2009June: Hashem Akbari and Surabi Menon, scientists at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and Art Rosenfeld, California Energy Commissioner, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Berkeley Lab scientist, calculate that if 100 of the world’s largest cities were to lighten the colors of all roofs and pavement, then the equivalent of 44 billion metric tons of CO2 could be saved. “Cool surfaces are a simple, tried-and-true technology for cooling the earth. Using them is a simple but effective solution to help reduce earth’s climate change. And by doing this globally, we can gain experience in how to work together to implement large scale solutions to reducing global warming,” said Akbari (LBNL, 2009).
Reference: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 2009. Summer Newsletter: Vol. 8, No. 1 http://eetd.lbl.gov/newsletter/nl28/
Read the Akbari, Menon & Rosenfeld paper, “Global cooling: increasing world-wide urban albedos to offset CO2,” that appeared in the journal Climatic Change Vol. 95 Joint Issue 3-4 (May-June 2009) at http://www.energy.ca.gov/publications/searchReports.php?pier_sub=GCC%20-%20Options%20to%20Reduce%20GHG%20Emissions
Image Description: New York City-view from Empire State Buildung. Photo by Bernd Untiedt, 2005January. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.
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This post is tagged 2000s Climate Change Events, 21st Century and Climate Change, Climate Change Effects, Climate Change Mitigations, Greenhouse Gases, Pollution, Urban Areas and Climate Change
