DEAR DR. FOX: I read your columns about the environment and climate change. As the mother of two preteen children, how might I best explain what is going on and why? I think the more they understand, the better they can handle what you call eco-anxiety. They do watch the news, and I am just not sure what to say to them. -- L.H., Cleveland, Ohio

DEAR L.H.: I appreciate your concerns. Years ago, when raising my three children, having to explain to them why some people like to shoot wolves -- like those I was raising for my behavioral research -- was a challenge! I told them that some people do not care because they are not connected: They know nothing about the wolves and other animals they kill, so they have neither respect nor understanding.

Such ignorance, and what I call empathy deficiency, can only be rectified by better education about environmental issues and the humane treatment of animals. Sadly, this is yet to be provided in most schools.

I would tell your children that those who harm Mother Earth also harm themselves. She suffers when we burn coal, oil and other fossil fuels, causing climate change. Many people do this because they have lost their respect and love for Mother Earth, treating nature as a resource to exploit and animals as objects -- some to be shot or hooked as trophies, others to be bred in cruel factory farms to be eaten.

A good book for children to read is "Harmony Among Neighbors: The Trumpeting Coyote’s Quest for Coexistence" by Stephanie Becker. And an excellent, longstanding resource that I recommend to parents and teachers is the nonprofit Institute for Humane Education (humaneeducation.org). Older children might be interested to know that there are careers in humane education, and that this organization, through an affiliation with Antioch University, offers graduate programs in such fields.

DEAR DR. FOX: I had been a bit of a climate change skeptic, but now appreciate what you have been saying concerning the loss of biodiversity.

This past summer, my wife and I drove from our home in Minnesota to Orlando, Florida, and back for a conference. My wife noticed that there were hardly any dead bugs splattered on our vehicle after the trip. In the old days, it would have been covered!

I now agree with you. -- B.G., Minnetonka, Minnesota

DEAR B.G.: As alarming as global estimates of insect declines are, the reality may actually be worse in many places. This is especially true here in the U.S., where Big Ag's insecticides and herbicides have created what ecologists call biological deserts. Then there is the so-called domino effect: Insect-eating bats, birds, reptiles and amphibians starve to death (or succumb to disease) with no insects to eat; plants lose their insect pollinators and go extinct; and pollinator-dependent crops fail. And without predators or biodiversity, some insects, such as mosquitoes, flourish. They evolve resistance to insecticides, spread widely (with climate change favorable to them) and put more communities at risk from the many diseases they can carry.

Regrettably, this complex issue has been neglected by governments around the world for decades, and the consequences will impact the quality of all life for generations to come. Immediate remedies must be implemented, beginning with organic, regenerative agriculture and agroforestry and the restoration of regional wildlands. In states like Minnesota, this must include the restoration of wetlands, which are vital carbon sinks, as well as flood prevention and the restoration of wildlife habitats. The latter have been taken over by Big Ag -- drained, tiled and tilled to produce livestock and poultry feed and biofuels.

(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: 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.)