Since seeing the movie HOME earlier this year, I have been pondering the above question. If you haven’t seen it yet, you are not alone. Although over 500 million people have seen it since it opened almost two years ago, a very slim percentage of that number reside in the United States. It is 93 minutes and you can view it for free today — See link at the end of this post.

Planet Earth from Space - Who owns it?

Among many other environmental factoids, the movie reports that life began on this planet 4 billion years ago and that humans appeared on the scene just 200,000 years ago. So we have been involved far less than 1/1000 of one percent of the time. Humans began to settle down about 20,000 years ago and since then have become the “infestation” of planet Earth. Now — for the most powerful statistic in the movie:

In just the last fifty years, the human race has inflicted more damage on the fragile harmony of nature on this planet than in all previous generations of humans combined — for the past 200,000 years.

That’s right, during our lifetime, most of the damage has been done — to a planet that has had life for over 4 billion years. To me, this all begs the question, “Who owns this planet, anyway?” And why is nature’s smartest species doing such a horrible job of taking care of our “HOME?”

Regardless of your religious faith, we all need to stop and consider what we humans have done to this planet — and for what purpose? A few more stats we uncovered while researching for our book:

1. In just the past 350 years, our population has grown from less than one billion to the seven billion that we have today — in a mere blink of history.
2. How much land do we need to live, eat and take care of ourselves? And how much land is there?
3. There are approximately 8 billion arable acres that can be farmed to produce food — a little over one acre per person.
4. PROBLEM: It takes over three acres to feed one person the typical western diet of meat and dairy three meals a day.
5. What does that mean? If you passed 3rd grade arithmetic, you know that everyone simply cannot eat our diet; there’s not nearly enough land.
6. PROBLEM: While less than 20% of the world’s population is eating our diet today; millions in the developing world are trying their best to be just like us.
7. Also, part of our 8 billion acres is being lost each year — an area about the size of South Carolina.
8. And the population is still growing — at the rate of 197,000 people per day — a number equal to a city the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan — EVERY DAY.
9. The obvious answer to this mess: A plant-based diet, the natural diet for our species enables us to feed twenty times as many people on the same amount of land. It won’t solve all our problems, but it would be a pretty good start.

Not only are we using way too much land to feed ourselves, we’re also using way too much land to live and entertain ourselves. In my post yesterday, I showed an aerial view of our incredibly inefficient lifestyle in this country — miles upon miles of suburban sprawl.

J. Morris Hicks, the "big picture" guy

Where does all this end? When responsible citizens grasp “the big picture” of what is happening and demand that our leaders work together to help the so-called “smartest species” understand that we DO NOT own this planet — we’re only residents — just like the other millions of species. The only problem is that we, in all of our wisdom, are the ONLY species in the history of the world that has not lived in harmony with nature. I’ll leave you today with one final question?

Do you really think that our current dilemma is what the creator had in mind? If you do, what do you think is his plan for the future?

One more thing; I would like to hear from you about how you feel about all of this. What is your take on things? What do you think should happen next. I started connecting the dots 8 years ago — when I had my…

My “blinding flash of the obvious” in 2003…

Once again, from the best outdoor coffee shop in Old Naples, Florida (Tony’s) – Be well and have a great day…Get you popcorn and click here for

HOME – a 2009 film — a powerful eye-opener

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page. If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

PS: Occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.