Changing the Albedo of 100 Major Cities
Global Albedo. Image courtesy of NASA.
A study from the Berkeley National Laboratory proposes switching to highly reflective material on the roof and pavement of 100 major cities. Doing this would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases and offset more than 10 years of emissions growth without cutting industrial pollution.
The Heat Island Group, led by Hashem Akbari, estimate that there could be 50 billion a year savings by using cool roofs, cool pavements and shade trees to save energy.
There is also a short article on this from the Los Angeles Times.
