Actually, we must take three major actions to survive. I will get to the third one in a few minutes. Meanwhile, we are being led to believe that all we must do is lower carbon emissions. Not true.

Let's begin with those two major actions, both of which seem to be impossible for us to even fathom -- considering where we are now in November of 2022:

Significantly reducing our population is no easy task and will likely take the better part of two centuries to cut it in half, from eight billion to four. Why will it take so long? Three reasons:

You get the picture? The only way we will have a significant population decrease anytime soon is via mass starvation -- which will happen when climate change takes away our ability to grow enough food for eight billion people.

Civilization Do-Over is also tough. And it would take a very long time, but, with enough incentives, we are clever enough to get it done within fifty years.

We described our vision for that totally re-invented way of life for humans -- in our 2020 book OUTCRY. You can read all about it in these five chapters. Chapter 11 addresses that new scorekeeping system.

Clearly, it will take centuries to significantly reduce our global population and it will take the better part of a century to design and implement a sustainable way of life for all residents of the planet. But, we simply don't have that much time.

So what about that third thing that we must do? There is one more urgent task that we must accomplish. If we're to have any chance whatsoever of lowering our population and re-designing our overall way of life in the developed world -- we must tackle that third task first.

My colleagues Stanford-educated Dr. Sailesh Rao along with Cornell-educated Dr. T. Colin Campbell and I -- are totally convinced that it is the only chance we have.

If we act quickly, we still have a chance to slow climate change enough to buy ourselves the time required to gradually lower our population, while totally redesigning our entire way of living at the same time.

Not only would shifting quickly to plant-based eating provide us with the time to develop a sustainable civilization, it will also lead to many other benefits that our short-sighted leaders of today never mention:

Those two reasons are why the feckless leaders of today are NOT urging us to move toward plant-based eating. It would hurt the economy in two major ways:

That is why we must figure out a way to "keep score" that doesn't involve maximizing the consumption of everything in a world of finite resources. OUTCRY Chapter 11: Earthonomics Replaces Capitalism

In summary, the mess in which we find ourselves is a result of misguided leaders all over the world, like these seven feckless men, on whom we depend to tell us what must be done to slow, stop or reverse climate change.

Tragically, the globally-respected leaders, on whom we depend to take care of such matters, are failing us miserably.

In recent weeks, I have written about the seven men in the image above and, in another SOS Memo, suggested that they be replaced by a team of nine or ten women leaders with more spine and less-fragile egos.

Do you question why I am insisting that we must strive to totally eliminate animal agriculture? It's because if we strive for anything less, we'll have almost zero chance of lowering it enough to prevent our demise as a species.

Here are five thoughts on this delicate topic:

Although most of the current citizens of the developed would not like this dietary shift for the first few months -- after a few years, very few of them would want to go back to their previous eating habits. (I made an abrupt change twenty years ago and have never had even the slightest desire to eat animal-based foods again.)

This would be especially true after they realize that this simple step by billions of people was actually beginning to slow climate change -- AND was beginning to offer hope for all future generations.

Plus, our children, grandchildren and all humans who follow us -- will be forever grateful to our generation for taking the challenging, sometimes painful, steps for getting humanity back on-track to living sustainably on the only planet in the universe capable of keeping us alive.

Once again, here's the 10-minute video (a ten-minute one-act-play that we shared recently). It just might help to quickly enlighten enough people to give us a fighting chance of surviving as a species.

To our knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of "outcries" from the natural world, along with consensus conclusions of nine big picture scientists regarding our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future, using today’s technology.

I also refer to this book as the "User's Guide for Planet Earth."

In mid 2022, we began giving this book away free of charge.

We are giving it away because, as Jeremy Rifkin said early in this recent 15-minute video:

"the most important info in all of humanity is going undiscussed."

We're talking about the crucial information regarding how we can possibly slow or stop climate change within a few years.

Want to help relieve the desperate situation in which we find ourselves, read OUTCRY as soon as you can and send it to everyone you know. Just click on the book cover above.

Here is the 2nd book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I wrote with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.

We want everyone to completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diet. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood. 

It is #182 on this list of all of my SOS Memos.

Don't have time to watch the entire Honolulu video? Click here to view all 60 slides in that talk

jmorrishicks@me.com 

For a concise summary of "big picture" information about our situation, take a look at the landing page of my primary website that I recently updated. Just click hpjmh.com

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.

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.

Also on Netflix, Kip and Keegan teamed up again in 2017 to produce What the Health, which is also on Netflix. It runs 92 minutes and may be the best documentary ever that focuses on the health reasons for choosing to eat plant-based. Click here to watch the short trailer. You can also watch the full movie for free on Vimeo.

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.

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.

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

This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.

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.

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.

You can join my mailing list and/or find all of my previous postings by visiting the SOS Memos page on my website. 

Want to see earlier SOS Memos? Click here

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