White Roofs And Global Warming

From leed the cool roof rating council and energy star program all the way up to the u s.

White roofs and global warming.

Another question is the overall environmental benefit of reflective roofs and whether they actually do slow global warming. But its potential value in ameliorating the most severe consequences of excess heat in cities could be life saving. Painting roofs white or covering them with plants could help fight global warming but they don t offer the same bang for the buck everywhere says a study monday of six u s. The idea of painting our roofs and roads white to offset global warming is not new but a recent study has calculated just how significantly white surfaces could impact greenhouse gas emissions.

Oleson found that even if every city building roof and stretch of urban pavement in the world were painted white it would only delay global warming by 11 years. Installing white roofs or painting them white has been promoted as a way to help slow global warming. Most of us know better than to wear black on a hot day but when it comes to the roofs on our. In the case of global warming white roofs looked to be the low hanging no brainer.

White roofs are not a global warming silver bullet study finds. Painting roofs white has been like changing lightbulbs one of the well cited easy ways out of climate change. Things are getting too hot. A stanford study published last year found that the heat being reflected from white roofs may actually exacerbate climate change by contributing more heat to the atmosphere and absorbing more emissions.

Department of energy there is widespread belief that white reflective roofing systems even on buildings in northern cities like new york and chicago are more efficient and more cost effective than dark roofing and that these systems also reduce global warming and the heat island effect in which. White roofs aka cool roofs are a hot topic these days as a means to help stem global warming. Plans to slow climate change by reflecting sunlight back into space could in fact raise temperatures a new study concludes. New research shows that white roofs may actually add to global warming.