We are at a critical point in human history. While we are waking up to our true strength and potential as the climate harmonizing species of the planet, we are also waking up to the reality of the dystopia of our current situation. In our upcoming documentary, “They’re Trying To Kill Us,” Mayor Eric Adams of New York City says,

“Black people don’t like being played.”

Actually, people of all colors, black, brown or white, don’t like being played. It now troubles us greatly that our governments, corporations and institutions have been playing us for decades in order to squeeze out every dollar we earn and siphon it back into corporate coffers.

Let’s start with our governments. They have been playing us with what Dr. John McDougall calls the four deadly dietary deceptions in their food guides and school textbooks.  As Dr. McDougall puts it,

“I mention protein and you echo “meat”.”

“I mention calcium and you respond “milk”.”

“I mention omega-3 fats and you answer “fish”.”

“I mention unhealthy, fattening foods and you reply “starch” or “carbs”.”

These deceptive mental associations are built into our education system by design so that every child grows up to be an addicted, unwitting consumer of processed and animal foods and consequently, a lifetime customer of the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

When the consequences of such consumption led to species extinctions, deforestation and desertification, our institutions started playing us with deceptive statistics to hide the ongoing ecological catastrophes.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been playing us with its red list of extinct species since 1964. According to the IUCN, an estimated 0.04% of all known species (882 species) have gone extinct since 1500 A.D. Unfortunately for the IUCN, a recent paper in Biological Reviews blew that estimate right out of the water. It showed that 7-13% of all known species (150,000 – 260,000 species) have gone extinct since 1500 A.D.

A quick look at the IUCN website reveals that Texas A&M University, the Aggies, an educational bastion of the animal agriculture industry, is a close partner of IUCN.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) has been playing us about the extent of deforestation and grazing lands on the planet. According to the UN FAO, only 33% of the forests have been cut between 10,000 years ago and today while the extent of grazing lands has remained unchanged between 1950 and 2018 even as meat production quadrupled on the planet.

Now, who are you going to believe, the UN FAO and its partners, The International Meat Secretariat, the International Dairy Federation, the International Poultry Council and the International Egg Commission or your lying eyes? Unfortunately for the UN FAO and its animal agriculture industry partners, the creative accounting that was hiding the true extent of deforestation on the planet is becoming widely exposed. We now know that at least 81% of the forests on land have been destroyed in the past 10,000 years.

The UN IPCC has also been playing us about the leading cause of climate change, pretending that our voracious consumption of animals has little or nothing to do with the climate disaster. That is also being exposed for the outright deception that it is, as animal agriculture is responsible for at least 87% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

All this “playing” is part of the top-down money game that we are born into. Deception, death, disease and destruction are the foundations of our economic and political system – institutional deception to promote death for the animals, diseases for humans and destruction for the planet – during this climate heating phase of humanity.

But that is not sustainable and it is about to end.

At its core, sustainability is about morality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A sustainable economic and political system has to be built on a foundation of truth-telling, health, happiness and harmony with nature, rising like a Phoenix on the ashes of the old. It requires a new bottom-up money game that treats every human being fairly so that we are unafraid to speak the truth with love and compassion.

And it requires a new food system in which everyone has free access to healthy, whole plant-foods, a food system that reflects a human society which cares for everyone and contributes more to the planet than takes from it. Only such a giving and caring society can implement James Lovelock’s dictum, “If the earth improves as a result of human presence, we will flourish. If not, we will perish.”

We wish our children and grandchildren to flourish, not perish, on this planet. How about you?

If you are part of the governments, corporations and institutions that have been playing us, please don’t beat yourselves up. We forgive you because we know that you have been playing an odious role in a dystopian game. Now please stop playing us in your institutional roles, join us as individuals, bring your gifts and let’s work on the necessary transformation.

All the best,

Sailesh Rao, Vega, Cow & Climate Healer and the Climate Healers Team.