What do you think of Dr Chu's idea of painting the roofs white?

[The Hope Mobile]

Should it be mandatory? Could we start with all commercial buildings first? How about all new construction? Government buildings? This would keep houses cooler in the winter . . . but potentially this could offset all global warming from what I read (if ALL buildings complied). What about other countries? Would it also be helpful if even the rest of the exterior of the house was painted white or a light color? Seems like it would. Thoughts? Suggestions? Further information?

[Oregone]

1. Its a great idea!

I get to still drive my gas guzzler, eat my beef, and enjoy my products of mass industry, and I get to feel cushy about it.

[The Hope Mobile]

6. My understanding is that it would only offset things at current levels

but as long as the gas guzzling goes on, etc., it will increase levels so we still need to fix that problem.

[Oregone]

9. ah, too bad.

white isnt even my color

[LeftHander]

2. Solar panels instead.....

The rooftops of America are a vast solar panel goldmine waiting to be tapped.

Soon solar panels will be "painted on"....

[The Hope Mobile]

13. I hear what you're saying as far as alternative energy sources

but the white roof suggestion is about reflecting back the heat to decrease global warming from what I understand. Maybe they could do a combination of both. Solar panels are by nature dark, correct?

[slackmaster]

14. Yes, this

Makes much more sense than paint.

[The Hope Mobile]

16. What about saying people must do one or the other?

They serve different purposes, correct??

[slackmaster]

33. Doing either costs money that people MAY not have

I generally don't believe in mandatory retrofit requirements on peoples' homes.

For new construction, I would have no problem with it.

[The Hope Mobile]

35. I understand that - I wouldn't be able to afford either one probably.

Definitely not solar though I'd like to but maybe the government could pay for it. I'm wondering if it might actually be cheaper for them than some other solutions?

[AlinPA]

37. Who said mandatory?

[slackmaster]

41. The Hope Mobile in the subject line of reply #16

What about saying people must do one or the other?

Underlining added for emphasis.

[The Hope Mobile]

54. Right, I was asking how people felt about that possibility. Not saying that

it had to happen. I probably should've been more clear but the whole point of the OP was to get opinions, thoughts, suggestions, etc..

[ashling]

56. I don't know if this is part of the thinking, but

The first thing that I thought of upon reading the original post was that if all roofs in the country wer white, this would, at least partly, cancel out the loss of the albedo affect in the arctic regions.
:shrug:

[The Hope Mobile]

74. I think that's exactly what they're thinking. nt

I'm curious if changing the location of the white patches will have an impact of any kind?

[ashling]

90. Would a natural metal (unpainted) roof

have the same effect. We had one before we moved here.

[The Hope Mobile]

96. I don't know enough about it to know if that would be equally or maybe

even more effective?!?!? Good question though.

[hedgehog]

3. We won't solve this problem with 1 big answer but with a lot of little answers.

This is one of those little answers.

[The Hope Mobile]

8. According to them its a big answer but I agree it will obviously have to be

a great combination of things. I think this is the beginning of thinking outside the old box and creating a whole new environmental paradigm IMHO.

[JuniperLea]

Exactly!

And this one goes a long way to save energy in the summer.

[targetpractice]

21. Right... It's like how McDonald's can save millions...

.... by putting ketchup packets behind the counter or installing those annoying new napkin dispensers. Or, how UPS, FedEX, General Motors, etc. save millions through time-motion studies.

Little changes implemented across the board on a massive scale result in real efficiencies.

[The Hope Mobile]

22. Exactly! nt

[zipplewrath]

4. Vegetation

Alternately, we could require a certain amount of vegetation. It would absorb some of the light, and use it to extract carbon from the environment. This would be effective in northern climes where in the winter, the vegetation would give way to solar absorption to improve heating efficiencies there by reducing carbon based fuels.

[Oregone]

11. Require people to plant large gardens on their roofs. :)

[LiberalFighter]

23. Reduce the amount of pavement that is visible from the sky.

Which absorbs the heat as more and more pavement is created.

How could we get increased vegetation to offset pavement?

Can we change the way pavement is constructed to reduce absorption rate?

[The Hope Mobile]

30. They suggested concrete instead of asphalt. nt

[XemaSab]

44. Many cities already have a "free tree" program

to reduce heating and cooling costs.

I like the idea of rooftop vegetation, but I'm not sure how well it would work in arid areas. :shrug:

SMUD:

http://www.smud.org/en/residential/trees/Pages/index.aspx

LADWP:

http://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp000744.jsp

Glendale Water and Power:

http://www.glendalewaterandpower.com/save_money/residential/tree_power.aspx

And so forth...

I'm all in favor of this program. It creates habitat, saves energy, makes the streets beautiful, and increases property values. A big win all around. :)

[a la izquierda]

67. I actually saw a PlanetGreen program about

something like this. Companies who owned tall buildings with flat roofs planted gardens on top (including restaurants, and from these gardens they got some of their produce).
I think this is a fabulous idea.

[Xithras]

5. It doesn't even have to be white.

White is best, but even light shades of grey and beige are fine. We simply need to get away from the model of having black, slate, or dark brown roofs.

My house has a concrete tile roof in a light tan color. It looks pretty spiffy, and it does an awesome job of keeping the house cooler. We saw a 15 degree drop in attic temps when we put them on in place of our old black asphalt shingle roof (we can actually store stuff up there now without it melting, which is saying something since it hits 110 degrees here in the summer sun.)

[county worker]

7. It will look like crap in Santa Barbara. The buildings here resemble missions with red tile roofs.

I don't believe in forcing everyone to do something like that.

I think that my thoughts will not be popular in this thread.

[NYC_SKP]

18. There could be exceptions.

Historic buildings, for example.

Or, for aesthetic purposes, as in the case of Santa Barbara.

However, such exceptions could be accompanied by offsetting measures, ie solar installations in strategic locations that offset the climate change mitigation that the white roofs would have effected.

Now see, that wasn't hard; I didn't need to flame!

:toast:

[The Hope Mobile]

38. That's what I was talking about. And couldn't this possibly be a much

cheaper solution than many others??

I'd rather not paint my roof. I like the color it is. But they could make it mandatory . . . and they could pay for it especially for those that can't afford to.

But I understand not wanting to for other reasons . . .and maybe the alternative could be then mandatory solar panels somewhere on your property!?!? Just thinking out loud.

[NYC_SKP]

43. First, I doubt that Chu ever meant to imply that it should become retroactively mandatory.

But they could institute greener national building codes.

California is the lowest per capita user of electricity, largely because of our building codes.

As to the cost, yes, I think we could help out with a Federal assistance program with grants and/or low interest loans.

Your ideas for alternatives are valid, many are doable now and include any number of ways to offset your carbon footprint.

:thumbsup:

[The Hope Mobile]

20. Aesthetically it might be a disaster. What about strongly suggesting

that people either put solar panels on their roof or paint white? What about requiring all new construction, commercial and government buildings to do it first as a way to demonstrate the effectiveness??

[anigbrowl]

40. Such regulations are in fact coming in inh California.

...this summer; so we will have data soon.

[ColbertWatcher]

64. "... to demonstrate the effectiveness" ???

I think people who wear black shirts in summer know how effective it is.

Although, I agree with having an option (solar panels or white paint) and requiring new construction and government buildings.

[The Hope Mobile]

73. I know that light colors reflect back sun/heat. I meant the effectiveness

in terms of how much difference (maybe a percentage or a degree of temperature change) that changing those original rooftops makes.

[ColbertWatcher]

85. It would create jobs. n/t

[texastoast]

45. Forcing no, opening one's mind

That maybe red is not fashionable anymore, yes. Light tan looks really nice too. My personal favorites are green or blue.

Dealing with global warming is like dealing with smallpox. We just need to do what is best to keep us alive. If a shot in the arm is it, we need to campaign for the bright idea. Pretty soon, most folks will be okay with it.

[slackmaster]

10. Mine is already light brown asphalt tile

It's roughly the color of native soil in the area. Any kind of paint would flake off and make a chronic mess.

[Codeine]

12. I wonder what the carbon footprint

of creating all that new white paint will be? ;)

[The Hope Mobile]

31. LOL good thought nt

[Kerrytravelers]

15. Mr kt is reading a book right now called The Necessary Revolution by Peter Senge.

This idea is in there. It will take many things to turn the environment around, but it can be done. If we owened the property we live in, we would certainly do this, along with composting, etc.

[Captain Hilts]

17. With solar panels. nt

[izquierdista]

19. Could we start with appropriate first?

It might be a great idea in Phoenix, but not so great in Detroit. If anything should be mandatory, it should be thinking. That's what architects get paid to do -- think about how design and function go together. What should have been learned from cookie-cutter developments is that what is cheap and easy to knock out is not necessarily energy efficient in the long run. For that, someone has to actually think about the best way to minimize energy inputs and maximize renewable energy potential.

[The Hope Mobile]

26. But as a short term and nearly immediate fix, does this make sense to you?

Its not a cure. It doesn't make the problem go away but maybe as the beginning to really thinking outside the box? We can't reverse time and do things over but we do need to put an immediate halt on what's already happened and then rethink everything we've done to this point?!?! IMHO!

[izquierdista]

48. Still inside the box

This is a well known trick in the southwest. I even did it 5 years ago on a house I rehabbed in Las Vegas. Yes, if you could get people in CA, NV, AZ, NM, and other sunny places who haven't slopped some Black Jack on the roof to do so, it could invigorate the economy. That's part of the problem with the housing bust; nobody in a foreclosed house is going to want to invest in an energy saving improvement, the cost of which takes a few years to recoup.
For those of you who do, here's the link: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=139941-29-5530-1-30&lpage=none

[Politicalboi]

24. They better repave the black top roads too

They emit so much heat.

[The Hope Mobile]

29. My undestanding was that that was part of the suggestion.

Resurfacing with concrete instead of asphalt. Or maybe some new product? Agreed that it also causes a lot of heat to be absorbed.

[Fountain79]

75. Wouldn't white roads....

reflect too much light? It would seem that they would be hard to look at on a sunny day.

[The Hope Mobile]

78. Hopefully people would be waering sunglasses anyway. nt

[sniffa]

25. That sounds like Socialism

[Greyhound]

93. Roof painting is socialism?

Joke?

[Cid_B]

27. Ever read "The Giver"

In any case, alot of the book has to do with mandatory sameness and this is what it reminds me of. It isn't a good thing btw...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

32. White roofs will not cripple imagination.

[Greyhound]

94. Driven through the 'burbs lately/ever?

Until I lived in Phoenix, I had no idea that there were so many shades of beige.

[csziggy]

28. Paint is not a good solution - why not just encourage people to select better options

Than dark asphalt shingles, which seems to have been popular in the last ten or twenty years in some areas. Paint is just not going to last on asphalt shingles, which shed the gravel coat as they age.

When we got our double wide mobile home, it had dark brown shingles. One of the first improvements we made was to add blown insulation in the limited "attic" space. That helped keep the house a little cooler but the ceilings still got hot. We planted trees and shrubs to shade the house - that helped a lot since we went from getting sun an average of eight hours a day or more to direct sun on a part of the roof for just a couple of hours a day. But then we changed the roof to painted metal panels - that made more difference than the insulation had and almost as much difference as the shade.

I see so many Florida homes with no shade and with dark color shingles - how stupid! Strategic shade makes the biggest difference and a lighter color material can help.

Why not encourage covering those sun catching roofs with solar panels or solar shingles? That will reduce the heat gain for the building AND generate electricity. If every home that suffers from heat gain installed some sort of solar energy system,

Solar Shingles http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,1205726,00.html

Catching Some Rays: Solar Shingles Can Turn Your Rooftop into a Miniature Power Plant http://www.emagazine.com/view/?851

http://www.millionsolarroofs.org/solarshingles.html

[AngryAmish]

34. When I was a teenager I tried to paint my ceiling white

A lot. I mean a whole bunch.

[Codeine]

36. . . .

:spray:

[maxsolomon]

39. paint does not adhere to asphalt shingles well

rather, the choice should be to build new or re-roof with light grey shingles - no additional cost. which are an aesthetic disaster IMHO as an architect.

[kiranon]

46. Why a disaster? Light roofs look fine with many houses. When house

needs repainting or a new roof than light colors can be used. Not necessarily white but lighter colors will absorb less heat. There is nothing much hotter than black pavement in Las Vegas in late July or August. If the pavement were lighter in color it would help. No one thing will do it all but a series of smaller steps will help make life a bit cooler.

[XemaSab]

42. How about only allowing light-colored shingles to be sold?

And as far as tar roofs go, painting THOSE white?

My roof is already light gray, so I don't think painting it would do much. :shrug:

[librechik]

47. Other countries are already doing it

but then, they have governments which actually work.

[azmouse]

49. As someone who has a white roof and lives in AZ

I can tell you that white elastomeric coatings absolutely work. My house is much cooler in the intense heat we have here.
One other benefit from the white roof is helping to keep the nights cooler. If the roof doesn't soak up heat during the day it doesn't give it off at night either, keeping it cooler in the evening. Phoenix is a huge 'heat island' and that effects the amount of rain we get from our summer monsoon.

[mod mom]

50. We put on a white rubber roof to our flat roofed house in 2002 and it made a big difference.

When we moved in the roof was black but painted silver w a special paint for reflection. It need re-painting but also had some leaking problems. This new roof cost more than my husband's 1st house ($38,000) but we haven't had any issues and we hardly ever use air con (we use the fly wheel effect of opening windows at night & closing up the house during the day-besides having many mature trees)

[MagickMuffin]

51. How about "Living Roofs"

Living Roofs are the way to go for flat surfaced roofs.




You seem to have left out black asphalt parking lots, which generate a lot of heat, and they could be painted white.

[EFerrari]

61. The glare would be hard on the eyes, wouldn't it, with all that white

at street level?

[eilen]

52. I don't know if that is a good idea in colder regions of the country

We hardly ever run AC in our house -- maybe two weeks out of the entire summer. But in Winter.... we do use the furnace.

We get lots of snow and it is cold for many months out of the year.

[Pubslayer]

53. science will solve the aesthetic issue

I read about some shingles in development that have a special surface that can deflect heat, but appear brown or red or dark grey etc. I think the selected wavelength was reflected at an angle, while everything else was reflected straight back.

[The Hope Mobile]

55. Welcome to DU! nt

[Kaleva]

57. snow covered roofs are white

[The Hope Mobile]

76. but usually only part of the year.

That's the idea, from what I understand it. This is meant to replace the snow (which has been retreating) in its reflection of the heat. As the snow melts from other causes of global warming, it gets accelerated by the fact that there's less snow to reflect back the heat. White rooftops would take over that job.

[JVS]

62. maybe a while plastic tarp for summer months would be best

[ContinentalOp]

58. Terrible idea.

The alien invaders might take it as a sign of surrender.

[proud patriot]

59. snarf

:spray:

[ColbertWatcher]

60. It's based on science isn't it?

All we need to do is find a way to make it work.

All reasonable ideas should be considered.

20 years ago, if you told a Regular American that we could get energy from waves, they would laugh or dismiss it without a thought.

Now, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power">we know better.

It would be interesting if we made all man-made government-owned surfaces lighter colors including roads.

Here is a section of Highway 71 after the 60 interchange where it changes from concrete to asphalt ...

[DRoseDARs]

63. From the guy that killed funding for establishing the early groundwork for a hydrogen economy...

...this is just as hair-brained. So amazingly sad for someone as well-educated and knowledgeable as Dr. Chu.

[EndersDame]

65. Metal Roofing!

Affordable, recyclable, and energy efficient

[quaker bill]

66. Already have done it

two weeks ago. The white coating is on top of a new urethane foam roof. I got the equivalent of R-14+. I live in FL and the air conditioner barely runs anymore. It is a great idea.

[sendero]

68. I think it makes total sense..

... if you live in the southern US, or anywhere with mild winters.

I have always wondered my more roofs are not light colored. Appears to be completely cosmetic.

It will make a big difference. In fact, if you were going to paint, why not use that special radiant barrier paint. Would work even better.

[Yo_Mama]

69. Doesn't Make Sense In The North

In the north, in latitudes where snowfall occurs frequently, you need a dark roof to absorb sunlight and help melt the snow. A sharply pitched roof and dark shingles are necessities. If the snow builds up too much, you have major problems!

I have a house in the NE and a house in GA. The GA house is built specially to have very low cooling costs, and it does cost about 50% less than the average house of that size. It is also positioned so that in the winter it will get a lot of passive solar effect, so the winter heating bill is minimal. And the roof is light, the house is painted lightly. The major cost there is AC.

The house in the NE has major shade and a dark roof. It does not need to be air conditioned, and in the winter the foliage drops and the dark roof helps to absorb heat and lessen heating costs. The major cost there is heating.

Frankly, I thought Chu's proposal was pretty inane.

Low environmental impact building varies according to the local climate. Those red pitched tile roofs in some areas are used because they are exceedingly fire resistant. You might be able to use lighter tiles, but they would probably darken over time, and the cost of rebuilding would use far more energy than energy saved from different types of roofing.

[The Hope Mobile]

80. Welcome to DU nt

[Yo_Mama]

99. Thanks for the welcome

But it feels weird. I've been around forever - at least since 2004. I was just too shy to register and comment. But the recent round of screaming convinced me that some of the shy, quiet, boring middle-aged types might be needed.

[The Hope Mobile]

101. I'm one of those types myself. I've actually been around since 2001

and started posting then but just barely. I rejoined the posting crowd last year and only passed 1000 posts recently. Its been a great place to be even with the infighting. Its a great source of information and discussion as long as you can be objective about the passionate craziness that occurs sometimes. Welcome onboard more officially from one boring middle-aged type to another :)

[Kaleva]

89. It really doesn't work that way in northern climes

I have a black shingle roof and once a winter, I need to go up on the roof to shovel as much snow off as I can because it can get quite deep. This is done to prevent the weight of the snow from collapsing the roof in. I also think one really doesn't want snow melting off the roof in the winter as large icicles can form on the roof edge and I've seen homes where the heat loss was so bad, the wall of the home was covered by a sheet of ice from the roof to the ground.

[kristopher]

91. This is a good example of how personal evaluations miss the point of the proposal

The idea is that global warming is a threat and expected to get worse at an unknown rate due to the "cascade" effect where the original cause of global warming (manmade CO2 and other greenhouse gas) give rise to other problems that hurry the process along. In this case, the energy issue is one factor, but it isn't the main one. The idea is that with the melting of ice in the northern latitudes there has been a change in the overall reflectivity of the Earth, with the darker soil absorbing heat instead of ice reflecting it.

Theoretically, by making as much of the man-made surface area white as possible, we can partially offset the shift in the balance of reflectivity of the planet.

The further north you go, the less light is reflected because the angle the light is striking the surface at becomes closer to horizontal. However, even with that consideration the northern rooftops could make a significant contribution to this goal.

Your argument makes clear that a comprehensive analysis of the tradeoff between GHG savings due to efficient use of solar for heating and the change in reflectivey would need to guide the decision process.

Good post.

[Yo_Mama]

98. Right now, ice coverage extent is flat to growing.

Seriously. The website I used to use is gone now, because one of the satellites has developed sensor problems, but although Arctic average ice extent has lost a bit, Antarctic ice extent has expanded considerably.
http://www.physorg.com/news159528096.html

Currently we are close to the 30 year ave. If anything, the albedo effect in the southern hemisphere ought to be higher, because it is the one closest to the sun.

So the albedo effect of diminishing snow/ice is not going to be significant at this time, and in any case, the albedo effect (as the term is usually used in relation to global temps) is less significant where you have concentrations of housing (with white or dark roofing), because those tend to be in more humid, polluted urban areas. Heat radiated up off a white roof would tend to be captured and retained by higher GHG concentrations and inversion layers in the lower atmosphere over an urban area. In a desert/low density area I would think more would get back through into the upper atmosphere and radiate on out. I know just irrigation of semi-arid cropland in the US raises night time temperatures by several degrees in some US areas, so the UHI effect is significant.

So I think the main idea is to reduce energy consumption, which would have a positive effect.

And light roofs in some areas do massively change heat absorption and do cut down on energy usage quite significantly. Conservation is very important if you want to reduce environmental impacts. In denser housing areas, the ambient temps might be reduced at least by a couple of degrees if all roofing were light. Not that this would affect global temperatures, but it would help to conserve energy.

I have to say I wonder why solar panels wouldn't do more overall to help, since the areas in which the most heat is absorbed by dark roofs (or repelled by light ones) are the areas in which solar panels are most effective.

[kristopher]

100. Really?

You are stating that decreasing sea ice isn't a factor to consider? The entire exercise in white surfaces has its origins in the changing albedo. I'm not going to bother tracking down a source, but it has been an ongoing discussion in the Energy/Environment forum at DU for some time now.

Here is what the actual study says:

<2>...Since the 1970s the two polar regions have experienced markedly different trends in sea ice extent (SIE) (Figure 1). In the Arctic, late summer ice reached record minima in 2005 and 2007, with the ice in September 2007 covering only 4.1 × 10^6 km2, which was 39% below climatology. In contrast, Antarctic SIE has actually increased over the same period. Zwally et al. <2002> showed that over 1979–1998 the SIE had increased by 11.2 ± 4.2 × 10^3 km2 yr−1 or 0.98 ± 0.37% dec−1.

<22> The realistic simulation of sea ice in coupled climate models is a major challenge and the AR4 models exhibit a very large range of skills in reproducing recent SIE changes. However, the weighted ensemble ice extents do show a small, non-significant increase in autumn in the Ross Sea sector. Projections of the climate for the rest of this century using the AR4 models suggest a large decrease (approximately 30%) in Antarctic sea ice by 2100 as stratospheric ozone levels recover but greenhouse gas concentrations rise. We can therefore expect to see a gradual slow down in the rate of increase of SIE before the reduction takes place later in the century. Many of the models used within the AR4 exercise incorporate an estimated recovery of stratospheric ozone amounts during the spring, with the ozone hole recovering by the second half of the century. This would tend to reduce the wind speeds around the continent and presumably result in a reversal of the trends in SIE that we have examined here.

[semillama]

70. It's a good starting point, something that can be done immediately

for a number of buildings, while we get better infrastructure in place for better roofs, such as green roofs.

Green roofs actually can't be placed on any flat-roofed building - you have to have a particular type of roof construction that will support the extra weight of the soil. I know because my company looked into it as a suggestion for our leaky roof that the landlord just doesn't want to fix, but the roof type won't hold a green roof. It's a horrible black roof now. My suggestion is to at least put down light-colored gravel - it would both reflect heat and serve as a potential nest site for Common Nighthawks! I can foresee a future requirement for all new builds with flat roofs to incorporate some form of green roof.

My mechanic is building a new auto-body shop down the street and they're putting in a green roof.

[The Hope Mobile]

77. It seems like even black tarps that cover mounds of raw materials

should really be white. Covers for stadiums?? In California most schools have flat rooftops. Those could either have solar, white or green tops. Most states could do that.

[WolverineDG]

71. make them metal first, then paint 'em white nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

72. Has anyone seen any estimate of the actual effect?

Either "watts reflected back upward", "degrees lower in a building in summer", "kWh saved" or anything, really - for one house, building, city etc.? And at what latitude?

[The Hope Mobile]

79. No but I was wondering the same thing. And DOES latitude make a difference?

It seems like it would but I wasn't sure.

[muriel_volestrangler]

83. As Yo_Mama says above, you'd think it would

The strength of the sun, the angle, and the cloud cover might all affect it; and there is the thing Yo_Mama brought up about whether a darker roof actually helps warm up a house in a cold winter.

In southern Europe, white is a traditional colour for walls of houses, to keep them cool in summer; but northern Europe doesn't really bother with it.

[The Hope Mobile]

87. I think I responded to her after I responded to you.

I understand the idea of white in warmer climes completely but I think that whiter houses have two different functions.

1. To keep a home cooler which has positives and negatives depending on where you live.
2. To reflect back the amount of heat absorbed normally in an area. This is the one that I find more complex/interesting.
Most snow is at the poles. Would white rooftops closer to the equator reflect back heat in the same way or to varying degrees depending on the latitude. Would the amount of heat reflected back by white rooftops in cooler climes be beneficial to reducing the amount of heat reflected back in a way that outweighs the increased cost and need to increased heating of the interior of homes in those areas or is it a wash there? Could there be temporary rooftops/tarps put over homes in the summer in those areas that could be removed in the winter? Could there be any environmental impact on perhaps insects, birds, some other wildlife, foliage in areas where white rooftops are implemented?

I'm not sure why but I find this whole concept fascinating.

I paid a lot of attention to white rooftops yesterday here in So Cal and its really not unappealing like I thought it would be.
I would definitely like to start with commercial, government buildings first and all new construction to get a gauge on what the degree of impact would be.

[Mari333]

81. not after Labor Day! nt

[The Hope Mobile]

88. LOL!! Houses need to follow the rules of fashion too! nt

[bamacrat]

82. I think it makes sense.

We are losing shitloads of ice from our poles which are white, which reflects solar rays back to space. Why not paint all federal buildings roofs white then anyone else who wanted to could, it would make a cool looking satelite photo too.

[Baclava]

84. It's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard

I think he's overestimating any benefits by at least half. Once it gets dark out, the roof will be black again.

Wouldn't it be better to just have all the white people walk around naked to reflect sunlight?


Besides, 2/3 of the earth's surface is blue water - should we paint that white too?

[Fountain79]

86. How would you be certain roads have been plowed well enough? n/t

[kristopher]

92. Tubular solar PV and white roofs are a match

http://www.solyndra.com/

[Norrin Radd]

95. Instead of spending all our money on wars, the military, and bailouts,

we should buy solar panels.

[The Hope Mobile]

97. Absolutely!! Nothing could be more true!