Painting Roof White Climate Change

Painting your roof white could help slow climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space.

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. If you re interested in staving off climate change without trying too hard painting your roof white seems like a complete no brainer. 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.

In 2017 more than 3 000 city rooftops were painted using both white lime and a special reflective coating. A new study however finds it s a lot more complicated. 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. Paint the world s roofs white to reflect more sunlight and it could help cool down both cities and the planet.

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. Hugh pickens writes dr. Steven chu the nobel prize winning physicist appointed by president obama as energy secretary wants to paint the world white. 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.

White roofed villa in greece. Painting roofs white has been like changing lightbulbs one of the well cited easy ways out of climate change. Painting the world s roofs white could slow climate change slashdot. 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.

Seemed like a cool idea. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere a white roof should act like.