Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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This unironically a thing some people have advocated for.
Its not the stupidest of all proposal, as locally it warms up less (white reflects more, darker colors absorb more of the solar energy). I dont know for certain but it might be a reason that people in hot countries sometimes paint their houses white.
Globally it wont make a difference of course. It isnt a mitigation/prevention of climate change but rather a adaption. Like stretching a sun-sail over the porch.
In both cases it makes more sense to choose biological solutions if possible (grass instead of white asphalt, a tree instead of a sun sail).
This is a thing, but only in the places where the air doesn't cool down too much such as in a desert.
It won't change the climate, but ice (also in mountain ranges) and clouds reflect light and heat. The more ice is lost because of heating, the less heat is reflecting, so earth heats more. This is one of the tipping points that matters in climate change. If there are enough white surfaces, we could push that point of no return a bit. It might not only make sense locally. But i guess putting effort in biological solutions is indeed a much better way to go.
Well, I had my (flat) roof insulated this year and the outer surface is grayish white, so I'm doing my part!
Yea, I also thought about tipping points. But I think that the white buildings/streets or even painted surface could never make up for the lost (white) ice surface
My city recently passed a "cool roof" ordinance, which requires new roof installations to use more reflective materials. When you're talking about a roof over conditioned space, the benefit isn't just reflecting more infrared back into space, it's also reducing the AC load on the building below and thus global warming due to energy use.
If adopted at scale, maybe it could. Apparently 10% of the Earth's surface is currently covered by ice and 3% of it is urban, so if all the urban areas were covered in white surfaces the effect on Earth's albedo could be about 1/3 as strong as the ice caps'. (Maybe more, considering that urban areas are at lower latitudes.)