Painting Roof White Climate Change

Seemed like a cool idea.

Painting roof white climate change.

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. Known simply as cool roofing this process is designed to reduce the solar radiation. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere a white roof should act like. A new study however finds it s a lot more complicated.

He found that it would decrease the urban heat island effect by a third enough to reduce the maximum daytime temperatures by an average of 0 6 degrees c and more in hot sunny regions such as the. Wild eco goose chase or radical thinking. Hugh pickens writes dr. White roofed villa in greece.

Painting roofs white has been like changing lightbulbs one of the well cited easy ways out of climate change. In 2017 more than 3 000 city rooftops were painted using both white lime and a special reflective coating. If you re interested in staving off climate change without trying too hard painting your roof white seems like a complete no brainer. Steven chu the nobel prize winning physicist appointed by president obama as energy secretary wants to paint the world white.

It s far cheaper than trading in your suv for a prius and it. Painting the world s roofs white could slow climate change slashdot. 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. Paint the world s roofs white to reflect more sunlight and it could help cool down both cities and the planet.

Painting your roof white could help slow climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space. So would painting the moon.