Painting The World's Roofs White Could Slow Climate Change

Hugh Pickens writes "Dr. Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white. Chu said at the opening of the St James's Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium that by lightening paved surfaces and roofs to the color 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. Pale surfaces reflect up to 80 percent of the sunlight that falls on them, compared with about 20 percent for dark ones, which is why roofs and walls in hot countries are often whitewashed." (Continues, below.) "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. Since 2005 California has required all flat roofs on commercial buildings to be white and Georgia and Florida give incentives to owners who install white or light-colored roofs. Put another way, boosting how much urban rooftops reflect would be a one-time carbon-offset equivalent to preventing 44 billion tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. 'For the first time, we're equating the value of reflective roof surfaces and CO2 reduction,' says Dr. Hashem Akbari. 'This does not make the problem of global warming go away. But we can buy ourselves some time.'"

Comments

Re:Nice to have a Sec of Energy actually Read the

[bonch]

I'm totally shocked that a self-professed hardcore Democrat is congratulating his Democrat president and supporting whatever his appointee says. Let's paint an entire city white based on a computer simulation. These are the kinds of ideas that people laugh at ten years from now.

The moment my government is telling me what color to paint my house is the moment I know my freedom is gone. If I want less smog, I'll move out of L.A.

Re:Or...

[sexconker]

Possible?
It is.

BUT LETS ALL RUN AROUND DOING STUPID SHIT OUT OF FEAR.

Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
THAT'S BECAUSE I'M YELLING.

Re:Big Difference

[tjstork]

The democrats owe their political power to people who believe in science. The republicans owe their political power to people who believe in God

Actually, no. Democrats owe their political power to a bunch of crackheads and illiterates, coupled with a few international media corporations and of course, universities and investment banks. Republicans owe their political power to a bunch of farmers, owners of mining, oil drilling and manufacturing concerns. So pretty much Democrats are essentially internationalist social parasites, and Republicans are a bunch of morons that are in favor of free trade when it slits their own throat.

The whole God thing is how Republicans attracts some of the low income people that it does. But I argue on my site that we in the GOP need to go nationalistic and offer protection for manufacturing jobs, and make Democrats be the party that argues for foreign interests over American ones.