DEAR READERS: In wishing you a happy New Year, it is a good time to look back and see where our past choices have taken us.

Where in the world has compassion gone? I fear it has gone the way of empathy and justice. War, famine, plague, pestilence, terrorism, corruption and nihilism assault our sensibilities and sanity as we witness the brinkmanship dances and convolutions around nuclear war. Pro-life moralists undermine women’s reproductive rights while pro-industry minions undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples and species, along with environmental protection and conservation.

A rising tsunami of environmental refugees -- impoverished by colonialism and now further imperiled by overpopulation and climate change -- are seeking sanctuary in the richer countries that are, in part, responsible for their plight. Providing aid to them should be an integral part of climate change amelioration. At the recent United Nations COP29 climate summit, rich nations agreed to raise $300 billion per year to "help poorer countries to nix fossil fuels and adapt to a warming world," as Nature.com summarized. "The obligation is seen as both moral -- wealthy countries created most emissions and got rich doing so, whereas poor countries are most vulnerable to their effects -- and pragmatic: paying for decarbonization will prevent a much bigger bill if climate change is left to run rampant."

For too long, the prophetic warnings of Indigenous peoples have been ignored in this so-called Anthropocene era of humankind’s blind dominion over Earth. Peoples living in deeper communion with nature foresaw that when the oceans die, we die. Plastic and toxic chemical pollution are destroying the living matrix of the oceans. About 400 million tons of plastic are manufactured annually, but international negotiators who met in December in Busan, South Korea, were unable to hash out a treaty to address the issue. As Nature.com summarized: "One fundamental difference blocked agreement: Some nations aim to reduce production of nonessential plastics; others, particularly those who make petrochemicals, prefer to focus on waste management."

We are close to the end of this Anthropocene age, and what is to come? Either the Ecocene or the Ecocidal. The latter revolves around a fossil-fuel-based global economy that is unsustainable and ultimately nihilistic.

There are many solutions and resolutions we can all embrace. One significant corrective step is choosing a plant-based diet. Some metabolic diseases could have been prevented by responsible governments if they were not beholden to Big Ag and Big Pharma (drug companies that profit from nutrition-related diseases).

We face an anti-science, pro-business corporate-political oligarchy, which has long denied the risks of the pesticides and antibiotics that are overused and overprescribed to billions of farmed animals. Few American taxpayers are aware of the billions in government subsidies being given to harmful industrial agricultural practices -- especially to the livestock industry and commodity crop producers that indirectly benefit chemical fertilizer and pesticide sales.

Collectively, we are at a time of reckoning and accountability at all levels: nationally and internationally, personally and professionally, politically and industrially. There is no “salvation” in some magical techno-fix, such as atmospheric geoengineering to create more shade or to increase rain across chosen regions. Deep-sea mining for minerals, advocated by some to maintain energy security, could irreversibly damage aquatic ecosystems.

Funding a clean and sustainable energy transition is imperative. The escalating energy demands of data storage centers, cybercurrency transactions and corporate and government cybersecurity are adding to the climate crisis, not to mention homeowners’ costs in warming and cooling their homes. The escapist brain rot of cyberaddiction -- to online gaming and social media -- is also consuming energy. We are wasting good minds while creating a virtual reality devoid of virtue.

This is no time to be anti-science. We must supplant disinformation and denial with sound evidence and ethical reasoning. Escalating international tensions, triggering more spending on military weapons rather than on planetary conservation, will seal our fate. We must work towards making peace to save the planet.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR.FOX. I was delighted to read your “Perpetual War or Metamorphosis?” column in the paper. It’s not every day I see a piece as visionary and forward-thinking as this. Thanks for advancing a long-overdue critique of anthropocentrism.

A biocentric worldview and policies are wise, just and essential for humanity to survive the environmental crises we have created. -- P.H., El Cerrito, California

DEAR P.H.: I appreciate your words of support, and I share your regret that the biocentric or ecocentric worldview has not yet taken center stage in our politics and collective consciousness. Biologically, I see this as the evolutionary junction that Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin predicted over half a century ago: We now have one final choice, and that is "between suicide and adoration," as he put it.

The evident ecocide that industrial civilization is causing will not end if those responsible continue to control political regimes, government agencies and the media sector that is disseminating denial and disinformation rather than the truth.

Now that the U.S. election is over, it is blatantly evident that the primary concern of most citizens is the economy -- specifically, inflation and the cost of living. This is because this fossil fuel-based industrial civilization has become toxic and is not sustainable. The profits made by Big Pharma and Big Ag are interwoven with Big Oil and the health care insurance industry, while property insurance skyrockets with ever more frequent and intense climatic events.

I agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on some public health issues, especially about the chronic metabolic diseases created by the ultra-processed food industry, which ultimately benefits Big Pharma. These diseases also lead to elevated health care costs for taxpayers, whose government has been in absentia in terms of establishing and enforcing regulatory reforms -- in energy production and use, in how our food is produced, and in how consumers are educated about health and nutrition.

PRESIDENTIAL TURKEY 'PARDONING' IS RITUAL ABSURDITY

In his Nov. 22 New York Times essay, author and bioethics professor Peter Singer took the very words out of my head that I was going to write for this column. In documenting the many absurd aspects of the annual White House "turkey pardon," Singer recounts the suffering of turkeys on factory farms and the consequences of selective breeding and feeding for rapid growth. (Full story: New York Times, Nov. 22)

One concern he did not mention was the necrosis (rotting) of breast muscles in both turkeys and broiler chickens that grow so fast their blood circulation becomes inadequate in this part of their bodies. (See the study "Muscle Abnormalities and Meat Quality Consequences in Modern Turkey Hybrids" by Marco Zampiga et al., published in Frontiers in Physiology in 2020.)

Hundreds of thousands of chickens and turkeys are currently being “depopulated” to control the spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus by simply switching off the ventilation and letting the birds slowly suffocate to death. In Europe, arguably more humane methods are used, including carbon dioxide gas or nitrogen foam.

In my opinion, as a vegetarian veterinarian, the president and all who consume turkeys and other animals should instead ask to be pardoned by them. They should learn more about how these creatures are raised and slaughtered, about how public taxes subsidize the livestock and poultry industries, and about nutritious, plant-based dietary alternatives.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: Anyone who still consumes bacon, pork or other pig products needs to think twice, especially if they have, and love, a dog or cat -- whose emotional intelligence is equivalent to a pig’s. People who have kept pigs as companions applaud their intelligence, curiosity, cleanliness, affection and playfulness.

By popular vote in California, state mandate Proposition 12 has been set to refuse imports of any pig products from other states where pigs are kept under the inhumane conditions that are standard practice on most hog factory farms.

From a post on Meatingplace.com entitled "Pork producers react to proposed Farm Bill": “The release of the latest version of a Farm Bill did not impress the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) because the proposed legislation did not address California’s Proposition 12 mandate, which became law this year. The pork industry association expressed 'deep disappointment' that the proposed legislation released by U.S. Senate Democrats does not include 'a solution' to Prop 12, NPPC said in a statement."

The text of the latest Farm Bill proposal came from Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat and the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and differs from the version released in May by the Republican-led House Committee on Agriculture. The House version had addressed the NPPC’s concerns, the group said.

Citing USDA data, NPPC noted that the adoption of Prop 12 has resulted in a 41% price increase for pork products in California since it became law. The organization is calling for both chambers of Congress to “swiftly consider and pass” a Farm Bill that includes a Prop 12 “fix.”

It is likely that the Republicans will go hog wild with their pork politics, having their bacon and sausage regardless of the rights and interests of these highly sentient beings. The mistreatment of pigs for monetary reasons is a sad reflection on the state of our humanity and economy.

The consumption of pigs from factory farms is morally reprehensible. A marketing system based on pork-belly futures is unsustainable and has catastrophic consequences. It contributes to the climate crisis and to the decline in public health, especially since hog factory farms are epicenters of potentially pandemic strains of the influenza virus and a major source of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

Reducing pork production will be a challenge, considering the consumer demand for pig parts (such as ears and snouts as "treats" for dogs, which I advise against for health reasons) and the fact that the U.S. exports pork to China. According to data from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, the U.S. exported approximately $1.24 billion worth of pork to China in 2023.

For more on this issue, see my 2011 book, “Healing Animals and the Vision of One Health.”

DEAR DR. FOX: I am writing to you because one of your recent columns mentioned the fact that there is a rise in cancer among young people. My son, at age 24, passed away last year from osteosarcoma.

He was a healthy young adult with a promising future ahead. He was diagnosed right after graduating from engineering college. It is very sad that none of the treatments he suffered through worked.

A few months later, his young cat passed away. I hope they are together somewhere now. -- S.P., Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR S. P.: My condolences to you; what an ordeal you and your son went through.

I think many families are going through this kind of tragedy with diseases that we have unwittingly created by our lack of regard for environmental protection. We have contaminated the water and food chains with a plethora of chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic and/or endocrine disruptors. I believe this is compounded by nonionizing radiation and electromagnetic fields from electronic devices and telecommunication systems. The most vulnerable are likely those who happen to be genetically susceptible to these environmental contaminants.

As I have emphasized repeatedly in my column, cancer is a multifactor, pluricausal disease in most instances. Integrating all the evidence -- genetic susceptibility notwithstanding -- points to its anthropogenic causation: a disease of modern civilization.

Again, my sympathy goes out to you and all who knew and loved your son. His passing, and that of so many others, indicates the need for a call to action backed by sound science and political leadership -- the latter not aligned with the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and highly processed food industries. My forthcoming book, “One Health: Veterinary, Ethical and Environmental Perspectives,” addresses these issues and what we can all do as consumers and parents for health’s sake and for Earth’s sake.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)