Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The inmates are flying OUT OF THE CUCKOO'S NEST!!

Stand proud Pilgrims, your President hand picked his environmental secretary and then sent him off to represent us: (oh the shame)

Obama's green guru calls for white roofs

President Obama's energy adviser has suggested all the world's roofs should be painted white as part of efforts to slow global warming.

Steven <span class=Chu: Obama's green guru calls for white roofs " width="460" height="288">
U.S. energy secretary, Steven Chu Photo: BLOOMBERG

Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays.

More pale surfaces could also slow global warming by reflecting heat into space rather than allowing it to be absorbed by dark surfaces where it is trapped by greenhouse gases and increases temperatures.

In a wide-ranging discussion at the three-day Nobel laureate Symposium in London, the Professor described climate change as a "crisis situation", and called for a whole host of measures to be introduced, from promoting energy efficiency to renewable energy such as wind, wave and solar.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist said the US was not considering any large scale "geo-engineering" projects where science is used to reverse global warming, but was in favour of "white roofs everywhere".

He said lightening roofs and roads in urban environments would offset the global warming effects of all the cars in the world for 11 years.

"If you look at all the buildings and if you make the roofs white and if you make the pavement more of a concrete type of colour rather than a black type of colour and if you do that uniformally, that would be the equivalent of... reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars in the world by 11 years – just taking them off the road for 11 years," he said.

Kind of gives a whole new meaning to 'white washing' our problems away, doesn't it???

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

give 'em a taxpayer funded cabinet position, buy 'em books and a plane ticket to Europe and this is how we solve an eco crisis?

snicker