WE’VE FINALLY FOUND A PLACE WHERE WHITE IS COOLER THAN BLACK

While we wait for the engineering geniuses of the world to figure out how to beat global warming we might want to consider some lo-tech solutions in the meantime. For example, the LA Times reports that if the world’s 100 largest cities painted the roofs of all the buildings white and used a more reflective materials on their roads the global cooling effect would offset ten years of emissions growth in only one year. “I call it win-win-win,” said Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “First, a cooler environment not only saves energy but improves comfort. Second, cooling a city by a few degrees dramatically reduces smog. And the third win is offsetting global warming.”