Painting roofs white is as green as taking cars off the roads for 50 years, says study
Steve Connor
Steve Connor is the Science Editor of The Independent. He has won many awards for his journalism, including five-times winner of the prestigious British science writers’ award; the David Perlman Award of the American Geophysical Union; twice commended as specialist journalist of the year in the UK Press Awards; UK health journalist of the year and a special merit award of the European School of Oncology for his investigative journalism. He has a degree in zoology from the University of Oxford and has a special interest in genetics and medical science, human evolution and origins, climate change and the environment.
Friday 13 April 2012
Related articles
Painting roofs white and using light-coloured materials to surface roads and pavements would not only make cities cooler in summer, it would save the same amount of carbon as taking all the cars in the world off the roads for 50 years, a study has found.
One of the simplest, yet most effective, ways of engineering the urban environment to cope with global warming is to increase the reflectivity of the cityscape so that more of the incoming sunlight is directed back into space, scientists said.
City buildings in warm climates with "cool coloured" surfaces that reflect infra-red radiation would also be cooler than traditional buildings and so would conserve energy – and carbon – that would otherwise be used on air conditioning.
Increasing solar reflectance or "albedo" has been suggested as a way of combating the "heat island" effect of towns and cities, where summers are made unbearably hotter in built-up areas by Tarmac roads and dark buildings that absorb sunlight.
Two years ago, Barack Obama's top man on global warming, Professor Steven Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, suggested at the Royal Society in London that one of the most effective engineering measures to tackle rising temperatures is to paint roofs.
"If the building is air-conditioned, it's going to be a lot cooler, it can use 10 or 15 per cent less electricity... you also do something in that you change the albedo of the Earth – you make it more reflective," Professor Chu said. Now scientists, led by Professor Hashem Akberi, of Concordia University in Canada, have studied this in detail and found that it can have a significant impact.
They estimate that a city or town where the roofs and the pavements and roads have light-coloured surfaces can increase their albedo by about 10 per cent, which globally would provide a CO2 offset of between 130 billion and 150 billion tonnes – the same as taking every car in the world off the road for 50 years.
"Increased albedo can decrease atmospheric temperature and counter some of the anticipated temperature increases from global warming," the scientists say in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Albedo is measured on a scale of zero to one, where 1.0 is totally reflective and zero absorbs all sunlight.
The researchers believe that it would be cheap and easy to increase the albedo of cities by applying the reflective materials when roofs and roads are routinely resurfaced, rather than doing it as a special measure.
From the blogs
Parachute Youth: Supporting Rudimental is not a clash of interests
I’ve not heard many bands that had quite the same kick as Pendulum did. Their unbelievable fusion of...
Review of Glee ‘Sweet Dreams’
The episode begins with Finn (Cory Monteith) at college, partying and accidentally participating in ...
Barking Blondes: When to vaccinate
Dr Ron Schultz, professor and chair of pathological sciences at The University of Wisconsin, joined ...
Doctor Who ‘The Name of the Doctor’ – Series 7, episode 13
What a wonderful way to end this momentous series in the 50th year of Doctor Who. From the start of ...
- 1 Asteroid nine times the size of the QE2 liner to sail pass Earth
- 2 Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?
- 3 British business: We need to stay in the EU - or risk losing up to £92bn a year
- 4 You thought Ryanair's attendants had it bad? Wait 'til you hear about their pilots
- 5 It’s official: thanks to Stephen Hawking's Israel boycott, anti-Semitism is no more
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
iJobs General
Senior Employment Solicitor - Birmingham
Excellent Package: Austen Lloyd: This is a senior appointment with huge potent...
Teaching Programme Officer with Qualified Teacher Status
£28000 - £31500 per annum + benefits: Randstad Education Newcastle: Permanent ...
SAP FI-CA Consultant - up to £58k
£50000 - £58000 per annum + Benefits and Bonus: Progressive Recruitment: SAP F...
PHP/ Drupal Developer - £35k - WC
£30000 - £40000 per annum + BENS: Progressive Recruitment: Drupal Developer A ...
The price of pacifism
Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond
Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?
Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing
Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'


Comments