Shine On
Expanding Problem
White Roofs Cool Local & Global Warming
Cities Growing Like Weeds Worldwide
Some things are easy. A new study from researchers at NASA and New York’s Columbia University has concluded that painting a city’s roofs white or another light color could reduce the local ambient temperature by 5 percent or more during hot summer months. This negates the phenomenon scientists refer to as the “urban heat island effect”, in which the dark jungles of asphalt, metal and concrete turn cities into heat reservoirs, soaking up the warmth of the sun instead of reflecting solar radiation back into the atmosphere. In New York City, it was discovered that a whitesurfaced roof was 43 percent cooler than its black counterpart. The city passed a law in 2007 to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 30 percent by 2030; increasing the city’s albedo (the amount of reflected solar radiation) by brightening its surfaces is one of the quickest, cheapest and most effective ways to achieve significant reductions. After announcing a plan to alter roofs atop the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal buildings in the summer of 2010, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, “Cool roofs are one of the quickest and lowestcost ways we can reduce our global carbon emissions and begin the hard work of slowing climate change.” Source: Miller-McCune.com
Expanding cities around the globe, especially in fastgrowing countries like China, India and Brazil, are putting the world under increasing environmental stress, according to experts at a climate conference, Planet Under Pressure, in London, reports Reuters. The additional 1.5 million square kilometers of space they expect to be occupied by 2030 will mean growing greenhouse gas emissions and resource demand. The United Nations foresees global population rising from 7 billion to 9 billion people by 2050, adding roughly a million people each week. Farsighted urban planners want to improve how cities are planned, developed and run. “Everything being brought into the city from outside—food, water, products and energy—needs to be sourced sustainably,” observes Sybil Seitzinger, executive director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Utility meters and sensors that monitor power generation network capacities and electricity supply and demand can help conserve energy. Builders can also target more efficient land use, better building standards and policies to promote public transportation instead of vehicle use. More urban areas need to follow the example of cities like Vancouver, in Canada, which obtains 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar and tidal energies, and has developed a 100-year sustainability plan.
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