certainly takes on a whole new meaning with this guy.

How about tinfoil hats? They would reflect a lot of sunlight, too.

…although covering roads, rooves (roofs?) and pavements in mirrors might work even better. Except for Birds, Pilots, Hot Air Balloonists and Shuttle Astronauts on the dayside.

Mirrors and fully-inflated tires — the Saudis can EAT their oil. HA!

Plus, somebody (Big White Paint) will make a buck off of it, just like the Ethanol Lobby.

The bigger the vehicle, the larger the white surface…. you do the math!

to re-record “Paint it White”

But has anyone calcluated the surface area of the surfaces he wants painted, and what percentage of the Earth’s surface that makes?

Has he?

This isn’t even science.

That doesn’t seem to stop Chu from claiming it is melting.How did it get so warm there?
What Chu said is ridiculous but it is a fact that many commercial buildings lower their cooling costs by painting their roofs white.They use special paint.It is not just white house paint.Cooling a large building is more costly than heating it.
It is called an elastomeric roof coating.

we won’t have to pay to paint our roof…. and it would be FREE (in the Liberal mindset dumb enough to think that)

Follow the money with 99.9% of things……..

Heard this on Rush’s show today………
Climate B$: Why the Energy Secretary Wants to Paint Your Roof White

“It turns out that three huge proponents of the idea to paint the town white are former colleagues of Secretary Chu from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and they’re looking for their share of stimulus loot.”

——————–

El Rusbo read it here……….
From an article by Greg Pollowitz at National Review Online…………….
The Science Behind White Roofs

“The Obama administration has made it clear that it wants a substantial portion of the stimulus package to go toward creating a greener economy, but that desire has to be balanced against the imperative to immediately circulate cash and create jobs. Painting or resurfacing roofs or pavement, Akbari said, would nicely fulfill both objectives.”

——————–

…….and Mr. Pollowitz found the baseline here……….
Three California energy experts make a convincing — and sincere — case that painting roofs white in the hot parts of the planet could offset the greenhouse gas woes caused by the world’s cars

“An Iranian-born nuclear engineer who, for the last three decades, has worked as a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Akbari would like to see $3 billion of the economic stimulus package directed toward painting white or a light color as many of the nation’s roofs, and as much of its pavement, as possible — all with the goal of directing more solar radiation into space.

Akbari, along with Surabi Menon, another LBNL scientist, and Arthur Rosenfeld, a former LBNL scientist and now a California Energy Commission board member, claim that painting urban surfaces in warm parts of the world white or a light color could offset the carbon emissions of all 600 million of the world’s cars for 18 to 20 years — at a savings equivalent to at least $1 trillion worth of CO2 reductions.”

2-page PDF:
http://www.loe.org/images/090213/White%20Roofs%20Cool%20the%20World.pdf

Interesting link:
Global cooling: increasing world-wide urban albedos to offset CO2

I say it’s an interesting link, because Hashem Akbari and Arthur Rosenfeld have their e-mail addresses listed in full view.

I wonder if anybody in the sane media reading this linkage line would care to drop them a note asking for an interview.

——————————————–

I’d comment on this, but I’m too busy with applying for the new “green job” of the century……. Painter, Environmental, US Forest Service.

My individual application is for painting golf courses here in Florida……. all fairways, roughs, greens and trees are ordered to now be painted white.

What did you say?…………….. Golf balls are white.

Wow, you’re right.

Help me Algore. You’re my only hope. The Empire is about to invade and Obi is nowhere to be found.

Jeff,

Either you are being ignorant or intellectually dishonest. You clarify. For about 3 months of my life I did energy audits. Anyone who knows anything about saving money on HVAC and energy usage knows that a white roof significantly lowers cooling coss because it reflects much of the sun (and much of its heat).

This not only saves the business money, but it also has a return of investment of one year (depending on the size of the roof and how many stories the building).

Are you anti-business by wanting them to pay more for cooling costs?

Ignorance.

you can reflect so much light with a polished aluminum and that includes thermal wavelengths as well. Oh wait, then the chinese could not spy on us or planes fly or satellite imagery would be horribly saturated.

[Jack was supposed to be banned for trolling back in October. Apologies for the inconvenience. – NS]

I took a bunch of State and federal money back in the day doing energy audits and such and the physics is pretty elementary. I can still do that A X u X delta T X Time calc with a four function calculator.

If you live in a low lattitude warm climate, you really want a light colored house with a light colored roof. If you’ve ever flown in a light plane over rural areas, you’ll be cruising along at say a thousand feet over fields and forrests and then fly over a road and get bounced fifty or a hundred feet up from the heat convection off the hot asphalt. Flying over a road or even a railroad track is like hitting a speed bump.

I always get a kick out of visiting my old buddies back in the land of moonlight and magnolias. Their dream is to buy an old cotton field and build a red brick Georgian mansion with a black fake slate roof right in the middle of that old, treeless cotton field. For Christ’s sakes, they just built a solar collector and they wonder why they’re giving have their monthly earnings to the power company for summer air conditioning.

You don’t have to go greenie/whacko about this; some stuff just makes sense. Even in this climate, I have a white house and a light gray roof. In summer when the sun is out and bright, I don’t need the head absorbed by dark colors or the damage that heat causes. In winter, there’s not enough sun to make any difference, so the color doesn’t matter.

Years and years ago when Algore first started transforming into the global warming Chicken Little I wrote an tongue in cheek letter to the editor of my local paper joking that Algore’s next big complaint was going to be against asphalt road surfaces and parking lots because the black of the asphalt holds heat and thereby contributes to global warming. I was ahead of my time.

Perhaps the next opinion from these laureates will be to eliminate the moon. It does reflect the sun’s rays onto the earth, so that fits into their method of thinking, right? Will it be missed? Not if it is for the greater good. Calling Dr Evil!!!

My husband and I worked hard for over half of our lives for our house. We have paid for every black architectural shingle that is nailed to this massive carbon foot print - and we enjoy it every minute.

If the Greenies want me to paint my roof white, they can just back up their truck loaded with a bunch of money, buy my house and paint it any color they choose.

Until then, we bought it - we decide.

Chu is an academic idiot, Nobel Prize notwithstanding.

He didn’t realize that part of his job is negotiating with OPEC.

He’s advocated for higher energy prices.

He’s already drunk the Global Warming kool-aid.