White roofs effectively counter climate change

William Atkins
Thursday, 06 November 2008 20:38

Science - Energy

A Spanish study has concluded that white roofs reflect so much sunlight that they suggest placing white reflective surfaces in semi-arid regions of the world to offset climate change. Just think what they could do for the rest of the world!


Pablo Campra of the University of Almeria (Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Almeria, Almeria, Spain) and colleagues studied temperature trends throughout Spain--focusing their attention on weather stations, pasture lands, and greenhouses.

They were especially interested in the conversion of semi-arid pastures in Almeria, which is located in southeastern Spain, to greenhouse horticulture during the 1970s.

Their conclusions, written in the Journal of Geophysical Research, appear as the title “Surface temperature cooling trends and negative radiative forcing due to land use change toward greenhouse farming in southeastern Spain.”

The other authors and researchers for the study include Monica Garcia, Yolanda Canton, and Alicia Palacios-Orueta.

They write, “Greenhouse horticulture has experienced in recent decades a dramatic spatial expansion in the semiarid province of Almeria, in southeastern (SE) Spain, reaching a continuous area of 26,000 ha in 2007, the widest greenhouse area in the world.”

They wanted to see if there was a difference in surface radiation and albedo (reflectivity of radiation, such as sunlight).

Page two tells of their conclusions, and the effect it might have on the world.