White Roofs

I have been reading about the idea of whitening roofs a lot lately, here, here and most importantly in this article from the Telegraph.

A recent scientific paper suggests that lightening roofs and paved areas in urban areas around the globe would have such a strong cooling effect that it would be like taking every car in the world off the road for 19 years. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, has firmly gotten behind the idea (see that Telegraph article) and even suggests the Government regulates a full on transition.

From Infrastructurist:

By reflecting back huge quantities of sunlight that is now absorbed by dark surfaces, whitening our roofs and roads could offset 44 billion tons of carbon emission, calculates Arthur Rosenfeld of the California Energy Commission and two colleagues. It may be one of the cheapest and most effective ways humanity can seriously address global warming in the near term.

Whitening our roofs and roads would also cut demand for air conditioning by as much as 15 percent on the hottest days of summer, which would also have the benefit of making our electrical grid more stable.

The best thing is, it wouldn't even cost anything more to BEGIN to use white over black for roofing. And with all the money being thrown around these days, it wouldn't be a terrible idea if some of it went to incentives for people to paint their roofs white. The Greeks (and lots of other peoples who live in hot climates) have been cooling their homes by using white materials for many years.