How old is the Grand Canyon? And what can we learn from it?

Posted on 10/14/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Two billion years old—and its history might help jolt us into action

A great many people (probably more than half) in the United States do not believe any of the scientific information about human-generated greenhouse gases and their impact on global warming. They seem to feel that the world is a big place and that there’s no way mankind can change that great big world in any significant manner. I strongly disagree with those people.

In recent weeks, I have been focusing on our planet’s continued ability to provide longterm sustainability of the human race. During that time, someone asked me two questions that got me to thinking:

The majestic Grand Canyon was here millions of years before there were humans on this planet.

Question #1: What caused the melting of the glaciers that gave us the Grand Canyon and many other canyons, etc.?

My response. I do not know about the melting. But after a little research I learned that the canyon has been there long before there were humans on this planet. About 10,000 times as long. (See facts below).  Scientists report that life began on our planet about 4 billion years and we humans have only been here for 200,000 of those years. That’s just 5/1000th of one percent of the life of the planet that we’ve been here—a mere blink of the eye in history. Let’s look at that number in a different way.

For every 100 years that there has been some kind of life on planet Earth, humans have been here for less than two days.

Yet now, 7 billion strong and growing, we humans have taken over all of her land and are rapidly squandering her natural resources. We are systematically taking away our planet’s continued ability to sustain us. That’s because the sustainability of us johnny-come-lately humans depends on a harmonious combination of water, biodiversity, sufficient land, and a climate that supports all of the above. And I have concluded—with near certainty—that we’re our own worst enemy when it comes to sustaining that needed harmony.

Fact Check From the National Park Service website: How old is the Grand Canyon? That’s a tricky question. Although rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon are geologically quite old, the Canyon itself is a fairly young feature. The oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to two billion years old. The Canyon itself – an erosional feature – has formed only in the past five or six million years. Geologically speaking, the Grand Canyon is very young.

Our next president is going to be one or the other; unfortunately, neither has said anything about the longterm sustainability of the human race.

Question #2. What action would you recommend the U.S. President take in relation to “rising ocean levels,” in light of other countries, such as China, Brazil, India, etc., given the fact that so, so many others have almost no regulation against emissions, pollution, deforestation, etc.?

In a word, “education” about the #1 cause–the food that we choose to eat. People everywhere need to understand that none of us “need” to eat ANY animals or animal products—EVER. Not only are those products killing us; they’re also destroying what’s left of the harmony & the ability of the planet to support the longterm sustainability of the human race.

The 2006 U.N. Report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, spelled out the incredible damage being inflicted on our planet by the raising of livestock to feed the wealthiest 25% of humans.

According to the 2006 U.N. report shown here, livestock is by far the #1 driver of global warming—which is what is causing those sea levels to rise. After being educated, many will keep eating whatever they like and can afford, but millions of others (including some powerful leaders) will recognize the urgency we face and will urgently start leading us in the right direction.

Just think what would happen if we could return half of the current farmland in the world to forests, prairies and natural habitats—opening the door for the biodiversity of the planet to get back on track. And what about our oceans if we stopped robbing them of billions of creatures for our dinner plates each year?

The Bottom Line. The planet’s longterm ability to sustain human life is being seriously compromised by us modern day humans, and our future descendants’ lives are at stake. In addition to stabilizing our population, we simply must learn to live in harmony with nature—again. I am convinced that the single most powerful move that we can make in that direction—is for all of us to adopt a health-promoting plant-based diet as soon as possible.

617 consecutive daily blogs (numerals courtesy of the Boston Red Sox)

Not only will be doing ourselves & our families a favor, but we’ll be saving water, land, energy, forests, ecosystems and the climate needed to sustain all of the above. When humans change what we eat—we dramatically change how the entire planet is used. And that will have a HUGE impact on our planet’s ability to sustain our species indefinitely.

The planet will survive. But we may not.

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic 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

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at 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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in Climate Change, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Urgent letter to Bill Ford — Chairman of Ford Motor Company

Posted on 10/13/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

William Clay (Bill) Ford, Jr. — Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company

First–a little background

After studying all about health and food since 2002, publishing a book in 2011, and blogging for over 600 consecutive days; I have concluded that our choice of what to eat is the most important decision in the history of the human race.

The way we eat determines the quality of our own health, it determines how we use the entire planet, and it greatly affects our longterm sustainability as a species.

Although some positive changes in our collective food choices in the western world are beginning to happen, they’re not happening nearly fast enough to make enough of a difference in the vast array of inter-connected problems that we face. Problems like world hunger, climate change, lack of fresh water and an overall ecosystem in great peril.

What we need is leadership. While I have been hoping that the world’s most famous vegan, President Bill Clinton, would provide that leadership, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

First introduced by Henry Ford in 1908, the Model T is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile.

I have now concluded that the leadership we need must come from the chief executives of large corporations—those who have a financial incentive for their millions of employees to be healthy.

As news of those employees becoming healthy spreads and cost of health care plummets for those organizations—other corporations will follow suit and an incredible series of chain reactions will be set in motion. Chain reactions that involve many of our most urgent global issues.

The remainder of this blog is in the form of an open letter to the executive chairman of one of our nation’s largest, and best-known corporations. That chairman not only shares the world famous name of the founder, but he is also a prominent environmentalist, he is a “big picture” visionary AND he has been eating a vegan diet for a number of years.

The great grandson of Henry Ford; his name is William Clay Ford, Jr., the Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company, #9 on the Fortune 100 list, and an American-born industrial icon with 164,000 employees. See short video of Mr. Ford beneath this letter:

— URGENT (October 15, 2012) —

Dear Mr. Ford,

As a concerned American, I am writing today to ask for your help. Our nation, the entire world and all of its people desperately need the kind of “big picture” leadership that only a handful of business executives can provide. The topic is the cost of health care, which is driven by our food choices, which in turn drive many factors affecting the longterm sustainability of the human race.

Health care costs in the United States are choking our economy, bankrupting our nation, draining our personal bank accounts and hand-cuffing our employers. Since 1960, the cost of health care in the United States as a percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) has risen sharply from 5.2% in 1960 to the 18% that we have today. Most of this huge problem is driven by our food choices — and it’s still getting worse.

That’s because people are getting sicker, fatter, and more dependent on prescription drugs than ever before. And, with advancing technology and personalized treatments, the cost of medical procedures continues to escalate with no end in sight. Now projected by our government to hit 31% of our nation’s GDP by 2035, this unsustainable cost of “disease” must be addressed now.

Our food choices (and related health care costs) are now bankrupting many nations. Those food choices are also affecting many other global issues. We’re running out of land, we’re running out of water, we’re inflicting incalculable damage on our ecosystem, we’re squandering our finite fossil fuels and the unchecked food-driven impact on global warming could spell disaster for all living creatures on this planet.

How do we get out of this mess? Who will be the first major world leader to step forward and take decisive action? Who will begin the process by dramatically reducing the cost of health care in his/her business and, in so doing, set off many of powerfully positive chain reactions throughout the world? I have concluded that it will be someone with a financial incentive to do so. Someone like you, Mr. Ford, and the senior executive team at the Ford Motor Company.

As the 2011 movie Forks Over Knives reported, an estimated 80% of the cost of health care is driven by our toxic western diet. So, all we have to do is get everyone to adopt a health-promoting diet of whole, plant-based foods and we’ll save a quick two trillion dollars. Sounds easy enough, but who is going to lead the charge?

  1. Elected officials? How could they possibly get elected if they ran on a platform that challenged the wildly popular “Standard American Diet?”
  2. Medical doctors? How could they make a living if suddenly everyone got healthy and 80% of our medical “procedures” simply disappeared?
  3. Pharmaceutical companies? Ditto, what happens if the need for drugs suddenly drops 80%?
  4. Health insurance companies? If everyone got healthy, the risk of disease would plummet and the entire health insurance industry would be a mere shadow of its former self.
  5. The food industry? Over 90% of our calories today are not health-promoting. They include meat, dairy, eggs, and refined carbohydrates. The food industry wants to maintain the status quo and thereby protect every segment of its disease-promoting industry.
  6. The nutritional scientists? Just as our medical schools are controlled by the pharmaceutical industry, our schools of nutrition are controlled by the food producers.
  7. Respected journalists in the media? Hardly. They get paid by the producers of the food.

None of the above. There are over 30 million people working in the above seven sectors of our national economy—the seven sectors who are in the best position to influence what we eat in this country. And not a single one of them has a financial incentive for us to become healthy. As a well-known American philosopher has observed:

“People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health…and are treated by the health industry which pays no attention to food.” —- Wendell Berry

Enter the profit-motivated corporate executive—like you. Unlike the many people working in the seven sectors mentioned above, the CEOs of the world have a financial incentive for their employees to be healthy. And by taking urgent steps to promote health (and profitability) in their own corporations, these forward thinking executives will attract the attention of businesses, governments and institutions all over the world.

By helping hundreds of thousands of employees take charge of their own health, these leaders will quickly affect the thinking of millions of people around the world. News anchors will be asking, “What’s going on at Ford? They are the only Fortune 100 company in the United States whose cost of health care per employee is actually going down. What is their secret?”

Knowing of your plant-based eating preference, I have watched a few of your videos and am well aware of your “big picture” vision and your respect for our environment. I am writing now to request a meeting to talk about moving forward with a program at Ford that could change the world. We start by helping your employees learn to take charge of their own health. They will tell their friends and families and other business leaders will begin to take notice of what is happening at Ford.

In one of your videos, you talked about “creating a future that’s going to make people’s lives better.” By teaching all 164,000 of your employees how to take charge of their health, you will be doing just that—and so much more. You will be helping them, their families, our nation, our world—and the bottom line of the Ford Motor Company. Now that’s what I call goal congruence.

As you said in your Ted Talk, “I believe we’re at our best when we’re confronted with big issues.” Well, sir, there has never been a bigger issue in the history of the human race than this one—and we would love the opportunity to work on that huge global issue with you. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely, J. Morris Hicks, author, speaker, consultant and former business executive

PS: If you’re interested in these concepts, perhaps you could invite me to speak at the Detroit Economic Club. You can reach me at 917-399-9700, or email at: jmorrishicks@me.com.

Consecutive dally blog #616

For another video of Bill Ford, I recommend that you watch his 16-minute Ted Talk, listed first. Also, for your convenience, I have provided a few of my earlier blogs on this topic of leadership:

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic 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

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at 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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in Activism & Leadership, Celebrities, Corporate Wellness | 4 Comments

No medical advice here — just life-saving referrals

Posted on 10/12/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

I can’t offer medical advice, but I can refer you to medical professionals that I would trust with my own life.

During my 615 consecutive days of blogging about health; I have occasionally heard from one of my readers or friends with a question about a specific medical condition. That happened again this week.

Someone I have known for twenty years called me with a question about her recently diagnosed condition of “silent reflux.” Not only is she suffering from that condition but thinks that she developed pneumonia as a result of the prescribed treatment.

Disclaimer. First of all, since I am not a medical doctor, I never give advice about specific conditions. But I often refer people to a handful of enlightened medical doctors who have an appreciation for dietary and other natural solutions to a plethora of medical conditions. I occasionally include the following disclaimer in some of my posts.

The author of this blog or the “Healthy Eating – Healthy World” book is not rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, suggestions and procedures on this blog are not intended as a substitute for consulting with a physician. All matters of health require medical supervision. The author will not be responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion on this blog.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell has had personal experience at TrueNorth and speaks very highly of them in the video below.

So what did I tell my friend?. I told her that I had decided long ago what I would do if I had a serious medical condition. I would call the same people that Dr. T. Colin Campbell has called a few times. That would be the  professional team at TrueNorth Health Center, Santa Rosa, California. From their website:

TrueNorth Health Center was founded in 1984 by Drs. Alan Goldhamer and Jennifer Marano. The integrative medicine approach they established offers participants the opportunity to obtain evaluation and treatment for a wide variety of problems. The staff at TrueNorth Health Center includes medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, psychologists, research scientists, and other health professionals. The Center is now the largest facility in the world that specializes in medically supervised water-only fasting.

Dr. Alan Goldhamer, founder of TrueNorth Health Center

I have never been to TrueNorth but I have been to one of Dr. McDougall’s weekend retreats at a resort hotel nearby and have met some of the staff from TrueNorth.

I have also been a big fan of The Pleasure Trap, a book by TrueNorth founder Dr. Alan Goldhamer and psychologist Doug Lisle, PhD. In it, they explain how we humans got in trouble by following our natural instincts in an unnatural world.

Take a few minutes and watch this ten-minute video brochure. It features testimonials from many of their happy clients, including Dr. T. Colin Campbell and near the end, you will meet Dr. Goldhamer, who asks you to give him a call if you’d like more information.

From time to time, I hear from people who say they wish they had heard this life-saving information before following the irreversible, conventional treatment regimen for their condition. I always tell them, if it were me, I would always pursue the least invasive approach first. And I sincerely believe that a great place to start is TrueNorth. Their staff is professional, their rates are reasonable and their results are extraordinary.

Today is my 615th consecutive daily blog.

The first link below takes you directly to the website page that lists the TrueNorth professional staff. The next two links feature two of my earlier blogs on how to find a medical doctor who appreciates plant-based nutrition. If you call or visit TrueNorth, I would love to hear your comments about your experience with them.

MD Help. Since this blog was first published, I added an MD Help tab under the top banner on every page of this site.

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic 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

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at 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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in M.D.s---Health-Promoting | Tagged | 4 Comments