“I like visiting you. Your neighborhood is cool.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way. It’s home, so I guess I took our lifestyle for granted.”
“No, not ‘cool’ as in ‘chic’; ‘cool’ as in temperature. Maybe it’s the occasional tree near the sidewalks.”
“Oh! There’s a takedown. And here I thought you were envying my way of life. The “cool”? Look down, man, look down.”
“What?”
“Look at the road. It’s been painted white to reflect sunlight. No more hot asphalt. The city of Los Angeles has an experiment running, painting reflective paint over streets. Supposed to diminish the heat island effect that makes cities warmer than the countryside. It’s like living on a farm with traffic. And to think, painting those streets white costs only $40,000 per mile. A bargain at any price, right? We’re fighting climate change at the ground level.”
“So, does the jogger or walker absorb the heat energy reflected from the road?”
Blank stare.
“Well, the energy has to go somewhere. If it reflects off the street and a person is walking along the street, wouldn’t some of that energy go into the person? And then, wouldn’t that person have to radiate that excess heat into the surrounding atmosphere to keep the body cool? Maybe it would be better to paint the roofs of all the houses and shops. The radiated energy would then start at a level higher than pedestrian traffic.”
“I’m sure there’s a reason for the street covering over roof painting. People in my neighborhood are pretty independent. I don’t remember when the street painting started, but it didn’t seem to generate much conversation. My neighbors and I just said we didn’t object to white streets. Heck, they’re more visible at night. They reflect street lights. I think the neighbors might object to the city coming in to paint their roofs. Some might object on the basis of property ownership; some might say white just doesn’t match the style and color of the house. Some might just not like white roofs, and some might say for no apparent reason, ‘Get lost.’ But painting roofs white does make sense. Aren’t most, if not all, roofs in Bermuda white?”
“Yes, Bermuda is a largely white-roofed island. And those roofs not only reflect sunlight, but they also are used to collect rain. But I just thought of another potential problem with painting whole street surfaces. What’s the composition of the reflective paint? Does it have those millions of microscopic glass beads in it. Those eventually get washed into the non-street environment. Does it have terpene phenolic resins, titanium oxides, any lead-chromate? How about barium sulfate, silica, mica, or other ‘extenders’? Alkyd resins? Chlorinated-rubber alkyd resins? Hydrocarbon resins? Polyester? Acrylic water borne emulsions? I’m just asking on behalf of the environment, both land and marine. LA is near the ocean.”
“I’m sure the city planners have taken into account all the ramifications of paint chemistry. Californians are known for their environmental awareness. So, painting the streets white isn’t going to harm the environment. It’s just an experiment, anyway.”
“Back in the 1990s I did a policy analysis for the Commonwealth of PA’s Department of Energy, and one of my recommendations was increasing the number of reflective roofs. Seems I was ahead of my time because I just read a 2019 study by Macintyre and Heaviside called “Potential benefits of cool roofs in reducing heat-related mortality during heatwaves in a European city” they published in Elsevier’s Environmental International.* Want a cooler neighborhood, paint your roof white. Of course, reflecting light off roofs doesn’t diminish the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases from absorbing it. So, there might be a cooling of the lowest level in the atmosphere in a city, but that has nothing to do with a general raising of temperature in the atmosphere. Painting streets doesn’t diminish the greenhouse effect. And if the atmosphere gets warmer, then warmer air settles over those ‘cooled’ neighborhoods. Painting streets might change the local temperature, but reflected energy has to go somewhere.”
“So, what’s your point? Just that my neighborhood is ‘cool’?”
“Actually, it’s a twofold point. First, no matter what we do, we cannot foresee all the consequences of our actions. Second, when we rely on bureaucracies to solve problems, we open ourselves up to impositions on personal freedom. I’m sure I can think of other points if you give me time. You might come up with a few of your own. What do you think?”
*Fedschun, Travis. Los Angeles painting city streets white in bid to combat climate change. https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-painting-city-streets-white-in-bid-to-combat-climate-change Accessed May 6, 2020. In fact, the article should more properly be titled “…in a bid to combat the local effects of climate change.”
**Volume 127. June 2019. Pp. 430-441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.02.065Get Article online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018319627?via%3Dihub
Accessed May 6, 2020.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way. It’s home, so I guess I took our lifestyle for granted.”
“No, not ‘cool’ as in ‘chic’; ‘cool’ as in temperature. Maybe it’s the occasional tree near the sidewalks.”
“Oh! There’s a takedown. And here I thought you were envying my way of life. The “cool”? Look down, man, look down.”
“What?”
“Look at the road. It’s been painted white to reflect sunlight. No more hot asphalt. The city of Los Angeles has an experiment running, painting reflective paint over streets. Supposed to diminish the heat island effect that makes cities warmer than the countryside. It’s like living on a farm with traffic. And to think, painting those streets white costs only $40,000 per mile. A bargain at any price, right? We’re fighting climate change at the ground level.”
“So, does the jogger or walker absorb the heat energy reflected from the road?”
Blank stare.
“Well, the energy has to go somewhere. If it reflects off the street and a person is walking along the street, wouldn’t some of that energy go into the person? And then, wouldn’t that person have to radiate that excess heat into the surrounding atmosphere to keep the body cool? Maybe it would be better to paint the roofs of all the houses and shops. The radiated energy would then start at a level higher than pedestrian traffic.”
“I’m sure there’s a reason for the street covering over roof painting. People in my neighborhood are pretty independent. I don’t remember when the street painting started, but it didn’t seem to generate much conversation. My neighbors and I just said we didn’t object to white streets. Heck, they’re more visible at night. They reflect street lights. I think the neighbors might object to the city coming in to paint their roofs. Some might object on the basis of property ownership; some might say white just doesn’t match the style and color of the house. Some might just not like white roofs, and some might say for no apparent reason, ‘Get lost.’ But painting roofs white does make sense. Aren’t most, if not all, roofs in Bermuda white?”
“Yes, Bermuda is a largely white-roofed island. And those roofs not only reflect sunlight, but they also are used to collect rain. But I just thought of another potential problem with painting whole street surfaces. What’s the composition of the reflective paint? Does it have those millions of microscopic glass beads in it. Those eventually get washed into the non-street environment. Does it have terpene phenolic resins, titanium oxides, any lead-chromate? How about barium sulfate, silica, mica, or other ‘extenders’? Alkyd resins? Chlorinated-rubber alkyd resins? Hydrocarbon resins? Polyester? Acrylic water borne emulsions? I’m just asking on behalf of the environment, both land and marine. LA is near the ocean.”
“I’m sure the city planners have taken into account all the ramifications of paint chemistry. Californians are known for their environmental awareness. So, painting the streets white isn’t going to harm the environment. It’s just an experiment, anyway.”
“Back in the 1990s I did a policy analysis for the Commonwealth of PA’s Department of Energy, and one of my recommendations was increasing the number of reflective roofs. Seems I was ahead of my time because I just read a 2019 study by Macintyre and Heaviside called “Potential benefits of cool roofs in reducing heat-related mortality during heatwaves in a European city” they published in Elsevier’s Environmental International.* Want a cooler neighborhood, paint your roof white. Of course, reflecting light off roofs doesn’t diminish the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases from absorbing it. So, there might be a cooling of the lowest level in the atmosphere in a city, but that has nothing to do with a general raising of temperature in the atmosphere. Painting streets doesn’t diminish the greenhouse effect. And if the atmosphere gets warmer, then warmer air settles over those ‘cooled’ neighborhoods. Painting streets might change the local temperature, but reflected energy has to go somewhere.”
“So, what’s your point? Just that my neighborhood is ‘cool’?”
“Actually, it’s a twofold point. First, no matter what we do, we cannot foresee all the consequences of our actions. Second, when we rely on bureaucracies to solve problems, we open ourselves up to impositions on personal freedom. I’m sure I can think of other points if you give me time. You might come up with a few of your own. What do you think?”
*Fedschun, Travis. Los Angeles painting city streets white in bid to combat climate change. https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-painting-city-streets-white-in-bid-to-combat-climate-change Accessed May 6, 2020. In fact, the article should more properly be titled “…in a bid to combat the local effects of climate change.”
**Volume 127. June 2019. Pp. 430-441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.02.065Get Article online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018319627?via%3Dihub
Accessed May 6, 2020.
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