Arcos Cielos Research Center

Transforming the Global Biosphere: Twelve Futuristic Strategies is a ground-breaking book that presents the reader with a fresh, enlightened Overview of the Major Problems which presently face Humans and the Global Environment. Drawing from a wealth of educational and scientific experience, Dr. Elliott Maynard has created a Set of Transformational Tools for thinking and living in harmony with other citizens of our Planet, and for protecting and restoring our precious Global Ecosystems. This exceptional new book contains a constellation of unique Examples, Concepts, and Strategies for guiding the Human Consciousness through a transition into an entirely new Third Millennium Mindset for Success and Survival in the World of the Future.

Transforming the Global Biosphere is based on the author’s presentations to the World Future Society, and was written at the suggestion of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Dr. Robert Muller. The author feels strongly that, in order to reverse the presently destructive impacts of Human Technology on the Global Biosphere, a Transformative Revolution in Human Consciousness must first take place. Such a “Magnificent Revolution” would take the form of Twelve Futuristic MetaStrategies…each of which would represent a Key SocioEcological Paradigm in itself. Each chapter of the book is developed around a MetaStrategy, providing examples of the Major Problems, as well as Innovative Solutions for reversing these Destructive Trends…through selected applications of Unique Alternative Technologies and Strategies.

Dr. Maynard’s Twelve MetaStrategies for Planetary Management are essentially a set of enlightened, yet effective, tools for Creative Thinking and Action. They are designed to promote environmentally sustainable future scenarios for the maximum benefit for Humans, their Planetary Homeworld, and for the Generations Yet to Come.

In spite of the mounting evidence of environmental damage and disturbance to our Natural Planetary Systems, Dr. Maynard contends that solutions to these problems are available through insightful applications of Alternative Technologies, which can provide Clean Renewable Energy, Efficient Non-Polluting Transportation, Hi-Energy Nutrition, and Ecologically Appropriate Lifestyles for everyone on Earth. To achieve such a meaningful and lasting transformation, the author feels we must move rapidly and efficiently beyond the entanglements of 20th Century Thinking, and blaze adventurous new pathways into the Future. Together we must find the courage to explore the promising applications of alternative leading-edge Technologies, which often exist outside the boundaries of the Mainstream Scientific Thought.

In the author’s words, “If these Twelve MetaStrategies can be successfully integrated into the Biological and Social Fabric of Planet Earth, Humans can successfully complete their co-evolutionary journey into the Third Millennium and beyond…instilled with a renewed spirit of Enthusiasm, Enlightened Accomplishment, and Joyful Satisfaction for their new symbiotic relationship with Planet Earth and their Fellow Humans.”

Every once in awhile a book comes along that strikes a chord with me. It’s hard to explain why. It’s not because a book is well written, or because the subject matter appeals to me. It’s because it rings a bell in my psyche as being something worthwhile. Reading it reminds me of my purpose in life: environmental activism. No, “Environmentalism” is NOT a dirty word. Yet, as the whole planet seems to be hell bent on destroying itself, us naive few still think we can avert complete ecological disaster. Go figure?

Transforming the Global Biosphere is not an academic dissertation. It’s not written because of the “publish or perish” rule of a university professor….The author has created a book that breathes… a book that shape shifts. TGB slides on the cutting edge of green technologies. Nothing is set in stone as the information it contains keeps coming in. It’s evolving as we think…

Author Elliott Maynard walks his talk. He travels and meets with all the inventors, thinkers, biologists, and researchers he showcases in his pages. He keeps in touch with them as their work progresses. This refreshing and uncommon dedication to stay in contact with his sources runs counter to the tired “impartial” role of the science news reporter. Elliott gets down and dirty with his subject. He’s what the mass media fears the most, a reporter AND an advocate. A journalist with a conscience.

It’s rare to read a writer who can find common ground between a sometimes rather right wing new energy community, which suspiciously eyes most environmentalists as Rockefeller stooges, with technologically conservative environmentalists who have a hard time breaking their addiction to the second law of thermodynamics.

But Elliott can manage. He makes no bones about it saying: “Our mission is to educate the general public… the book is written in a journalistic style which can be understood by everyone, especially individuals who speak English as a second language.” And it is, edited just like a music video, made up of to-the- point chapters, quick paragraphs and short sentences. It delivers its message swiftly and precisely. You breeze right through it.

There are two different type of professional. The specialist and the generalist. The first can’t see the forest for the trees, the second can’t see a single tree for the forest. There are a lot more specialists in the world than generalists. Generalists have a hard time making ends meet. They get labeled as “futurists” with no discernable or marketable skills. Then suddenly, usually on the whim of a very successful philanthropist or corporation, you get someone like Alvin Toffler or Faith Popcorn who magically starts making thousands of dollars for public appearances, almost like an oracle.

TGB is a practical book, full of cool things to do, and new things to learn, new things to follow through. I’m immersed in “solutions technologies,” or as the less optimistic call it: “technofix,” and yet, I still discovered things in this book I knew nothing about… even though a lot of them had been right in front of me all this time, a link away, on a familiar website. This is why this book is so important. It will broaden your perspective of options at our disposal. It will widen your palette of technofix colors to chose from. It will expand your horizons. What more can you ask a little book to do?

TGB is NOT your average “100 things you can do to save the earth, huh, duh, recycle!” kind of book. It goes well deeper than that. It dares to venture where other books fear to tread. It provides vivid descriptions of hard tools already applied in limited ways and set in motion around the globe by individuals, countries, or corporations willing to take a chance on the untested and the unproven.

The book came about after Elliott Maynard gave a presentation to the World Future Society, generally a rather conservative group of futurists, entrenched in post-Asimov 1950 science fiction group think. He brought them some examples of the more radical approaches to environmental restoration he had gathered from his travels.

That’s when Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General, urged Elliott to collect his findings and put them into a book to circulate easily to the head of Non-Governmental Organizations. This is what Elliott is currently doing now with his text… placing his book in the lap of those he feels best positioned to put the information it contains to good use.

To those of us on the web 24/7 searching the globe for the latest innovation in battery technology, motor efficiency, nuclear remediation, etc… TGB becomes the ideal manual to explain to people what email activism is all about. We can no longer wait or expect our institutions to match solution to problem without intervening in its dissemination. One of my favorite saying is “the catalyst disappears in the solution.” This book is all about making unlikely new connections, and plugging the holes where the rain gets in.

I was going to get specific in this review. I made notes in the book, highlighting in day-glo yellow marker what I felt was most important. But then I realized that’s what was most important—to me, and I would just be undermining the reader’s sense of discovery, like revealing the end to a good movie. So just read the table of contents! The way this book and its author has inspired me can be felt throughout many recent posts I have made to the ET List and my other Yahoo Groups.

TGB is more than just a print out of website downloads. It’s a road map to the best options using the latest tools. These options will have a web presence, but Google cannot find them if you do not already know what to look for. TGB becomes a bible of new keywords. We’re all good little eco-soldiers… out to save the planet from the bad and the ugly. There’s a zillion enviro-books out there, but few know how to inspire, striking responsive chords, making it fun to have homework again.

Excerpted from Book Review by Remy Chevalier. Editor-at-Large and Webmaster.
Electrifying Times Magazine - www.electrifyingtimes.com

“If we are to survive as a species on this planet, let us be forewarned that our survival depends on how well we protect this fragile earth, as it is a place for each of us to live, breathe, and bask in the brilliant diversity of life.”

…Selma Brackman – Executive Director of the War and Peace Foundation, United Nations Plaza, New York (Her comment in response to reading the book).

“Dr. Maynard is researching a most important topic for the survival of our species. His work deserves wide attention from the public.”

…Tom Valone, Ph. D., P.E. - Scientist, Author, Lecturer and President of the Integrity Research Institute in Washington, DC, a leading-edge non-profit organization for the development of New Alternative Energy Technologies.

“This book is an encompassing probe that unmasks the complex enormity of the challenges that life on Earth faces…yet it reveals the simplicity of the remedies. Maynard’s trendsetting achievement illustrates how we can learn to see things differently, and then adapt by taking the appropriate actions.”

…Andrew Michrowski, Ph.D. – Research Scientist, Global Futurist, and President of the Planetary Association for Clean Energy…a unique non-profit organization for research and development of New Environmentally Sustainable Technologies in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

“Every once in a while a book comes along that strikes a chord with me. It’s hard to explain why. It’s not because a book is well written, or because the subject matter appeals to me. It’s because it rings a bell in my psyche as being something worthwhile.”

“Transforming the Global Biosphere is not an academic dissertation. It’s not written because of the “publish or perish” rule of a university professor….The author has created a book that breathes…a book that shape shifts. TGB slides on the cutting edge of green technologies. Nothing is set in stone as the information keeps coming in. It’s evolving as we think…”

“Author Elliott Maynard walks his talk. He travels and meets with all the inventors, thinkers, biologists, and researchers he showcases on his pages. He keeps in touch with them as their work progresses. This refreshing and uncommon dedication to stay in contact with his sources runs counter to the tired “impartial” role of the science news reporter. Elliott gets down and dirty with his subject. He’s what the mass media fears the most, a reporter AND an advocate. A journalist with conscience.”

…Remy Chevalier – Editor-at-Large for Electrifying Times Magazine (Excerpted from his Book Review).

“Elliott Maynard has provided important, top-down perspectives by developing metastrategies for humans to protect the global biosphere. Relationship Space is treated as a significant Frontier for the Future, where aware beings must interact with each other, other life forms, and all parts of the dynamic universe. He develops many practicable ideas to support humans playing a dominant stewardship role in maintaining the future sustainability of the Earth.”

…Kenneth J. Cox, Ph.D. – Chief Technologist at NASA Johnson Space Center, Futurist, Imagineer, and Chairperson for the Aerospace Technology Working Group.

“I fully agree with your Twelve Futuristic Strategies for Transforming (Saving”) the Global Biosphere. It is appalling that no more attention is given to the Future, especially by national governments.”

“I am convinced that Arcos Cielos Research Center will have a great success and will render great services to humanity and to the world…With admiration for your great work.”

…Dr. Robert Muller – Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, former UN Assistant Secretary General, and Chancellor Emeritus of the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica.