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Anti-gravity? Efficient wind farms and solar energy? It’s not as far-fetched as you think. Check out this guest post from Glide author Bill Gourgey:

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The other day I was talking to my neighbor, a high level TV executive at the Discovery Channel, about Green Science.  We were at a party and the topic came up because he asked me what I was up to, so I began to describe my new novel, Glide, and how one of its themes is Green Sci Fi.  Well, I might as well have announced that I was writing about something as whimsical as Oz. He wrote me off with a wave of his hand.  Green doesn’t sell, he said matter-of-factly.  Really, I said, that surprises me. The opinion polls I’ve seen and the research I’ve done suggests that people love the concept of Green. That’s just it, he replied, they love the concept, but as soon as it comes down to the reality—to changing lifestyles to be Green—they avoid it.  Trust me, he added, I know. We keep trying out Green programs on the network and they just don’t get traction. 

Of course, there must be some truth to my neighbor’s advice.  After all, he has the numbers to prove it. That got me a bit worried. If people don’t enjoy watching Green shows on TV, what would compel them to read Green fiction? But the more I thought about it and continued to research Green Science and Green Science Fiction, the more I realized that Green is simply too broad a term to throw around without qualifying it. For example, most people probably don’t want to be told that they should be making the extra effort to compost their organic garbage and recycle the rest. It’s a lot of work.  Who has time…or money? And those are the kinds of Green How-To shows you tend to find on TV, narrated by some svelte intellectual who leaves you feeling guilty for not making more of an effort.  BUT!  What if there was an invention that allowed you to throw out your garbage the way you always do? Underneath the counter, this little machine would sort your trash for you and compact it so that all you would have to do is take two little biodegradable bags out to the curb each week? One labeled “Organics” the other “Recyclables.” Sounds a bit like something the Cat in the Hat might come up with, I know, but that invention, if it existed, would be Green Science.  Since it doesn’t yet exist (to my knowledge) it would be Green Sci Fi. For the record, you can buy indoor compost stations (they look like fish tanks) and multi-bin trash compactors, but nothing that automatically sorts through a continuous flow of household trash.  At least, not on the residential level.  Commercially, lots of companies are tackling the waste-sorting problem with a fair amount of success.  Hence, the lines between Science and Fiction have already begun to blur when it comes to Green Waste Management.  Still with me?

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