Who is Dr. Future? A mysterious visitor from the world of Tomorrow. He’s here to tell us some of the things scientists are doing right now to help save the environment for the future.
UNCLE JOHN: Dr. Future, we keep hearing that we’re destroying our environment. Will we ever be able to fix it?
DR. FUTURE: Not to worry, Johnny Boy. In my time the air is clean, the water is pure, and pollution is all but gone!
UNCLE JOHN: But how? Americans throw away more than 35 billion pounds of plastic garbage every year. Surely our landfills are running out of room!
DR. FUTURE:Settle down, John…and don’t call me Shirley. Your scientists are already trying to fix the problem. Soon all sorts of plastic products will come from landfills: furniture, appliances, even clothes. Recycled plastic grocery bags are already being turned into jackets that look and feel just like leather. And you know those little Styrofoam peanuts you use for packing boxes? They’re being recycled into insulation to put inside the jackets.
UNCLE JOHN: But what about all the other things that get thrown away?
The whites of your eyes are called the sclera.
DR. FUTURE: As time goes on, my friend, fewer and fewer products will be made that have to be thrown away. Your time is already seeing a new kind of fabric that’s strong enough to carry heavy groceries, but gentle enough to use as a hospital gown. Best of all, it also dissolves in hot water, so when you’re done with it, it goes into the sink—not in the landfill.
UNCLE JOHN: But what about the oceans? Oil spills create poisonous slicks that spread for miles. They kill every living thing in their paths and are almost impossible to clean up.
DR. FUTURE: Impossible in your time, perhaps. But in the near future those nasty spills will be cleaned up with a giant, super-absorbent cloth that can suck up more than five times its weight in oil. And the fabric is recyclable—even after a messy cleanup.
UNCLE JOHN: Speaking of messy cleanups, my little nephew goes through five disposable diapers a day. It can take anywhere from several months to several years for a plastic diaper to break down in a landfill. What’s being done about that?
DR. FUTURE: Well, you need to add something to those diapers—besides poop—to break them down.
UNCLE JOHN: What?
DR. FUTURE:Would you believe dead fish? It’s true. In the future, we’ve solved the disposable diaper problem by solving another problem: Commercial fishermen end up with a lot of dead fish in their nets that they don’t want. It’s called the by-catch. These smelly carcasses used to be thrown back into the ocean—where they would end up polluting tidal basins and beaches.
Top 3 bestselling soups in America: 1) cream of mushroom, 2) chicken noodle, 3) tomato.
But not anymore. In my time, the inside of disposable diapers are coated with a gel made from the by-catch. The gel is pure protein, doesn’t smell at all like dead fish, and absorbs up to 600 times its own weight. Bacteria and fungi eat it up. Soon, it will take only 28 days in a landfill for the fishlined diaper to degrade.
UNCLE JOHN: It seems like the possibilities for recycling are endless.
DR. FUTURE: You love to state the obvious, don’t you? Yes, my precious publisher of popular privvy-reading. People all over the world are constantly figuring out new and ingenious ways to conserve energy and resources. You just need to do what you can to help today and keep looking toward the future.
UNCLE JOHN: Wonderful!
So…who will win next year’s Super Bowl?
DR. FUTURE: Well, gotta go! See ya on my next trip to the past!
Why don’t they call it a sea pony? An adult dwarf sea horse is less than 2 inches long.