her Friday strikes for the climate. |
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I first met Stuart at the Candle Cafe in New York City in Sept. of 2018 just before he met Greta and her family on his way to COP24 in Poland.
I documented our NYC visit in Chapter Seven of OUTCRY. Sadly, three years later, Stuart succumbed to cancer and passed away at his home in Honolulu in July 2021. Truth be told, it was that face-to-face conversation with Stuart in 2018 that ultimately inspired me to write OUTCRY.
May Stuart Rest In Peace.
In closing, please do your part to help people get healthy...while simultaneously helping to slow, stop or
even reverse climate change.
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Another FREE book will help you greatly as you begin your journey away from animal-based foods.
We began offering this powerful little book free to the world a few weeks ago. It was co-authored by Dr. Kerry Graff, a family physician in upstate New York.
Consider it a "user's guide" for your own body -- as it guides you to vibrant health.
This two-hour read (published tin 2015) is still highly relevant, focusing on helping people take charge of their health and reverse chronic disease by rapidly shifting to a whole-food, plant-based way of eating.
A fringe benefit of our collective efforts to eat an optimal diet is the steady downsizing of the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture. Merely suggesting that the masses simply "eat less meat" is not working and will continue to accomplish very little for the planet OR for their own health.
Ultimately, if we are to survive as a species, it will greatly improve our chances if all humans completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diets ASAP. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood.
Will enough humans take that step?
I certainly hope that they will...for
ALL of the world's children
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The Bottom Line
If enough people read and heed the powerful message in this book, we will have greatly improved our chances of surviving as a species.
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Send this e-book to everyone you know -- and ask them to pass it along to their friends, family and co-workers.
Here's a handy link that you can copy and paste into an email.
You can find links to all of my previous postings at my website: hpjmh.com, where you can also join my mailing list. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely, J. Morris (JIm) Hicks
Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth
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