“What in the Blue Sky is SAI?” is a zine I made in USD’s Materials and Methods course. It’s a neat little book that begins with the history and mechanisms of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, before diving in to explore why SAI probably isn’t a great idea. The inspiration for this project came from a desire to share my research and thoughts on the topic in a way that is both conveniently small and portable, while still being a fun and digestible take on an admittedly convoluted type of geoengineering.
How can I make this book for myself?
Fear not, it’s really easy to get your hand on a copy of this book, because it’s something you can make yourself! Just so you know I originally printed this on blue paper, and painted the center page white inside the dashed line. But I tried to design it so that if you don’t have blue paper available to you the text will still make sense.
1.) Print the above PDF. Make sure you print the pages double sided. Depending on your printer, you may need to check a box in the printer dialogue menu to “flip on long edge,” so that the back side of each page won’t be upside down.
2.) Leave the pages in the order they print in! That is exactly the order they need to be bound in.
3.) Binding time! Before you begin any kind of binding, I’d recommend folding the pages in half so that you can aim for the middle a bit easier. You’ve got a couple options here for how you want to bind this thing. The first is to bind with a stapler. This one is nice because it’s pretty self explanatory, but unless you have a long reach stapler it’s going to be tricky to get the staples in the right place. What I usually prefer to do is bind with a needle and thread. On the outside spine of the book there should be three itty bitty dots printed. With all three pages nested together, poke through those spots with a needle, so that you have some holes down the spine. Now take about 17″ of embroidery thread (but any kind of thread will work really) and thread your needle. DON’T tie the tread in a knot, or else it won’t fit through those holes we just made. This part is a little tricky, but you need to pull the thread through the middle hole from the inside to the outside, leaving a little tail about three inches long hanging on the inside of the book. Next take the long thread coming out the back and go through the top hole, so that the needle is back on the inside of the book. Next go through the inside bottom hole. Now the needle will be on the outside of the book, and the thread has gone through all three holes one time. Take the still threaded needle and go back through the middle hole from the outside, making sure not to accidentally pierce through the string. Now both tail ends of the thread should be sticking out the inside middle hole. Tie them together in a simple box knot over the horizontal stretch of thread, so that they hold it down in place. Better yet, double knot it!
4.) Finally, put the book under something heave for an afternoon so that it flattens out. And with that, the book is done! By all means, make as many as you want!
