'Whitewash' could slow global warming: Peruvian scientist

[phantom power]

Terraform the earth!

LIMA (AFP) – A Peruvian scientist has called on his country to help slow the melting of Andean glaciers by daubing white paint on the rock and earth left behind by receding ice so they will absorb less heat.

Eduardo Gold, president of non-governmental organization Glaciers of Peru, made the suggestion in a presentation Tuesday to the country's parliamentary commission on climate change.

His idea has already attracted interest from the World Bank, and is among a series of projects to counter climate change that the organization is considering, Gold told AFP.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091103/sc_afp/climatewarm...

[lapfog_1]

1. we've painted the (flat) roof of our house white.

Everyone should paint their homes and roofs white. We should look at how to make asphalt grey (light grey).

[NoSheep]

2. What did you use and what surface did you start with?

[lapfog_1]

3. It's a very old home

the middle is original adobe (circa 1890s), additions are stucco over metal, stucco over laminated (marine spar varnish) wood, All covered by white roofing material by RainTek. There is a slight slope to the entire roof and a guttering system that directs the rain water to trees and bushes that surround the house.

Under the roof insulation could be better, but there really isn't an "attic", just a air gap between the ceilings and the roof. It's a ranch style home in the old southwest style.

I live is Arizona.

[NoSheep]

6. Ah. I live in Durham NC. Rain, leaves, cold, hot...asphalt shingle roof.

I'm wondering if I can just go up there with some white paint and slap it on...

[lapfog_1]

7. probably the best you can do

is replace with white asphalt shingles when you next make a choice of replacement. Even off white would be better than dark colors.

[NoSheep]

9. That's what I will do! Shame is, I've seen lots of reroofing going on and people

are using gray. I guess we, as a country, are just now getting started discussing these things. I know there have been small pockets of environmentalists for a long time....amazes me "best practices" is such a new term for a lot of people.

[Terry in Austin]

4. Paint it white

Could do that a lot of places, to good effect.

Starting with roofs...

changing 100 square feet of dark roof area to white would have an effect equivalent to offsetting the emission of one ton of CO2. On a global scale, increasing the albedos of urban roofs and paved surfaces would be equivalent to offsetting about 44 billion tons of CO2 emissions.

...and on to the whole urban heat island.

a scientist who has come up with a new way to fight global warming... wants dozens of the world's largest cities to unite in an effort to replace the dark-coloured materials used to cover roads and roofs with something a little more reflective. {This} would cool the Earth enough to cancel out the warming caused by 44bn tonnes of CO2 pollution.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. This would be technically challenging. What kind of paint?

Paint that is not water based is typically not something you want to slather around the ecosystem. Paint that is water based will wash away because melting ice is... water. Also, any paint that can be partially absorbed into the water should act to lower the freezing point... thereby letting the ice melt with more ease (see: road salt).Secondly, the environmental pollution of such an effort would likely outweigh any possible benefit.

I'd be very curious as to:
A) WHAT he plans on painting with
B) HOW they plan on painting it.

[phantom power]

8. One does wonder...

I suppose there might be some alternative that is sufficiently water resistant to last long enough to be useful, but biodegrades into benign chemicals. And that's cheap enough to use in enormous quantities.

Mostly, I think what we're seeing is people realizing that we are fucked, and casting about for solutions. Except for my idea about the deployment of several million cubic kilometers of white packing peanuts, which would totally work so stop saying that.