Today, the Pacific islands reflect the best and worst in western society. On the one hand are the bravery and persistence of early European navigators, missionaries, and government officers; the early, well-meaning efforts by many westerners to help the islanders become ‘civilized’; the assistance readily given in times of natural disasters; and the grants and concessional loans to help Pacific countries develop into independent economic entities, to name but a few. On the other hand are the persistence in demolishing the islanders’ tropical culture and turning them into unwilling citizens or dependents of temperate countries, like puppets; the arrogance of assuming that modern western democracy and societal norms, which date back but a few generations, must replace the islanders’ far longer-standing societies; and the continuation of all these efforts to westernize them and their countries in the face of growing awareness in those Pacific countries of the value of their own well tried-and-tested lifestyles—to name but a few. What if history had gone another way? What if the Pacific islanders had taken over Europe instead? That would have been impossible, of course, or would it?

A kindly visitor from another galaxy arrives to find Earth in a bad state. Humans have overrun the planet and are living on a knife’s edge, supported by increasingly higher technology to maintain life while the climate changes around them and even the gas from the fart of a fly could tip them over the edge.    Calling himself Astral Traveler, or AT, he brings the two authors together, planting in their heads stories about the disastrous fate of his former planet, which was destroyed under similar conditions that he sees developing on Earth, and stories that illustrate those conditions on Earth—with the resulting future scenarios. The authors are unaware of AT but decide to write this book on the topic.    The stories are mostly set in Australia, Paraguay and the Philippines. They include stories set in plausible futures as warnings of where we humans are heading and healing essays on simple changes to our way of life that promote better futures for both the planet and its peoples. AT also sends the authors on humorous or mysterious sidetracks when he finds something interesting for his readers back home. In the end, AT reminds us we are part of, not apart from, nature. Consequently, most of the advice from AT and the surrogate authors boils down to the principles of love and respect, not only among humans but across the living planet as a whole.