http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-roofs10-2008sep10,0,1149905.story

Such roofs and reflective pavement in the world’s 100 largest cities would
have a massive cooling effect, according to data released at California’s
annual Climate Change Research Conference.

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 10, 2008

Builders have known for decades that white roofs reflect the sun’s rays and
lower the cost of air conditioning. But now scientists say they have
quantified a new benefit: slowing global warming.

If the 100 biggest cities in the world installed white roofs and changed
their pavement to more reflective materials — say, concrete instead of
asphalt-based material — the global cooling effect would be massive,
according to data released Tuesday at California’s annual Climate Change
Research Conference in Sacramento.

Since 2005, the Golden State has required that flat commercial structures
have white roofs. Next year, new and retrofitted residential and commercial
buildings, with both flat and sloped roofs, will have to install
heat-reflecting roofing, as part of an energy-efficient building code.

But the state has yet to pass any rules to encourage cooler pavement on its
roads, which are largely coated with heat-absorbing asphalt, a cheap
byproduct of oil refining.

According to Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, a 1,000-square-foot roof — the average size on an American home
– offsets 10 metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions in the
atmosphere if dark-colored shingles or coatings are replaced with white
material.

Globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement
accounts for about 35%. If all were switched to reflective material in 100
major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases,
which have been trapping heat in the atmosphere and altering the climate on
a potentially dangerous scale.

That is more than all the countries on Earth emit in a single year. And,
with global climate negotiators focused on limiting a rapid increase in
emissions, installing cool roofs and pavements would offset more than 10
years of emissions growth, even without slashing industrial pollution.

Akbari’s paper, “Global Cooling: Increasing Worldwide Urban Albedos to
Offset CO2,” to be published in the journal Climatic Change, was written
with his colleague Surabi Menon and UC Berkeley physicist Arthur Rosenfeld,
a member of the California Energy Commission. All three have been associated
with the laboratory’s Heat Island Group, which has published extensive
research on how roofs and pavement raise urban temperatures.

Akbari and Rosenfeld said they will mount an effort to persuade the United
Nations to organize major cities to alter their roofing and pavement.

“I call it win-win-win,” Akbari said. “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.”

BNT Technology is a natural blood preserver as the above simple home experiments demonstrate.

A pin-prick drop of blood from a finger - one exposed to the BNT sticker and the other in control conditions, clearly showed the blood preservation capabilities of BNT.

Came across a link to the National Geographic Greendex Survey. It’s basically a survey about environmentally sustainable consumption among consumers in 14 countries. It threw up some pretty interesting results. The Greendex Map has a nice interactive pop-up screen that explains the survey results from each country. Interesting results from India and Brazil.

Let’s just hope that its not too late to save the world!

Since 1970, April 22 has marked the celebration of Earth Day, started by Gaylord Nelson, an American Senator who sought to put the environment on the national agenda.

The first Earth Day saw 20 million Americans take to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment.

Earth Day went global in 1990 mobilising 200 million people in 141 countries, giving a huge boost to recycling efforts that paved the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Since then, Earth Day has gone from strength to strength, linking people across the planet in the fight for a clean environment. Now it’s your turn. Think green and find ways to save energy, recycle used items and clean up your environment - be it at home, at school or at the office.

(Excerpt from 7Days.ae)

From the same article, here are a few ways to participate and make our Earth a better and safer place:

Green your school>> Say NO to Plastic Bags Get your school art class to start a project where students design a reusable cloth shopping bag. Get out the paint jars and print a personal environmental message on your own reusable bag and don’t forget to take it along with you when you hit the shops.>> Start Recycling - If your school doesn’t have one already, organise a recycling programme that will reduce waste and recycle materials. Hold elections to vote in classmates to become ‘governors’ of school recycling, in order to make sure the job gets done.

(Excerpt from 7Days.ae)