DEAR READERS: It is time to adapt, help all in need, and stop burning fossil fuels. According to a 2024 article on LiveScience.com, “Aridity is now impacting 40% of the world’s agricultural land and 2.3 billion people, causing intensified wildfires, agricultural collapse and spurring growing mass migrations. Areas particularly hard hit include almost all of Europe, the western United States, Brazil, eastern Asia, and central Africa.” (Full story: LiveScience.com, Dec. 4, 2024)

According to an August report on ScienceAlert.com, “terrestrial water is, on the whole, diminishing, with devastating effects worldwide. That includes freshwater sources on the surface, like lakes and rivers, and also groundwater stored in aquifers deep below Earth’s surface. The majority of the human population -- 75% of us -- live in the 101 countries where fresh water is being lost at increasing rates.” (Full story: ScienceAlert.com, Aug. 18)

“Areas of the planet ‘getting wetter’ and experiencing ‘wet extremes’ are another new feature (that are) decreasing in size ... while increasing in intensity,” wrote Robert Hunziker On CounterPunch.org in September. This scenario “paradoxically serves to complement dryness, leading to extreme mega-dry regions with serious vulnerability to wildfires.”

Hunziker quotes John Marsham, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Leeds, who said, “Our entire infrastructure and civilization are based around a climate that no longer exists.” (Full story: CounterPunch.org, Sept. 12)

DAME DR. JANE GOODALL: PRIMATOLOGIST AND ACTIVIST

The news of the death of this remarkable woman, at age 91, has spread around the world. I join millions in mourning her passing and reflecting on the gifts of her work and dedication.

According to Wikipedia, “Goodall credited the 1986 Understanding Chimpanzees conference, hosted by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, with shifting her focus from observation of chimpanzees to a broader and more intense concern with animal-human conservation.” I met her around this time, when she visited the Humane Society of the U.S., where I served as a vice president and scientific director. We agreed that all concerned citizens should collaborate to end all biomedical and military exploitation of chimpanzees.

Dr. Goodall’s legacy lives on as a pioneer in connecting us with our closet living relatives, long endangered and abused. She is remembered for promoting respect and compassion for animals and nature, and is honored in environmental and humane education programs in schools around the world.

Dr. Goodall filmed an interview in March with the understanding it would be released after her death. For more, go to: netflix.com/tudum/articles/jane-goodall-famous-last-words-documentary.

PLANT-BASED DOG FOOD BENEFITS ALL AROUND

An analysis of commercially available dry dog foods in the U.K. has revealed that plant-based formulations generate lower environmental impacts compared to meat-based alternatives. The University of Nottingham study examined 31 dry dog foods across five categories: plant-based, poultry-based, beef-based, lamb-based and veterinary renal diets. Researchers found that plant-based options consistently required fewer resources and produced lower emissions across all measured environmental metrics.

For details, see the study “Environmental impact of feeding plant-based vs. meat-based dry dog foods in the United Kingdom” by R.A. Brociek and D.S. Gardner, published in Frontiers in Nutrition-Nutrition and Sustainable Diets, 2025.

(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: So many states are experiencing their warmest falls ever recorded. The cause is the extreme warming of the North Pacific Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This warming has pushed the jet stream further north, drawing hot, moist air with it.

Marine biologists are sounding the alarm that ocean warming is beginning to kill plankton, which are the primary food source for the entire chain of ocean life, and which provide more atmospheric oxygen than all the forests combined.

Since 2009, researchers in Germany have been tracking “nine geophysical limits that make up a sort of planetary life-support system; staying within these limits, they argue, is the best hope for maintaining the clement climatic conditions we and most of Earth’s other denizens have adapted to,” per a recent report on ScientificAmerican.com. As of 2025, humans have pushed Earth past seven of these nine boundaries. The latest line to be crossed: Levels of ocean acidification have now exceeded a critical threshold.

“Ocean acidification can have profound impacts on marine ecosystems by depleting seawater of certain carbon compounds that corals and other shell-building animals need to construct their protective homes,” reads the report. “At low enough pH levels, corals and shells can even begin to dissolve. These effects could destabilize entire ecosystems and devastate many commercially valuable species, such as oysters.” Read the full story here: scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-acidification-threshold-pushes-earth-past-another-planetary-boundary.

To counteract this, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should have an action plan to get President Trump to rejoin the Paris Agreement, and to do better than China, which has pledged to reduce emissions. Much more action is needed.

DEAR DR. FOX: Thank you for publishing my “rich get richer” message in a recent column. It appeared in the Clayton (Georgia) Press, which is in a seriously red area, so hopefully it will do some good.

One of my go-to prayers these days is “Deliver us from evil.” With Trump raving about imaginary violence and spreading more hate and divisiveness, we are living in a nightmare. I’m going to keep plugging away and doing what I can until the black SUVs come for me (hopefully not!). Thanks for all you do; consciousness-raising is the first step to behavior change. -- D.C., Otto, North Carolina

DEAR D.C.: You confirm that we are not alone in our concerns for nonviolent civil disobedience and opposition to political violence. Social media is also very harmful when it fosters violence and facilitates the divide-and-conquer ethos of authoritarian regimes and sociopathic acolytes, as well as racism, sexism and speciesism. Freedom of speech is not without responsibility for consequences.

Also, as you have pointed out, the concentration of money and power disrupts the balance between capitalism and socialism. The yardstick of GDP -- gross domestic product -- needs to be recalibrated, according to one detailed analysis. It states:

”Although global gross domestic product (GDP) has more than doubled, our median results show a modest achievement in reducing human deprivation that would have to accelerate five-fold to meet the needs of all people by 2030. ... These trends and inequalities reaffirm the case for overcoming the dependence of nations on perpetual GDP growth and reorienting towards regenerative and distributive economic activity -- within and between nations -- that assigns priority to human needs and planetary integrity.” For details, see “Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance” by Andrew Fanning and Kate Raworth, published in Nature in October.

GDP growth should be in concord with planetary CPR: conservation, protection and restoration. This should be at the top of the agenda of governments and corporations around the world.

PANDEMICS: HOW NATURE STRIKES BACK

Epidemiologists -- scientists who investigate the origin of emerging, potentially pandemic, diseases -- are unanimous in ringing the alarm bell as our expanding population continues to exploit and consume various animal species -- some wild, some farmed and some sold in open markets. When a virus jumps from an animal to infect a human, it is called a zoonotic disease. One example is rabies, hence the need for vaccinations. The influenza virus is a continuing challenge, jumping from pigs and poultry to people and constantly mutating to make vaccinations outdated when a new variant spreads.

Until we collectively stop exploiting animals as a source of food, causing them considerable suffering in the process, we will continue to suffer the consequences to the detriment of public health, the economy and ecological biodiversity. The latter is the cornerstone of One Health, now threatened by climate change.

(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: President Trump’s so-called “war on woke” includes countless attacks on science. Soon, environmentalists and conservationists protesting the expansion of coal mining may be branded as domestic terrorists. They are already being called left-wing anarchists and communists. Scientists and institutions documenting the critical nature of climate change, which threatens generations to come, are losing federal funding and having their reports dismissed as “fake news.”

Many people and organizations, notably the Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.global), are rising up to oppose inhumanity, denial, greed and ignorance. Ultimately, this is enlightened self-interest, since what we do in this generation will impact the quality of life for generations to come, for better or for worse. Yet with the rise of fascist, authoritarian regimes in several countries, those who promote such humane and ethical initiatives are being demonized and treated as domestic terrorists.

This is indeed a tipping point for the survival of civil society, and of nature, and it has been gathering for several decades with the concentration of money and power.

Decades ago, when I got widespread media coverage of my documentation of how farm animals are mistreated in industrial-scale factories and slaughterhouses, I was called a communist by one Texas senator. Supposedly, I was working for the Soviet Union to overthrow American agriculture. Now the wheel has turned, and science is under attack, along with truth and freedom.

As Henry A. Giroux writes in the L.A. Progressive, “The stakes could not be clearer: Silence is complicity. To speak, to talk back, and to engage in mass action is now the most urgent precondition for building powerful modes of collective resistance. ... The lights are going out fast, but they are not yet extinguished. Justice, equality and freedom can still be made the foundation for a radical democracy -- but only if we act. Resistance is no longer optional; it is the urgent political and moral task of our time.”

For more details, see my 2001 book "Bringing Life to Ethics: Global Bioethics for a Humane Society," as well as "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity" by Paul Kingsnorth.

DEAR DR. FOX. I am 87 years old. I read your articles about COVID vaccinations with great interest.

I had my shot last Saturday morning, and that afternoon, I suffered an atrial fibrillation event. I didn’t know if this was coincidental or not, so I notified my cardiologist, but I was told that they had no other reports of this kind.

I’ve never had any reaction with previous COVID shots, and I’ve never had COVID-19. What do you think? -- D.F.G., Naples, Florida

DEAR D.F.G.: I sympathize with you over what must have been a frightening experience. Fortunately, in your case, it was a short-lasting reaction. Post-vaccination atrial fibrillation has been reported in the medical literature, but its cause is not fully understood.

One hypothesis points to inflammation caused by the immune response to the vaccine. For most people, this is a transient, if not also a benign, immune reaction. (See the study "Atrial fibrillation after vaccination for COVID-19: analysis of the vaccine adverse event reporting system" by Ashish Kumar et al., published in the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology, 2022.) Share this with your heart doctor!

Fortunately, adverse reactions to vaccines are rare, and the benefits of most vaccinations far outweigh such risks. People who do develop severe and chronic adverse reactions to any vaccination can seek compensation -- not from the manufacturers, but from the U.S. government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Visit hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation for more information.

(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.)