Topping 7 billion on Halloween — Very scary indeed.


But there are many things happening that are much scarier than goblins.

From snowbound New England on Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween. And, according to the United Nations, it was the day that the human race officially reached the seven billion mark. Time Magazine reported in their 9-31-11 issue that we have now added four billion people in just the past fifty-two years.

That rapid growth and its implications on potential water and food shortages is scary enough, but pales in comparison to what else is happening. As reported in the powerful 2009 movie HOME; in that same time period, the human race has inflicted more damage on the fragile harmony of the planet than ALL previous generations of humans combined for the past 200,000 years.

Very scary indeed, but the scariest part is that we’re not doing nearly enough to reverse this deadly trend. It actually continues to worsen with every passing year. For a number of reasons:

  1. Population. It continues to grow at an unsustainable pace of about 200,000 people every single day — an amount equal to the city of Grand Rapids, MI. This is just slightly better than the 210,000 per day that we’ve averaged for the past 52 years.
  2. Arable Land. The amount of land available to grow food is shrinking every year due primarily to degradation attributed to the production of our rich Western food. How much is it shrinking each year? By a piece of land about the size of South Carolina.
  3. More people choosing the Western diet. Each year, millions of people in the developing nations begin to move toward our highly inefficient diet-style that requires about twenty times as much land — on a per calorie basis — than a plant-based diet.
  4. Water Shortages and Pollution. Like land inefficiency, the Western diet is a water hog, also taking twenty times as much water per calorie as the the highly efficient plant-based foods.
  5. Cost of Health Care. With the USA leading the way with the highest cost of health-care in the history of the world — now at 17% of our GDP, this “scary situation” alone is enough to bankrupt the entire world if we don’t shift to promoting health instead of managing disease. Without some “new thinking” here, we’ll hit 31% of the GDP by 2035 in the USA.

The Barack Obama Halloween mask -- a big favorite this year.

In the midst of all of this frightening information, it seems that not a single one of our world leaders has a grasp of this “big picture” and what must be done about it. It’s like we’re an international community where no one is in charge.

Each country is just proceeding along as if the only thing that mattered was their own local economy and the ideal population; along with the necessary fertility rate to optimize that economy. This all leads to the poorest nations being squeezed; coming up on the short end in terms of water and food. Even now, we’re burning forests in the Amazon to grow soybeans to ship to China to feed their pigs. Very scary.

As the above five facts continue to exacerbate the current problems of food and water shortages, eventually our collective complacency will lead to famine, conflict and chaos unlike the world has ever seen. Without a doubt, we simply must come to grips with the absolute necessity of taking aggressive action to reverse the deadly trend identified in the five points above.

Right now, a very small minority knows what must be done. 

Without a doubt, the single most important thing that we can do as humans to address these terrifying issues — is to organize a serious international effort to move as quickly as possible in the direction of a whole foods, plant-based diet. It won’t solve the world population issue but it will give us some time. Now here’s the main problem:

Many great thinkers around the world are aware of the impending problems, but only a handful of them recognize a that complete shift to plant-based eating is even a viable option worth considering.

That’s because they still believe that we NEED to eat animal protein to be healthy.

My home-made Steve Jobs mask that I wore last night; helping inspire me to become "crazy enough to believe that we change the world."

With a well-planned and well-funded plan and the right people on the team, we can dispel this man-made “protein myth” and thereby open the minds of the world’s brightest to addressing the most serious problems facing our world since it has been “managed” by the human race.

As a writer, blogger and activist; this is where I plan to place my primary emphasis — perhaps for the rest of my life. And I am going to do my best to enlist the leadership and financial support from the most influential world leaders whose attention we can attract.

A related post from last week, inspired by a “seven billion people” article in the New York Times. As Jobs would say, “Let’s get crazy enough to change the world.”

This just in. If you saw my “Dr. Oz Prehistoric Diet Blog,” you may be interested in seeing the actual video from the show. Just click here for about 20 minutes of video. If you missed the blog, here it is again for your convenience:

Oz hits a HOME RUN with Julieanna Hever…

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. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

J. Morris Hicks, author and activist. Working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

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

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About J. Morris Hicks

A former strategic management consultant and senior corporate executive with Ralph Lauren in New York, J. Morris Hicks has always focused on the "big picture" when analyzing any issue. In 2002, after becoming curious about our "optimal diet," he began a study of what we eat from a global perspective ---- discovering many startling issues and opportunities along the way. In addition to an MBA and a BS in Industrial Engineering, he holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, where he has also been a member of the board of directors since 2012. Having concluded that our food choices hold the key to the sustainability of our civilization, he has made this his #1 priority---exploring all avenues for influencing humans everywhere to move back to the natural plant-based diet for our species.
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1 Response to Topping 7 billion on Halloween — Very scary indeed.

  1. Humans are on a collision course with extinction. And who will cry for us…certainly not the animals.

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