A vegan grandfather and engineer’s guide to turning Planet A around
Dr. Sailesh Rao spoke at one of The Vegan Community’s events I did some marketing for, so when we connected on LinkedIn he shared about the book he published this year and the one he was working on next. There IS a Planet B is based on a talk Dr. Rao has given many times, and it’s a great guide for the average person who wants to know how they can do their part to turn around the environmental havoc that we are wreaking on Earth.
The book is only available as a Kindle book right now because the cover that you see on Amazon or even in this blog is upside down, even though it doesn’t look like it. Amazon is not letting him publish it upside down, so he either has to change his cover or sell the book directly to readers. These author platforms are not very conducive to creative innovation!
I call this a vegan book because Dr. Rao is an outspoken vegan, and you’ll see how this is important to the book’s thesis.
Highlights worth mentioning:
- Rao talks about how climate science has been greenwashed. Most climate scientists are talking about the harm of fossil fuels, while ignoring the impact of animal agriculture on the planet. Rao goes into the flaws in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which include the accounting and politicizing of GHG emissions from fossil fuels.
- He claims if we implemented a rapid phase-down of fossil fuels, we’d actually accelerate global warming by 50 to 87% in a matter of weeks. Yeah, big claim!
- In terms of our 9 planetary boundaries, we are now in the red zone for four.
- Animal agriculture as a leading cause of climate change is becoming common knowledge, and transitioning away from this is how Rao claims we can generate Planet B (he was an Executive Producer of the 2014 documentary Cowspiracy, trailer below). Someone at the National Wildlife Federation said that the world won’t go vegan unless we reduce our population from 8 billion to 1 billion. So we don’t really have a choice unless we all get on board!
- Rao shares the 7 tipping points that will be triggered if we cross the 1.5 degree C threshold. He claims that if we lose our wild animals, that will be the worst planetary boundary transgression. He believes that the world will need to be vegan by the end of 2026 (in about a year’s time) or there will be no reversing this.
- He claims (and I agree) that most of us look at reality upside down (hence the book cover) because corporations that want to keep us either sick or addicted—to keep few people wealthy—run the world. Rao shares how he was formerly addicted to smoking cigarettes, a perfect example. After quitting, he also quit coffee, alcohol, and animal products in 2008. The story of his house fire is also a great microcosmic example of attempted corporate manipulation.
- Rao shares the 7 core shifts that will be required for us to transition into a caregiver species. I think these are very idealistic but impractical because most of Western society operates against these.
- He also proposes that we replace one of the UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), and I agree.
- Rao shares the 8 healing habits that are linked to American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM)’s six pillars of lifestyle medicine, busts nutritional myths behind meat and dairy, explains the link between animal consumption and colonialism, discusses the codes for a healthy Earth launched in 2019 that build on principles from other organizations, and 7 strategic actions we should take.
This is a book with big ideas, but we have big problems in the world, so we need big ideas and solutions to solve them. As with most vegan books I’ve reviewed here, Rao breaks down how we can all live vegan lifestyles to be part of the solution.
If you care about the planet and animals but get overwhelmed by the scientific jargon and want someone to break it down for you in a simpler way, check out this book.
And if you’re a climate scientist and find this a little more a like a children’s book, stay tuned for his next one when he’ll dig even more deeply into these topics.
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