A Healthy Planet And A Healthy You

We all depend on a healthy planet. Without it, we can't survive, let alone be healthy ourselves.

Interestingly, living and eating in the healthy ways we have discussed on this site -- on a plant-based whole-foods diet is also one of the key ways we can contribute to environmental health.

Here are a few more ways we can contribute to making this, once again, a healthy planet:

* Oppose war. War competes with our chemicalized methods of agriculture for being one of the greatest destroyers of our healthy planet. The U.S. military, for example, is the largest user of fossil fuels in the USA.

Here is a little secret that has not occurred to the brilliant people who run our county: It would be far cheaper to befriend the people of those countries that have the oil and natural gas that we want, rather than trying to use war and violence as methods to ensure that we get the fossil fuels we are dependent on.

In the end, our healthy planet will depend on developing intelligent cooperation among the nations and people of the world.

* Support organic farming. Eat a vegetarian/vegan diet of real, unprocessed foods. Spend your food dollar on locally-grown foods, rather than imports from distant lands. Best strategy: grow as much of your own food as you can.

* Be a healthy animal. Use your body as much as you can to get around. Walk or bike to work and to do errands. Take the stairs, not the elevator. Look for ways to use and strengthen your body. Lose the fat. Don't support the medical/insurance industries with your money: Get healthy so you rarely need their help.

* Educate yourself. Prepare yourself for a more challenging future -- We are beginning to transition away from our reliance on fossil fuels. Learn to see clearly who is your friend and who is your oppressor. Don't take this distressing world situation out on yourself by self-indulgence, depression, or surrender.

* Break your addiction to the unhealthy foods that wreck our health and harm our planet.

We are living in an exciting time. We are in the middle of a battle over whether we shall continue to force the majority of the planet to pay for the unsustainable lifestyle and diet of the privileged few. Which side are you on?

The leadership in this battle to sustain the unsustainable may pass from the USA to China, but -- from what I'm seeing in the news -- the Chinese political leaders and elite are just as eager as the Americans are to enjoy the unreasonably high standard of living that can only be enjoyed with abundant oil and the same dietary luxuries that have made us the most unhealthy nation. No lessons have been learned from all the misery the standard American diet has caused.

The real challenge will be to maintain our faith that good will prevail over evil. Not in the sense that one nation will overcome the rest and impose a "peace." But in the sense that through all this suffering we will learn from our failures(for a change!) and stop making the same mistakes with more powerful weapons and technologies.

Even though it may be inconceivable now, we need to keep faithful to the promises of many spiritual leaders who assured us that good, in the end, will triumph over evil. We need to be doing our part, working for the good we want to bring forth, rather than wallowing in self-pity, despair, and a final blow-out party of overindulgence.

Life on this very beautiful and life-sustaining planet is a rare thing. We need to make sure we -- as individuals and as the human race -- survive our learning curve. We have made a long detour on a path that neglected the interconnected nature of human health and planetary health. In the process, we have damaged our health greatly. We have lost our spiritual connection and appreciation for the rare environment in which we live, but we can regain it whenever we want.

The challenge of the next few tumultuous years will be to become a healthy planet, peopled with loving, cooperative beings who are beginning to realize our human potential -- The potential that Jesus was talking about when he said, "Ye are gods."

A good source for the in-depth documentation I base my conclusions on is John Robbins' "The Food Revolution". Ultimately, though, reading about these problems is only the first step in re-establishing a healthy planet. Once we know the truth, we need to make changes in our lives and urge others to make the changes that will stop rewarding corporations for destroying our environment for their profit.

Each person makes a difference by deciding to eat and live in ways that make us healthy and make for a healthy planet.

Water Planets, like ours, are a rare thing

A Healthy Planet Depends On A Healthy Diet