President Obama’s energy and climate officials have a habit of touting geoengineering as a solution to climate change.

The latest? Energy secretary Steven Chu, who while in London pitched an idea from his former colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Painting roofs white to reflect sunlight can make a huge difference to global warming. From the Times of London:

“There’s a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Art Rosenfeld, who’s pushing very hard for a geo-engineering we all believe will be completely benign, and that’s when you have a flat-top roof building, make it white. “Now, you smile, but he’s done a calculation, and if you take all the buildings and make their roofs white and if you make the pavement more of a concrete type of colour rather than a black type of colour, and you do this uniformly . . . it’s the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars on the road for 11 years.”

The thing is, secretary Chu actually understated the potential benefits of global whitewashing. The Lawrence research he refers to (which we wrote about last fall) says that white roofs and pavements could mean a one-time reduction of 44 billion tons of carbon dioxide. That, Art Rosenfeld said, translates to removing all the cars in the world for 18 years.

Of course, that’s the best-case scenario. Most roofs are sloped, not flat. Using “cool colored” paint on sloping roofs—as California will require startin

Mit Farbe das Klima retten - diese Idee hat jetzt US-Energieminister Steven Chu vorgestellt. Möglichst alle Dächer in Amerika und sogar weltweit sollten mit weißer Farbe gestrichen werden, sagte Chu bei einem Nobelpreisträgertreffen in London. Dadurch würde deutlich mehr Sonnenlicht reflektiert als bei normalen Dächern. "Die Energie geht zurück in den Weltraum statt in den Stein", sagte Chu.

Die Gebäude müssten dadurch weniger klimatisiert werden, was erheblich zum Energiesparen beitrage. Zudem werde weniger Wärme in Bodennähe gespeichert.

Auch Straßen sollten heller gestrichen werden, um einen ähnlichen Effekt zu erzielen, forderte der Physik-Nobelpreisträger. "Wenn man das konsequent durchzieht, spart man so viel Kohlendioxid ein, wie alle Autos weltweit in elf Jahren ausstoßen", sagte Chu. Er forderte zudem Autohersteller auf, Autos hauptsächlich in weißer Farbe zu vermarkten. Dann könnten die Klimaanlagen kleiner dimensioniert werden, was Sprit spare. "Das wären im wahrsten Sinn coole Autos", sagte Chu.

schon schön auch schön wäre :

RW€

IR RWE GE GEHEN

Bitte auf den RWE Tower schreiben...

Auich das ehemalige Schwesternheim Amalienstrasse/Ecke Josephstrasse in Dortmund wurde abgerissen:

"Hier noch Schwesternheim, nun Parkhaus"

Ehemalige Thier Brauerei wird 2011 Shopping Center: "SHOP TILL YOU DROP"

Grafitty "Capitalism kills society" wurde mitabgerissen

Mike Harding: TOUCH. 

 I wrote:

"Oh we love this place we call home"

cause that's the way it is.

 I like this idea !

 MHEPO IRI KUPI ? (WHERE IS THE AIR?)

CHIRIKURE CHIRIKURE poet simbabwe

Thanks very much for your nice statement  - we will add it soon.

Please come back to the forum to see a pict of it in a few days

Best REMOTEWORDS

please write: "come back"

so that this district is coming alive again

thank you

We appreciate your proposal and will add it to the jozi map soon

REMOTEWORDS

please write: SOLD OUT !

thanks

Lieber Achim,

anbei eine spontane Dachimpression aus Erfurt von meiner Fahrt letzten Mittwoch von Dresden nach Köln.

Sonnige Grüße aus dem Schwarzwald,Tim

Let me know when you might come to to the USA. Lemay Island looks good (was there a month or so ago). You could do something where the rock graffiti is along the highway outside wendover? write "graffiti"?Mark the earthstation where the satellite info is beamed back to earth?Google HQ?
-M

I think that REMOTEWORDS sounds entirely excellent! Fond greetings from New York, where I'll only be for another couple of days before I travel to Australia for almost 2 months. Thanks for keeping me informed, 

Greg

Remotewords: The idea of a field for our project is great. I was always interested in the signs in fields that were popping up in the UK. At first there was a lot of speculation ... alien signs ... mystic new world order signs ... Then, I think, an artist group identified themselves. Mel Gibson acted in the Shalayaman film "Signs" along the same lines and I love the film. So, wow, great.

Warmest wishes M.

The earthscratching idea is a good one. When do you plan to start? The earlier emails were cut off, so I can't tell if you're thinking of just Wendover or other locations too. I wonder about using water to GROW something?

- Steve

Achim,I sent you the KFC ad in rachel nevada. Also look at Bill Witherspoons art on Oregon desert. Not google, but an important precedent. And other aerial art is the closes thing, crop art etc.

Best M.