Before Mother Nature can no longer sustain us as a species.
Global warming could be the single biggest problem ever faced by the human species.
There are now seven billion people on this planet and we’re adding another 240,000 every day. We’re running out of land, we’re running out of water and the number one driver of global warming (eating animals) continues to strengthen. What’s wrong with this picture?
What’s wrong is that we’re rapidly moving down the road toward the end of our civilization and, ultimately, the end of our species. So why are none of our leaders talking about it? The short answer is that they’re all “comfortably unaware” of the extent of the problems we face. I have concluded that it is our job (average citizens like us) to make them aware. And that’s what I am doing here.
During the past year, I have read—and recommended often—three powerful books about global depletion and the unprecedented planetary emergency we face if we don’t take decisive action VERY soon. All three of these books appear on my STORE page and are available on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle.
Why not send the trilogy to your friends who call themselves environmentalists this holiday season? Even most environmentalists are completely unaware of the single biggest cause of global warming and water scarcity. It’s our harmful, wasteful and totally unsustainable food choices of meat, dairy, eggs or fish (MDEF) three meals a day.
I should add that two of the three books featured below make no mention of the plant-based solution to so many of our environmental problems. Emmott and Brown do a great job of describing the problem, but only Oppenlander paints a clear picture of the obvious solution.
TEN BILLION by Stephen Emmott, PhD. As of late 2013, this is my most recommended book—for people who are interested in learning more about the sustainability of humankind. I recommended it to James Cameron on 9-14-13 and he and wife Suzy read it the next day.
I first read about this powerful book in July, 2013; then purchased a Kindle copy when it was published in early September. Dr. Emmott is a scientist who heads up computational for Microsoft in the UK. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Oxford. Wanting his message to be a wake-up call to leaders everywhere, he paints a bleak (almost hopeless) picture in this book.
But I am more optimistic because I see a plant-based solution out of the global mess that he so brilliantly describes. I visited with him in London on 10-9-13 and reviewed my plan with him. He agreed that it was the best plan that he had heard. Click here to order on Amazon.
Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown. After writing over fifty books, Mr. Brown has hit a home run with this one. One of the most prolific environmental writers in history, Brown describes a host of alarming issues—none of which are getting better.
Like Emmott in TEN BILLION, he describes an almost impossible situation as it relates to global depletion of our essential natural resources. Also, like Emmott, he offers no plausible solution for dealing with the dilemma that he describes so powerfully in his book. So I reached out to him recently and scheduled a visit with him in his Washington, DC office.
Instead, we ended up having a phone interview on 11-21-13—and I got the chance to ask him the all-important question about a possible plant-based solution to the dilemma he portrayed. “What would be the global environmental impact if the most affluent two billion people in the world replaced 75% of their meat, dairy, egg and fish calories with plant-based calories?”
He replied that it would take a research study to accurately predict but then added, “It would be a substantially positive impact.” Click here to order on Amazon.
Comfortably Unaware by Dr. Richard Oppenlander. The single biggest problem that humankind faces is the rapid pace with which we are consuming our finite natural resources—with land and water topping the list. Richard begins by defining the URGENCY in great detail.
He then tackles Problem #2. Virtually all of our citizens, including our world leaders and environmental experts, are comfortably unaware of the extent of the problem, the most powerful driver of the problem and the obvious solution.
Like me, Oppenlander sees the plant-based solution out of the mess described in his book, Emmott’s book and Brown’s book. But, as he points out, our leaders are not aware of the plant-based solution and seem to have no interest in learning about it. I got to know Richard earlier this year and co-presented with him at an environmental summit in California on 11-24-13; I highly recommend his book. Click here to purchase on Amazon. Also, I highly recommend Richard’s latest book, published 11-19-13. Food Choice and Sustainability: Why Buying Local, Eating Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won’t Work
For your convenience, I have provided a few links to earlier blogs.
- My first blog about TEN BILLION, 7-8-13. Are humans the “infestation” of planet Earth?
- My 10-11-12 blog about Full Planet, Empty Plates. Too many people, wasting resources, eating the wrong food…
- My 8-25-13 about Oppenlander’s book. The TERRIFYING repercussions of our DEMAND for meat
- Bill McKibben’s July 2012 Rolling Stone article. Global Warming’s Terrifying new math.
Handy 5-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com
- The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD
- Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
- An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
- Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.
- Dr. Campbell’s new book: WHOLE, Rethinking the Science of Nutrition
Why should we be eating mostly plants? The “big picture” in 4 minutes.
Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com
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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.
To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now
For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, visit our 4Leaf page and also enjoy some great recipes from Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.
Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.
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—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation
J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 
Thank-you for passing along these wonderful resources.
PENNY SMYTH Lymer, CT 860 867-6621
Jim,
Your optimism is beautiful and infectious. You deserve all the success that is do you. I might have ten years of life left, make it happen soon.
Sal Liggieri
Bill Kranker,
You are so right. Even my family tries to avoid me, they are tired of listening to my rantings of doom and gloom if they don’t change
And so, I talk less and less about WFPB lifestyle.
A classic example: A family member was recently brought out of a seven week induced coma to heal sepsis shock. What food does he ask for as a first meal. . . burger and coke.
Change is never going to happen in spite of all the gurus and all their sermons.
Viva McDougall!
Sal Liggieri
Sal and Jim,
As you may know I actually follow a low fat raw vegan diet which is just one step further than cooked vegan so I follow a slightly different group of blogs than McDougall or T. Colin. (I still follow them but also many others) One of the more interesting blogs that I follow is from Freelee in Australia (Otherwise known as Banana Girl) A while back she did a video on “where do you get your protein from” It is kind of silly but it did a good job of getting some facts out in an interesting way. It also does a good job of reaching a younger audience. Maybe she would make a good poster girl for your ad campaign? This is the link to the video:
Bill
Good ed post, Jim! I re-posted it here, along with many good posts from others:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2W7KWZKQY6BGJ/ref=cm_cr_rev_detup_redir?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxZJ813G2J60B7&cdPage=1&asin=1439190275&store=books&cdSort=newest&cdThread=TxCB0L17B0KXSQ&newContentID=Mx14DLVPRU1D8UH#Mx14DLVPRU1D8UH
The 13 PRO Atkins/Paleo persons that vote “Unhelpful” to this “Healthy Lifestyle/Healthy Planet Education” probably will never change — the site gives me a BLOG location to post inputs from plant-based nutrition experts and my own comments. NOTE THE “WILL” BY LEO S.!
Put the put-down characters on “Ignore” and it is easier to read “My Blog!” LOL
Happy Holidays!
My Thanksgiving/recent activities are here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lxxpvax8xzetaa3/vwePI_hhq6
(Excuse there Real Turkey — one daughter wanted to demo that — she has a dog that appreciated it! The Trader Joe’s “Turkey-Less” was better!)
J.
It is always great to get your email messages but I have a question or possibly a concern. How do you keep from having the recepients eyes glaze over from repeating the same message over and over again? I am a true belieiver and still sometimes I can’t help but find myself nodding off occasionally. Oh, here comes J. Morris telling me the World is going to end again!!
I face this same problem in my own health advisory practice. I sometimes become this nag that is telling everyone they can’t eat all those fun packaged foods in the colorful boxes. Eventually, they just hide their Oreos so that I won’t comment on them.
This comment is not really just aimed at you as much as it is the movement in general. How do you get the message out without boring the audience? In what way can you make the end of humankind exciting or at least keep people involved?
I am just thinking out load but somewhere an answer exists to this issue.
Bill
Hi Bill, I get your point and have concluded that we’re not going to change the world anytime soon without a well funded plan of attack. As Sal says, what we’ve been doing up this point is not working.
As such, I am now working with James Cameron and others to develop a MASSIVE GLOBAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN that will be reminiscent of the anti-smoking ads 30 years ago. With enough money and credible messengers involved, we can influence the behavior of billions of people.
We expect to be issuing RFPs to the top PR agencies in the world and asking them to come up with a campaign aimed at changing the eating habits of the two billion most affluent residents of planet Earth. If we can get traction with the top two billion, the other five billion will follow. We’re talking about spending BILLIONS of dollars on this campaign—a mere drop in the bucket compared to the financial and personal losses that will be caused by a collapse of our civilization.
Don’t give up yet. We’ve not yet begun to fight. I have no idea how much this campaign will cost but let’s just say it was $$ TEN BILLION. When you think about it, that’s not a very big number—it’s only 1/3 of one percent of the cost of healthcare—in just the USA. Hang in there buddy, change is coming. Best, Jim
Jim, a belated Thanksgiving greeting — I give thanks for having discovered you: your blog, your book and your excellent and inspirational work — YOU ROCK!! Best wishes for the holiday season! : )
J.
I totally agree with what you are saying. You are doing most of the right things to make this change occur but we are both coming from an engineering black and white background. You need to have a different mindset in the current World. With the creative use of social media big changes can be made by strategically using the free internet. I am not an expert in this area but have seen many social movements go viral. Look at that singer from Korea who galoped gangum style into fame by only speaking a few words of english. Obama’s first election is another good example. He came from nowhere but was boosted by the web into the spotlight.
The trick is to catch the wave just right and before you know it you are surfing. I think what you need is some brilliant young strategists who understand the webmedia and you can make some huge inroads without spending a lot of cash. Just like in manufacturing, the more you spend up front in planning the smoother the launch will be later. You need to get a modern day version of the Ford Wizkids and lock them into a room until a plan is produced. They are all out there right now wildly typing into their touchscreens developing ideas, plans and products. The trick is to find and recruit them. You use some of the 10 Billion to cover the R and D. If it is done right you may not need that much of the remainder to roll this out. You work lean and mean just like a non-profit startup. You hire fresh talent like the young lady in the video I posted above that will work cheap and already believe in the cause. There are tons of them out there.
You get the kids to start changing and the old ones like us will have to follow along or get buried.
I already see it in the larger cities. Restaurants like the Protein Bar in Chicago which are serving Vegan options. Many people do prefer veggies if they are done well. Native foods is doing good as well.
This process will ebb and flow just like a sailboat heading into the wind, but the truth has to prevail. The younger crowd is starting to see the damage that these foods do to people long term as they see the lines at the hospital.
Businesses are also noticing how much less healthy people cost to employ. We need to hold up the living examples of what healthy living can accomplish. The Brenden Braziers, of the world need to glorified.
It is going to happen even if some need to be carried along kicking and screaming!!
Bill