Painting Roofs White Global Warming

Painting roofs white or covering them with plants could help fight global warming but they don t offer the same bang for the buck everywhere says a study monday of six u s.

Painting roofs white global warming.

Oleson found that even if every city building roof and stretch of urban pavement in the world were painted white it would only delay global warming by 11 years. Turn enough of the world s black urban landscape white he says and it would reflect enough sunlight to delay global warming and grant us some precious breathing space in the global struggle to. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere a white roof should act like. Steven chu the u s.

The idea of painting our roofs and roads white to offset global warming is not new but a recent study has calculated just how significantly white surfaces could impact greenhouse gas emissions. New research shows that white roofs may actually add to global warming. The urban heat island can be a killer. But its potential value in ameliorating the most severe consequences of excess heat in cities could be life saving.

Simple paint the roofs white so that they reflect more sunlight and presto chango. Seemed like a cool idea. Painting roofs white has been like changing lightbulbs one of the well cited easy ways out of climate change. A new study however finds it s a lot more complicated.

The thing that no one discusses is how to paint your roof. Secretary of energy and a nobel prize winning scientist has said that painting roofs white or another light color would help to reduce global warming by reflecting sunlight back into space it would be like removing every vehicle from the planet for 11 years. Paint the world s roofs white to reflect more sunlight and it could help cool down both cities and the planet. Steven chu the us secretary of energy and a nobel prize winning scientist said yesterday that making roofs and pavements white or light coloured would help to reduce global warming by both.