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.'"

Paint the bears, too

[snsh]

Let's also paint all the Grizzly bears white. That will address the problem of disappearing polar bears.

Moon

[SnarfQuest]

Everyone should hang their bare white bottoms out the window, in order to reverse the global warming trend.

Re:and make all

[oneirophrenos]

Or give all the birds laxatives...

Re:White tar?

[13bPower]

You can get that in Afghanistan.

Light Pollution

[AnonGCB]

So, nobody is worried about even worse light pollution from this? The night sky is already obfuscated in most cities, even in smaller cities and suburbs. I do agree something needs to be done, but the negatives seem to outweigh the benefits here (from the few comments I've read)

Re:Run away Whitehouse

[Toonol]

We just up our deforestation, if that becomes a problem.

According to Rush Limbaugh ...

[tiedyejeremy]

White paint CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING by reflecting light into the atmosphere! http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032609/content/01125110.guest.html [rushlimbaugh.com]

Re:and make all

[whiledo]

They do not fly into them, either.

Re:Run away Whitehouse

[Altus]

if only we could balance that out by somehow making some of those things dark. Its a shame that once you paint something white you can never paint it black again.

Re:Moon

[tool462]

I don't know that it will be enough to counter the increased methane emissions...

Re:Run away Whitehouse

[veganboyjosh]

So what you're saying is....

Once you go white, you never go back?

That's racist

[need4mospd]

Whys it gotta be white dawg?

Re:Pavement

[Anonymous Coward]

Not my roof, there is about zero insulation in the attic, the snow melts off in no time, and apparently the black roof is really so much more energy efficient. I should take more of the insulation out so the sunlight heat can get in easier and save even more money.

Re:All the world Washinton DC

[puppetman]

So we'll paint the water white. Like, duh.

Re:Pavement

[Chabo]

In New England, we have four seasons:

Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.

Re:Pavement

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I'll toss a chunk of cement at your eye and a chunk of asphalt at the other eye and you tell me which is REALLY easier on your eyes..

Re:Pavement

[jandrese]

What do you mean they're not cheap? The corrugated steel roof has been the roof of choice for people who can't afford tarpaper for ages.

Re:According to Rush Limbaugh ...

[SatanicPuppy]

Wow, I think this is the first time I've ever heard him say something nice about something black.

Re:Why use paint?

[pcolaman]

Who wants to bet he just invested in a roofing supply company?

Re:Pavement

[changa]

In California we have 3 seasons: Spring, Rain and Fire.

Re:Pavement

[GrayCalx]

I'd like to introduce you to my unmarried sister Maude.

Re:Pavement

[sexconker]

Then I'll dab your eye with wet cement and then dab your other eye with molten asphalt and you tell me which is REALLY easier ON your eyes.

Re:Pavement

[hubert.lepicki]

We must have even worse climate here in Poland as they seem to be repairing roads for last 20 years with little success...

Re:Pavement

[Chabo]

Unless we can also change the rubber in the tires to be lighter color as well

A comeback for white-wall tires? Awesome!

Re:Pavement

[tiedyejeremy]

Does she have... uh... big uh... eyes? ;)

Re:Pavement

[Hognoxious]

two seasons. Winter, and Road Repair. Things may be similar in the midwest but I am only speculating.

The only part of the midwest I can speak for is southern Michigan (in particular the I75 to Rhubarb Custard airport) and you are totally wrong.

They don't repair the roads there ever.

Re:Pavement

[oldhack]

We'll squeeze the white color out of white baby seal's fur, top that off with the white pigments from dirty hippies' soy milk stash.

I already did this ...

[Skapare]

... by painting all the solar cells on my roof white. But I'm gonna have to do this all over again because these solar cells aren't making any electricity.

Re:Moon

[Cornflake917]

It would only work until our asses got tanned. I still agree with this idea though, only with a few modifications. I'm a male slashdotter, you can guess which modifications (in terms of who must hang their asses out) I want.

Re:Pavement

[ceoyoyo]

In Canada we have two seasons: winter and what they call winter in New England.

Re:Paint the bears, too

[InterGuru]

Let's also paint all the Grizzly bears white. That will address the problem of disappearing polar bears.

This will disturb the bears to the point that they become bipolar bears.

Bookwormhole.net [bookwormhole.net] -- over 11,000 published book reviews.

Re:Pavement

[JWSmythe]

    That's a blatant lie. The weatherman was joking about it a few nights ago, but it's true.

    Season 1 - Hot: February 15 through December 15

    Highs from the high 80's to low triple digits.
    Lows in the mid 70's to high 80's.
    50% chance of afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms.

    Season 2 - Cold: December 16 through February 14

    Highs in the mid 60's to low 80's,
    Lows from the high 20's to mid 70's.
    50% chance of afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms.

    I've lived here for 30 years. That's always an accurate prediction. The only variation is when a tropical storm or hurricane blows through, and they only increase the chance of rain from 50% to 100%.

Re:Pavement

[MichaelSmith]

Here in Victoria, Australia 90% of road work happens in the last month of the financial year, which is now. I used to work for the state road authority. One year, on the last day of june:

• Boss: (pointing to a bit of gear) whats that?
• Me: An HP pen plotter
• Boss: How much did it cost?
• Me: Seven thousand dollars
• Boss: Buy another one. today

Re:Pavement

[tsalmark]

I love all these Concrete examples.

Re:Pavement

[neomunk]

I was born and raised in Monroe, MI, and my recollections of the 5 seasons are cold&dry, cold&pretty (2 days), cold&wet, mayflies, and so-humid-I-can't-breathe.

Road repair there was like having a birthday that is evenly divisible by 10. You think it's going to lead to new exciting places and remove the humdrum little ups-and-downs out of your life, only to realize that in actuality you're just moving a little slower now and paying more for maintenance.

Re:Pavement

[Sparky McGruff]

I think you've misnamed a couple seasons.

I believe the seasons are Allergy, Mudslide, and Fire.

Lisa.

[yourassOA]

Imagine some hot chick in a bikini. Now lets name her Lisa.
Now who is Lisa you might ask. Lisa is that hot chick in a bikini, the one you have a mental image of and that you are drooling all over in your mind. Yuck brain slobber. Well back to Lisa now; Lisa is the mnemonic aide for remembering the composition of standard type 10 Portland cement.
L = Lime
I = Iron oxide
A = Aluminum oxide
S = Silica
Bet you wont forget that one.

Re:Moon

[vikstar]

In addition to global earth day, we'll call this one global moon day.

Re:Lisa.

[ZackSchil]

How could I ever forget good old Lias?