Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities
Staying the course amidst an angry sea of distractions
SOS #161 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (6-7-22)
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Let's begin with that angry sea of distractions:
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It gets worse. After almost forty years of meaningless pledges to reduce emissions -- we continue to set all-time emission records.
When will the IPCC and the governments of the world wake up to the necessity of addressing the single leading driver of climate change?
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One Looming Certainty
In order to solve any problem...
It is essential to address its #1 cause!
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Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Sailesh Rao, Dr. John McDougall, Glen Merzer, myself and many others -- are 99% Certain that we will never slow down the pace of climate change if we don't begin urgently addressing its #1 driver: the world's love affair with eating animal-based foods.
As of mid 2022, we are failing miserably.
Not only are we failing to urgently address the #1 driver of climate change, no world leaders anywhere are even talking about it. Tragically, our so-called "leaders" in the fight against climate change seem to have agreed on a cowardly "code of silence" on the subject. |
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Last week, I read the entire 2022 Doomsday Clock document and while climate change was featured prominently in the report, there was no mention of its most expedient solution -- a simple dietary move toward plant-based foods that individual citizens all over the world could take rapidly and independently.
That said, if we fail to significantly reduce, if not totally eliminate animal agriculture on planet Earth during this decade, our odds of surviving and thriving through the year 2050 -- approach zero. A near certainty.
That is why I am leveraging the Pareto Principle in prioritizing where I devote my own initiatives aimed at giving ourselves the best possible chance of slowing, stopping or reversing climate change soon enough to prevent unprecedented suffering of the world's children. |
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One Looming UNcertainty
Our ability to reduce the leading driver of climate change enough to make a difference
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As of mid 2022, we hardly ever hear anyone in authority in government or in the business world -- mention the prospect of doing anything about the leading driver of climate change -- and, by far, the easiest one to completely eliminate. |
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Are we running out of time?
Even if hundreds of millions of citizens in the developed world were to begin urgently moving away from animal-based foods this year, we still may not be able to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
That's because we may have waited far too long
to get started.
Why such a long wait? Because the world's leaders never implored us to begin addressing the "vital few" drivers of climate change that were featured in last week's SOS Memo -- with animal agriculture being by far the most prominent.
Our Current Situation Assessment. There are many human activities that are driving climate change, but there is one that is driving more climate change than all of the others combined. That driver is humanity's love affair with eating animal-based foods.
That simple fact provides the foundation of my major definite purpose for the rest of my life. This engineer will be keeping things simple: totally focusing on the leading driver of climate change. This is what I refer to as my...
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Major Definite Purpose
Promoting the total elimination
of animal agriculture by 2030
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As I go about my work, I am constantly guided by my
alliterative tagline that was the overall theme of our 2011 book
Promoting Health,
Hope & Harmony on Planet Earth
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Dr. Dean Ornish "nails it" on the cover...
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NEW: Check out the updated
Big Picture Data & Info Section
Below my Signature at the end of this Memo
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In so doing, I am imploring people everywhere to just stop eating all animal-based foods. If enough people do...
Global animal agriculture will shrink rapidly -- and we will all have dealt climate change a significant blow.
Conveniently for humans everywhere -- simultaneously, their collective health will improve, most chronic diseases will simply disappear and all of those new plant-based eaters will start saving lots of money on food purchases.
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All of my initiatives below ( Six from Hicks) are aimed at promoting the plethora of benefits associated with eating mostly whole plants -- simply leveraging Dr. T. Colin Campbell's definition of the optimal diet for humans:
The closer we get to eating a diet of whole, plant-based foods, the better off we will be.
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So, we simply set the top bar at 80% (or higher) and we call that the 4Leaf level of eating. The 3Leaf level means that a person is deriving approximately 60% to 80% from whole, plant-based foods and so forth.
You might ask, "Is 4Leaf vegan?"
My answer is not necessarily. But, whereas the word "vegan" is all about what you don't eat, our 4Leaf definition is all about what you do eat. And, if you eat mostly whole plants, your own health will benefit along with the health of the planet.
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Six From Hicks
My Top 6 Priorities for 2022 and Beyond
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The Leadership Project
for preventing human extinction
This project refers to our ongoing efforts to engage one or more well-known, highly influential leaders who are capable of building and leading an unprecedented trillion dollar media/environmental activist organization aimed at focusing solely on the complete elimination of the leading driver of climate change before 2030.
The way I see it, it is impossible to spend too much capital on an initiative that has the best chance of slowing climate change enough to prevent the demise of humanity.
A little background. The final third of my career was in the field of executive search at a boutique firm that I founded in 1999. I refer to those last 20 years of my corporate career as comprising my two-decade stint in the "leadership" business.
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The overarching lesson I learned during my entire business career is that one should never underestimate the incredible ability of the right leader at the right time to successfully tackle any challenge.
Without a doubt, humanity has never been more in need of a great leader to guide billions of people everywhere back to a sustainable way of living for our species.
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Once the first CEO of that envisioned organization is identified, she or he will begin one-on-one fundraising talks with a handful of the world's ultra-famous and super-wealthy billionaires.
As the coffers of this organization grow exponentially in the first few years, their message of truth about the leading driver of climate change will be broadcast non-stop around the world in many different languages.
We humans have a very serious problem on this planet and we are going to need serious leadership and messaging to have any chance to solve it. All of my SOS Memos are listed at this link. Here are a few recent ones on the topic of leadership:
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A Software System Designed to
Automatically Reduce the Cost of Healthcare for Large Employers!
The acronym for the above idea is ARCH, an automated system that is built on the ability of our 4Leaf Survey to accurately estimate the percentage of one's daily calories that are derived from whole, plant-based foods.
This idea ties in nicely with my First Priority: The Leadership Project. It provides the world's most enlightened business CEOs -- with a simple tool to help them save billions on healthcare for their employees. At the same time, those millions of people who are now eating a lot less meat & diary (if any) will be steadily weakening the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture.
We are now in the process of seeking a partnership with one large employer with a workforce somewhere between one thousand and 2.3 million employees, which is the number of people now working for Walmart.
With our ARCH product, every employee in the company can take the 4Leaf Survey online and will receive automated messages of encouragement to add more whole, plant-based foods to their daily regimen.
Properly led by the CEO and offering creative incentives for participation -- when 2.3 million people at Walmart (for example) start eating more plant-based foods, the healthcare savings for the corporation will soon be in the billions of dollars per year. This reality prompted me to conclude:
As the first wave of CEOs begins to take advantage of the many benefits that come from a healthier workforce, other companies who don’t undertake similar initiatives will have trouble competing with those who do. — J. Morris Hicks
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When that happens, CEOs everywhere will be looking for ways to save billions of dollars on healthcare. And that's where ARCH comes in.
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According to CMS, more than four trillion dollars were spent on healthcare in the United States in 2020.
Our simple ARCH system will enable senior management to administer the process of encouraging and rewarding all employees for moving steadily toward the optimal diet for humans -- a way of eating that derives over 80% of its calories from whole plants.
As more and more corporations around the world are forced to lower their healthcare costs to survive -- they will all be playing a huge role in the rapid downsizing of the global, animal-based food industry, which is the leading driver of climate change.
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4Leaf Licensing
in the Healthcare Industry
This initiative employs the same tools that are contained in the ARCH system. As more and more physicians and health coaches use our 4Leaf Survey with their patients -- more people will be eating whole, plant-based foods — and that means that they will all be eating fewer animal-based calories.
More and more large healthcare organizations are embracing various lifestyle medicine approaches that work wonders for the patients AND for the planet by encouraging employees and patients alike to add more whole plants to their diets as they move ASAP to the 4Leaf level of eating.
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For all things 4Leaf, visit 4leafprogram.com. To get an estimate of what percent of your calories are derived from whole plants — in less than two minutes, visit 4leafsurvey.com and fill out a simple 12-question, multiple choice survey.
The more healthcare companies that begin promoting a disease reversing, whole food, plant-based diet, the lower the cost of healthcare as our chances for slowing climate change and surviving as a species continue to increase sharply.
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My Weekly SOS Memos
Since publishing our first book in 2011, I have posted over 1400 articles on my website at hpjmh.com.
The SOS Memo (Saving Our Species) era began in April of 2019 and the memo that you are now reading is the 161st in this weekly series. All of my SOS memos are aimed at promoting the consumption of more whole, plant-based foods -- for health AND for sustainability reasons.
Conveniently, such a dietary shift contributes mightily to the crucially-important downsizing of the animal agriculture industry — the leading driver (BY FAR) of climate change.
In all of those SOS Memos, we are constantly promoting a plethora of vehicles for rapidly nudging millions of people in the direction of more whole plants in their diets as a way of promoting vibrant health for themselves and for the biosphere.
I also look at these weekly Memos as somewhat of a rudder in the constantly changing seas of our complicated, intertwined existence with the rest of the world. As such, I am always thinking that these weekly memos will someday help to open the doors for leadership collaborations that were discussed in Priority Number One.
All of this info is available for FREE to the international public at this SOS Memos page.
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Unlimited Zoom Talks
Free -- with live audiences everywhere
These are available to groups of any size for as long as I have time available for them. My latest talk (as of June 2022) consists of 62 PowerPoint slides that I can deliver in anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes -- followed by a Q&A discussion.
I look at these Zoom Talks as just another way to spark the much-needed conversations leading to many opportunities for leveraging the power and influence of a handful of game-changing leaders out there who are currently engaged in the worldwide game of just making money.
In other words, these free Zoom Talks can help to raise the chances that I will someday be able to collaborate with the influential leaders to which I refer in the Leadership Priority #1 above.
Eventually, the world's greatest leaders must be laser-focused on ensuring that we do everything possible to get humanity back on the road to sustainable living. And to have a chance at making that happen, they must understand that we must start with the food.
I will also travel to almost any destination to deliver my talk in person. For that, I request a modest honorarium along with the reimbursement of travel expenses.
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Promoting Our Three Books
If you’re truly concerned about climate change and the future of humanity, read OUTCRY just as soon as you can. It has much more compelling, up-to-date, info about sustainability than the first two books.
The recommendations in all of our books, if followed, will help people everywhere participate in the global process of totally eliminating animal agriculture, the leading driver (BY FAR) of climate change.
To my knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of the "outcries" from the natural world, consensus conclusions of nine “big picture scientists" about our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future (using today’s technology).
If you're really serious about doing your best to provide a truly sustainable future for your children, you will read and heed this book ASAP. Then, you will encourage everyone you know to do the same.
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The Bottom Line
Staying focused in a Horribly Troubled World
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Let's face it; we live in an outrageously troubled world. To make matters worse, all of our troubles are constantly changing -- and distracting us from actions that are truly capable of getting us all back on a pathway to sustainable living.
That said, all six of my priorities have the same underlying theme: doing my part to help promote an urgent, global dietary shift in the direction of whole, plant-based foods:
Promoting human health while chipping away at the leading driver of climate change, animal agriculture...
For All of The Innocent...
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I sincerely believe that we've still got time to replace a likely future of massive suffering with the joyful innocence of youth.
The world's children deserve no less!
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Please share today's timely SOS widely.
As you might expect, this topic was featured in my 5-22-22 presentation that I delivered to a group in Honolulu.
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Please contact me about a free Zoom call with your group. Participants will all get a lot more out of my talk if they have read my latest book in advance.
J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
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PS: The Prevention of Human Extinction |
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To clarify, we're not trying to preserve civilization as we know it. Because what we have now is extremely wasteful, harmful and grossly unsustainable. It's an incredibly reckless way of living that is now threatening our very existence as a species.
We're talking about replacing it with an entirely new, ultra-green civilization of the future -- and we do our best to paint a picture of that envisioned way of sustainable living in OUTCRY. For what one Ohio State professor emeritus of history had to say about that book on Amazon, click here.
Click on the image below for a preview of this 2020 book -- along with the complete Foreword by Mother Nature.
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This "Big Picture" section will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture"
Data and Video Section
Beginning with the timeline of research
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Five World-Changing Films
That People Everywhere Must See
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Film #1 in 2014
In 2014, Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn produced their first documentary film Cowspiracy. Executive producer is Leonardo DiCaprio, it runs 90 minutes and has been on Netflix since 2015. In 2020, I met Kip and Keegan in Sedona where I was honored to be able to speak at the same conference with them and other great leaders in this movement like Dr. Sailesh Rao and Dr. Michael Greger.
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Film #3 in 2021
In 2021, Kip Anderson teamed up with British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, to produce Seaspiracy, an 89-minute film that vividly and alarmingly reveals what is at stake when it comes to the crucial importance of our oceans to our future as a species. Most people have no idea regarding the environmental horrors of commercial fishing -- a disgusting industry that kills dolphins by the thousands and tosses them back into the ocean. It runs 90 minutes on Netflix. Click here to view the trailer.
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Film #4 in 2021
As our situation becomes more desperate, the documentary films become more terrifying. As alluded to earlier, we are literally Eating Our Way to Extinction, a process that is vividly covered in this 2021 film (81 minutes). Narrated and produced by Kate Winslet, you can watch this great film on Amazon Prime or on YouTube for $3.99. The great ocean scientist and former head of NOAA, Dr. Sylvia Earle lends powerful credibility to such a crucial topic.
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Film #5 in 2022
This new film (89 minutes) features a young activist who travels around his country, New Zealand in an effort to find out the truth about the horrors of the dairy industry in his native land.
The film uncovers alarming information about the environmental and health impacts of the industry -- leading up to the discovery that we are on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history. This new film is now available for free at waterbear.com
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Grasping the "Big Picture"
These 2 films will help in understanding
our unprecedented dilemma.
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This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
He brilliantly describes the grossly unsustainable way of living that has brought us to the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. Since I met him in London in 2013, he has become much more serious about the need to abolish the practice of eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish at almost every meal.
Just click on the hourglass image. Dr. Emmott delivers a very compelling message from the stage of a theater in London. This 2013 film is still relevant and will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture."
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Finally, this half-hour video was published in November of 2021. It was produced by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and our survival as a species. Dowd focuses on the problem; not the solution. I prefer to focus on both.
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What else can you do?
Probably a lot more than you think
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Start with the new documentary (Film #4) mentioned earlier -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix. Watch it often with your friends and family.
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Share this SOS Memo widely: Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities by J. Morris Hicks.
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Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
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Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
- Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.
- As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
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I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested this book that there would be a more robust conversation around the world regarding our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world.
To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.
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The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018. |
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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