Sustainability = Living in Harmony with Nature

Our book cover says it all, “If we eat the way that promotes the best health for ourselves, we also promote the best health for the planet.” T. Colin Campbell, PhD

With over seven billion people, it is now physically impossible to live in harmony with nature—and still eat a steady diet of meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish three meals a day.

Climate change, water scarcity, soil erosion, deforestation and species extinction—what do they have in common? Three things:

1. They all contribute to the end of our civilization as we know it if we don’t take decisive action soon. Very Soon!
2. Although many human activities comprise the causes of each of these; the leading cause of all of them is our demand for meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish three meals a day.
3. Replacing most of those meat, dairy, egg & fish calories with healthier, plant-based alternatives is the ONLY action that can be taken QUICKLY by every person; therefore, it is our ONLY chance to save our civilization before it is too late.

We can all CHOOSE to change what we eat overnight. Take a total of six minutes and watch these three cartoons. Then take another seven minutes to learn what happened on Easter Island and another 4 minutes to learn how we can avoid the same fate ourselves. Simply by choosing health-promoting, plant-based foods, we can take a GIANT step forward in terms of living in harmony with nature.

What about overpopulation/overconsumption and burning fossil fuels? In order to truly live in harmony with nature, we’ll need to resolve those issues ASAP. But those huge issues will take many decades if not centuries to resolve and we simply don’t have that much time. But we can change what we’re eating overnight. If enough people take that simple step, we’ll totally eliminate the #1 driver of most of our environmental problems—while buying us some time to work on the other issues.

Take one serious minute to grasp exactly what we’re doing to our HOME.

The YouTube description of the above cartoon, “A wonderfully crafted animation depicting the infestation of Earth by the parasites known as “Humans.” They mentioned that humans work fast; how fast? If the 4 billion years of life on Earth were crammed into one year, humans have been around for only 26 minutes and we have inflicted the vast majority of the damage in just the last one second. 

Now, let’s lighten it up a bit with a little music.

(The above cartoon appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in mid 2013)

Learn how we can beat climate change—in just 3 minutes.

The above cartoon was produced by my friends at the World Bank, Jeff Anhang and his colleague, Dr. Robert Goodland, who passed away in late 2013. They mention that we must replace at least 25% of our animal-based foods in the next few years. But that’s not going to be easy; particularly when global meat consumption continues to go up every single day. In my opinion, focusing on a 25% reduction implies that we’ll be doing our part if we give up meat and dairy two days a week. That’s not going to work; we must be real clear that everyone must immediately replace as much as possible of their meat, dairy, egg and fish calories as quickly as possible—for our health and for the ecosystem. For more information on climate change, visit Jeff’s website at chompingclimatechange.org 

What happened on Easter Island is now happening on our GLOBAL island.

The above video clearly shows what can happen to a thriving civilization that uses up all their finite resources. Today’s overconsumption comes in many forms, but the most serious is our incredibly harmful, wasteful and grossly unsustainable way that we’re feeding ourselves. Now using 45 percent of all the land in the world to grow animals, a swift change toward more plant-based foods will free up vast amounts of land to be reforested and returned to nature.

Living in harmony begins with eating the natural diet for our species.

The above video (produced in my Connecticut office) outlines in just 4 minutes my “blinding flash of the obvious” reasons for plant-based eating. We can avoid going the way of the Rapa Nui on Easter Island by simply changing what we eat. And we can do it very quickly. As a bonus for saving our ecosystem, we’re rewarded with vibrant health for ourselves. The greatest win-win proposition in the history of humankind.

The Bottom Line. Some people would argue that we’ve been eating meat for thousands of years and there is no reason to stop now. NOT TRUE. Even if eating a steady diet of meat, dairy, eggs and fish were the healthiest possible diet for humans, it is simply not sustainable for much longer. It is literally trashing our ecosystem and there’s simply not enough land and water to feed everyone.

As we continue to add 230,000 people every day—if everyone in the world ate the way we do in the USA, we’d need 2 or 3 planet Earths to feed us all. We only have one—and she is in big trouble. Start today to do your part to save our ecosystem, our civilization and our future as a species. Do it for all the children of the world, whose future quality of life rests in our hands.

One more article on sustainability; my blogpost of 1-25-14. NOTHING is more important than SUSTAINABILITY! By comparison, all else shrinks to insignificance.

This is serious stuff. Don’t keep it to yourself!

The following five books and one DVD can be purchased on Amazon for a grand total of less than $60—and will enable you to understand the overwhelming challenges we face—along with the single most-powerful solution of all.

Six-Pack from Hicks—for health, hope & harmony on planet Earth

1. Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
2. A life changer for millions, including James Cameron. Forks Over Knives DVD 
3. An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell; the primary book that influenced Bill Clinton to adopt a whole food, plant-based diet.
4. What have we done to our planet? Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown
5. A horrifying wake-up call for leaders. TEN BILLION by Dr. Stephen Emmott
6. Food choices are the primary cause of our environmental problems, yet our world leaders, scientists & experts are Comfortably Unaware, by Richard Oppenlander.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes 2 or 3 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.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member since 2012; click banner for more info: