I support spending less money on energy for cooling buildings, et cetera. Really, who doesn’t like saving money?

I support self-control in the use of natural resources, be they renewable or otherwise. Notice that I say self-control, not government control. Energy comes from natural resources. The more slowly we use resources, the longer they’ll be around (and less expensively so) for us to use.

I support clean air and water. Pollution, be it solid garbage or smog or whatever, is disgusting and harmful – to us as well as to most of the other beasties with whom we share the planet. If the air were clear and the water drinkable – except in the ocean, unless you’ve got salt-flushing capabilities – that would be ideal. And there’s no denying it’s mankind’s fault that’s not the case.

I support global warming. Not fighting it. I oppose fighting it. I think the planet could stand to be a bit warmer and to have less ice. Blasted ice age making a quarter of the planet uninhabitable. I’m all ready to move to Antarctica once it thaws out.

I support carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If it contributes at all to the warming – of which I have my doubts – then great. Even if not, we’d be running dangerously low without the supplements from combustion and concrete manufacture. It’s taken the photosynthesizers of the world just a couple billion years to use up all the atmosphere’s original CO2. Yes, all. What little is left isn’t even as much as has been added by volcanoes and such since the advent of photosynthesis. They’re running out! There’s only a few million years’ supply left, if that! Ideally – it seems to me – we would run our technological world on clean combustion that produced only CO2 and H2O.

Now, there is some argument about carbon dioxide acidifying the oceans and dissolving the shells of the mollusks or something. I haven’t heard enough of this argument to have a qualified opinion, but it’s the one thing that could sway my opinion back toward the “CO2 is bad, global warming is evil, we must stop” side of the debate, so if anyone wants to persuade me, I’m listening.

Somewhat off-topic rant over. MacAvity out.

You wrote this here Coolreflection so it proves that it actually works, and in response to the comment of,

“” Mirage_GSM on 19 June 2009 at 01:05 am
I live in a house without A/C, so my energy bill for cooling is still 100% less than yours ;-)
It’s still agreeably cool in the summers, but the heating bill in the winter is a bother. Your roofs can’t help with that though, can they?”"

I would suggest that if you have a black roof you could place white panels on your roof with a sliding mechanism in the Summer and remove them in Winter time, so you would get advantage in both seasons.

IN REPLY TO ALAN’S ARTICLE HERE,
He was way ahead on highlighting the benefits of white roofs, as you can read at a recent link here below
it is back in the picture again to work on the white roof benefits.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35125043/ns/us_news-environment/

And as I am a avid handyman / painter i would love the idea to paint or place panels on roofs, lol.
It would be a win,win situation for everyone even the little bits would help is my motto.

There is an interesting proposal here from November 2008 see link, that i would like to share with you all.
It puts you to thinking why it takes so long for everyone not to implement these facts more in a faster mode.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/2008publications/CEC-999-2008-031/CEC-999-2008-031.PDF

Frank G

I would think white roadways, parking lots, etc. would lead to a higher accident rate (glare and eye fatigue) and an increase in incidents of sun burn. Other than that, it seems a rather novel idea.

The domes you suggest seem prohibitively expensive, and I’m not a big fan of the “if we cover it in solar panels, it has to make sense” mentality (please note that I’m not accusing you of thinking this way, it just seems that this ideology has made its’ way into our collective consciousness).

The same arguments (or backwards mentality {on my part}) apply to your ideas for the car. Although I must admit that a passive cooling system for a car is a great idea.

[quote]ValiantDefender said: “I find what our Govt has done with nuclear energy and testing to be a far worse crime against nature and humanity than industrial air polution. How many nuclear multi-millenia tombs must we create?! Reading about them makes me cringe.”[/quote]

I’d just like to say that there is nothing inherently “un-natural” about nuclear fission. Natural nuclear explosions have happened. Also, the more recent generations of nuclear reactors produce far less waste (and use fuel far more efficiently) than previous designs have. Nuclear power is much cleaner than any of the reasonable alternatives (solar and wind simply won’t fly in the long term… supplemental energy, yes… primary power source {especially taking into account peak power usage and loss due to transmission as well as reliability}, no) and with a much more reliable fuel supply than anything other than coal. Additionally, stockpiling of fuel requires far less volume.

For a look from the other side of the fence, check out http://depletedcranium.com/ . It’s another interesting site with intelligent, educated contributions from the peanut gallery.

Please don’t take this post as an attack, nuclear power is just something that I feel fairly strongly about.

1) Recent scientific news articles are talking about global cooling. Yes, thats right, global cooling. It states that the avg global temperature is getting colder…and has been for the last 7 years.
2) It is pretty clear that most the people who started and vehemently support the global warming cause have an agenda and misrepresent facts to support their cause.
3) One volcanic eruption puts out more greenhouse gas than the entire world has since the begginning of the industrial revolution (1 natural event vs 100 years of industry)
4) Global warming/cooling is more closely tied to solar activity.
5)The painting of rooftops white is a fun idea :D jk. But i have long daydreamed about some other types of resurfacing that, while not helpful to “fixing” global warming, could be helpful in other aspects.
a)the pavement solar cells idea in the article is something I hadn’t thought of but if, possible, is pure genius.
b)using white cement (and white tires to help keep them white) instead of black asphault would help some cities cool off in the summer. Phoenix would be my first candidate.
c) Large Domes over public parks, etc that are comprised of 1000’s of triangles. The triangles each would deploy a solar cell that could be retracted to let light, air, water (the elements) through them onto the park below or could be deployed to block the sun/heat and turn it into electricity. Each cell would be individual controlled and run by a computer that would intelligently deploy/retract each cell to creat the appropriate/desired amount of shade or rain cover. The under sides would need to be somewhat sturdy but lightweight (perhaps the metal used to make our f15 jet fighters). Even if it didn’t produce any useful amount of electricity, it could be engineered to be somewhat selfsufficient and allow residents of the desert to enjoy a public outdoor area without immediately baking to death (I lived in phoenix several years and had small children at the time).
d) I also imagine cars with a similar scheme. Covered in solar cells, the energy would be used to recharge a batter (albeit a small amount). There wold also be retractable covers (over the windsheild and rear window as well making it pitch black inside the vehicle. This owuld maximize the solar cell surface area and limit the heat entering through the glass. I do not know the math, but perhaps the energy could be used in a small condenser to keep the car at a temp below 135 degrees (not uncommon for a car sitting in the summer heat). The Window screens alone help keep the interior of a car at a low temp.

All that being said, even if global warming is 100% proven false (i.e. human greenhouse gases are going to kill us all) that doesn’t mean that we need to go and use up all the resources, dirty every lake, litter every where, trash everything, etc. We have a great responsibility to keep our world clean.

I find what our Govt has done with nuclear energy and testing to be a far worse crime against nature and humanity than industrial air polution. How many nuclear multi-millenia tombs must we create?! Reading about them makes me cringe.