Painting Roof White Climate Change

Paint the world s roofs white to reflect more sunlight and it could help cool down both cities and the planet.

Painting roof white climate change.

Painting roofs white has been like changing lightbulbs one of the well cited easy ways out of climate change. 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 wo. A new study however finds it s a lot more complicated. Steven chu the nobel prize winning physicist appointed by president obama as energy secretary wants to paint the world white.

If you re interested in staving off climate change without trying too hard painting your roof white seems like a complete no brainer. Wild eco goose chase or radical thinking. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere a white roof should act like. Cool roofs painted white or other light colors to reflect sunlight as well as green roofs have surged in popularity as cities such as new york promote their use and research shows they lower.

Painting your roof white could help slow climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space. Known simply as cool roofing this process is designed to reduce the solar radiation. White roofed villa in greece. Keith oleson of the national center for atmospheric research in boulder colorado looked at what might happen if every roof in large cities around the world were painted white raising their reflectivity known to climate scientists as albedo from a typical 32 percent today to 90 percent.

Hugh pickens writes dr. Speaking in london prior to a meeting of some of the world s best minds on how to combat climate change dr chu said the simple act of painting roofs white could have a dramatic impact on the. So would painting the moon. New research suggests that planting gardens atop roofs or painting them white could offset both the local urban heat island effect and global warming although one roof type does not cover all.

It s far cheaper than trading in your suv for a prius and it. Seemed like a cool idea.