Nostradamus hosts his first radio show…with LIVE characters from Planet Satiety…The Globulate Trilogy.  Notie get’s briefed on the ideals behind the Code of ECCE by Sir Rex Freshward himself.  Things get really tense when Render E. Shmultz calls in.  Don’t miss out on this very rare occasion…tune in by clicking the “play” button now! 

As a weapon against global warming, it sounds so simple and low-tech that it could not possibly work. But the idea of using millions of buckets of whitewash to avert climate catastrophe has won the backing of one of the world’s most influential scientists.

Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white. A global initiative to change the colour of roofs, roads and pavements so that they reflect more sunlight and heat could play a big part in containing global warming, he said yesterday.

Speaking at the opening of the St James’s Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium, for which The Times is media partner, Professor Chu said that this approach could have a vast impact. By lightening paved surfaces and roofs to the colour of cement, it would be possible to cut carbon emissions by as much as taking all the world’s cars off the roads for 11 years, he said.  The image to the right is a whitewashed church in Greece, where many buildings are painted white to reflect the heat.

Building regulations should insist that all flat roofs were painted white, and visible tilted roofs could be painted with “cool-coloured” paints that looked normal, but which absorbed much less heat than conventional dark surfaces. Roads could be lightened to a concrete colour so they would not dazzle drivers in bright sunlight. “I think with flat-type roofs you can’t even see, yes, I think you should regulate,” Professor Chu said.

Pale surfaces reflect up to 80 per cent of the sunlight that falls on them, compared with about 20 per cent for dark ones, which is why roofs and walls in hot countries are often whitewashed. An increase in pale surfaces would help to contain climate change both by reflecting more solar radiation into space and by reducing the amount of energy needed to keep buildings cool by air-conditioning.

Professor Chu said that his thinking had been influenced by Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission, who drove through tough new building rules in the state. Since 2005 California has required all flat roofs on commercial buildings to be white; the measure is being expanded to require cool colours on all residential and pitched roofs.

Dr Rosenfeld is also a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, of which Professor Chu was director. Last year Dr Rosenfeld and two colleagues from the laboratory, Hashem Akbari and Surabi Menon, calculated that changing surface colours in 100 of the world’s largest cities could save the equivalent of 44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide — about as much as global carbon emissions are expected to rise by over the next decade.

Professor Chu said: “There’s a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Art Rosenfeld, who’s pushing very hard for a geo-engineering we all believe will be completely benign, and that’s when you have a flat-top roof building, make it white.

“Now, you smile, but he’s done a calculation, and if you take all the buildings and make their roofs white and if you make the pavement more of a concrete type of colour rather than a black type of colour, and you do this uniformly . . . it’s the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars on the road for 11 years.”

The US needed to increase its investment in clean energy research, he said, citing high-tech industries that spent 10 to 20 per cent of their income on research. The US was spending $1 trillion on generating electricity, but “nothing like” the $100 billion to $200 billion on research that would meet that standard, he said.

Source: The Times of London – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6366639.ece

Where Our Garbage Goes

In a calm stretch of the northern Pacific lies the Eastern Garbage Patch, a stew of trash twice the size of Texas. Deadly for ocean life, the icky area holds some of the two billion tons of waste we create each year. While technology offers hope for more enlightened disposal, the clock is ticking: Garbage will double by 2030.

NIMBY – Landfills are our country’s No. 1 waste management tool, but they can release toxic chemicals into the water and soil around them as well as methane, a global warmer, into the air. In the 1990s, the EPA shut down thousands of leaky landfills, building larger ones with stricter environmental controls. Which means that if you do live near one, it’s likely to be a whopper: There were 8,000 landfills in the United States in 1988, and there are fewer than 2,000 today. Where trash ends up is also a touchy, state-by-state game of hot potato. Ever since a court ruled decades ago that New Jersey had to accept others’ trash, states have been buying and bartering for dumping rights beyond their own borders.

The recycling slump – Demand for commodities like paper and glass has plummeted, causing the price of recyclables to decrease by 50 to 70 percent. In Berkeley, California, recyclables garnered about $200 a ton last fall, but today they fetch only about $35. Some cities have seen recycling turn from a revenue stream to an expense, since they can’t even recoup the cost of sorting the goods.

Reuse, recycle … burn? – “Waste is a terrible thing to waste,” says Bruce Parker, president of the National Solid Waste Management Association. His trade group supports giving trash a second life—and landfills a break—by following Europe’s lead and investing in more waste-to-energy plants, which convert trash to fuel. As much as 55 percent of waste in countries like Denmark and Sweden heads to such plants, compared with only 8 percent in the United States. Resistance comes from environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, who say recycling is cheaper and cleaner. The waste-to-energy camp counters that it’s not necessarily an either-or: “Countries that have the most waste-to-energy also do the most recycling,” says Nickolas Themelis of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University.

What’s in the can?
The average American tosses 4.6 lbs of garbage every day.
The breakdown: Paper 32.7 %; Yard waste 12.8 %; Food waste 12.5 %; Plastics 12.1 %; Metals 8.2 %; Wood 5.6 %; Glass 5.3 %; Textiles 4.7 %; Rubber & leather 2.9 %;and Other 3.2 %

Where the trash goes
Landfill 54%

Recycling 33.4%

Incinerators 12.6%
Recession recycling
$10 – The amount per ton Harvard used to be paid for its recyclables

$35 – The amount per ton Harvard now has to pay to get rid of them

1.7 million
The number of homes the U.S. could power for 24 hours if we turned a day’s worth of garbage into fuel

80% – How much of our trash is recyclable

33% – How much of our trash we recycle

60 Days – The average time it takes for a can to be recycled and placed back on the store shelf

$304,479 – Cost per acre to build a landfill

Trashy nations
Who’s tossing out the most—and least—junk worldwide (pounds per capita)

Ireland 1,764

Norway 1,764

U.S. 1,672

Netherlands 1,375

U.K. 1,287

Japan 913

Mexico 759

China 253

The Back-and-Forth
… On Plastics Made From Plants
“Our bioplastic is made from plants that can be grown in 100 days, not oil that takes 100 million years. Even today, it’s a good choice.”
–Steve Davies, spokesman, NatureWorks, largest U.S. maker

“There are lots of hungry people in the world, and it seems a little odd to be making disposable cups out of bioplastics.”
–Hank Green, editor, ecogeek.org, an environmental blog

… On the Socioeconomics of Garbage
“Our research shows 75 percent of landfills and other polluters are in minority and low-income communities.”
–Diana Bustamante, executive director, Colonias Development Council of New Mexico

“Our landfill has given the city a new revenue stream in an environmentally friendly way.”
–Scott Simons, DTE Energy, which runs the Riverview Land Preserve, a landfill-with-golf-courses 20 miles south of Detroit

Forward Thinking

• Better burning – In the future, “poof” goes our trash: Gasification breaks garbage down into a flammable, synthetic gas, which can power gas turbines and generate electricity.
  It also recovers more usable energy than the steam turbines of traditional waste-to-energy plants. But startup costs have deterred many prospective customers. IST Energy in Waltham, Massachusetts, is testing a method that eliminates waste on the spot. The compact system fits on a flatbed truck and converts three tons of trash a day into energy, enough to power and heat a 200,000-square-foot office building for 24 hours.
• Imitation plastic – Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives switched to corn-based water bottles in its dining halls, a high-profile plug for bioplastics (also called PLA, for the polylactic acid they’re made from). Fashioned from corn and soybeans, they are biodegradable and made without oil. Wal-Mart, Wild Oats, and Newman’s Own Organics now use at least some PLA packaging.
• “Pay as you throw” – Pitching things costs money, and those costs are being passed on to consumers (surprise!). California has deposit fees on car tires, which are notoriously hard to handle in landfills. Seattle’s residents are charged for every garbage bin and bag they haul to the curb.
• Circular thinking – Upgradable computers from HP, a Nike sneaker you compost, Patagonia fleece made from used water bottles: Designing products with the end in mind, an idea popularized by the “cradle to cradle” movement, is catching on. Says architect William McDonough, a leading proponent, “Products can be used, recycled, and used again without losing any material quality.”

  By Kristina Dell
  From Reader’s Digest -  August 2009

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Perhaps the most unique thing about the Planet Satiety Globulate Trilogy is its unique mix of story and illustration.  The author and illustrator didn’t illustrate the characters for every scene; they’re pictured only as reference.  This allows us to use our own imagination to play out scenes as we’re reading through the book.  If we described each character as we envision them in our minds, I wonder how different our interpretations would be.  Who’s your favorite…and why?

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According to Nostradamus, our future looks bleak and makes a plea for immediate action.  If we don’t get on this now, the future ain’t what it used to be.  He’s counting on Slabdog Productions to help get his message across.  Click the play button below to hear his message or visit Slabdog.com for the full inside look at Planet Satiety – The Globulate Trilogy.

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Planet Satiety paints a grim picture of  how our world could be in the 22nd century.  The entire storyline parallels some of the very problems we face today.  And that Sir Rex, bless his soul…what a great guy and great leader! 

What if there isn’t anyone like Sir Rex today, what would happen?  Scares me!

BW

Planet Satiety readers weigh in!  With the release just over a month ago, Planet Satiety is receiving great reviews.  We invite you to provide your comments too!  Below are just a few reviews from some of our greatest fans:

Based in a world of overindulgence, Planet Satiety provides a fast-paced, futuristic glimpse into a society not all that far from our own.  Following the often comedic voyage of the Sir Rex Freshward and his rogue secret society, a brave few evade the powers of a corrupt global food cartel: the powerful Globulate I nc. who is recklessly intent on controlling the world population through forced consumption.    Always engaging and surprisingly relevant, Planet Satiety will push your imagination and blur the line between fantasy and prophecy.

Dr. Bartholow 

Planet Satiety is a humorously satirical perspective of society and food consumption in the current world. The exaggerated characters, amusingly named, are reminiscent of those in comic books. Teens and adults who enjoy fantasy will enjoy reading this creative work of fiction.

Elinor Shook

Kyle Collins – high school teenager says of Planet Satiety, A unique book whose action and comedy appeals to all teenagers.

Planet Satiety is a fun and wild adventure that’s sure to captivate the mind and please the palette.  Bon Appetit!

Alicia Guarracino
MFA Creative Writing, University of Notre Dame

 Planet Satiety is remarkable in that it uses comedy to get across a larger, more serious issue in today’s society.

Zach Bartlome
2nd year student, Fisher School of Business – The Ohio State University

For even more reviews…visit www.PlanetSatiety.com – The OFFICIAL web site of Planet Satiety – The Globulate Trilogy