Posted on 01/19/2009 5:20:25 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Hashem Akbari believes that whitening 100 of the world's largest cities could wipe out the effect of the expected increase in emissions over the next decade.
White buildings and surfaces reflect far more sunlight than dark ones. Reflected sunlight does not contribute to the greenhouse effect, unlike the heat energy emitted by dark surfaces heated by the sun.
Dr Akbari, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, also argues that if built-up areas were made white, less heat would accumulate within them, allowing residents and workers to reduce their use of air-conditioning units, which use a large amount of power.
Dr Akbari has calculated that making 100 of the largest cities white would increase the amount of sunlight reflected by Earth by 0.03 per cent. He believes it would cancel out the warming caused by 44billion tonnes of carbon emissions.
He told The Guardian: "Roofs are going to have to be changed one by one and to make that effort at a very local level, we need to have an organisation in place to make it happen."
He argued that while the move would not address the cause of climate change - rising carbon emissions - it would delay its effects.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Reminds me of “High Plains Drifter”.
That would probably be viewed as a giant palate for all the taggers and other graffiti ‘artists’ out there.
Paint it white..where’s the ‘That’s racist!’ GIF/mpg with the black kid?
Cuckoo..cuckoo..cuckoo...cuckoo.....
Unless, of course, we’re headed for the deep freeze of global cooling, in which case the reflective white surfaces would accelerate the process. Then we’d have to re-paint everything black, to absorb the solar energy. In either case, I guess a play in Sherwin-Williams and Benamin Moore would be indicated. :-)
About as smart as covering all the glaciers with coal dust during the global cooling nonsense of the 70’s.
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Hey, dude, didn’t you hear? There is NO global warming. The earth is getting cooler, not warmer. We should probably be painting our houses chocolate brown.
Unlike other climate effects, the impact of urban paving may be easier to account for. Indeed, it may account for the recorded tempeture increases seen in many “Global” Warming studies, as development around century old weather stations increases.
Desertification if another micro-climate effect that is also quite real and well documented.
Dark buildings in the winter retain more heat and cost less to heat.
Give the paint brushes to the obamacorps and direct them to their service /sarc
Okay, maybe one more. Better to move everyone underground and plant trees on top. Yeah, that’s the ticket. We’ll all be dead and buried within four years from today anyway.
Now this makes perfect sense. Using solar panels to ABSORB sunlight would have the opposite effect.
-_-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.