| Flashings
Controversial cool roof study is released
Researchers at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., have
authored a new study, "Effects of Urban Surfaces and White Roofs on
Global and Regional Climate," which models climate response from
2005-25. The researchers say the urban heat-island effect is
relatively minor in terms of any effect on global warming as a
whole and light-colored, solar-reflective cool roofs may not help
rein in climate change.
Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental
engineering at Stanford University, led the study and was assisted
by Stanford University graduate student John Ten Hoeve. Jacobson
says greenhouse gases and black carbon are the biggest contributors
to climate change and, together, account for more than 95 percent
of gross global warming since the Industrial Revolution. Jacobson
also says that white solar-reflective roofs might add to, rather
than lessen, global warming.
Stanford University News' announcement of the study says
Jacobson's computer modeling concluded white roofs do cool urban
surfaces. However, they cause a net global warming largely because
they reduce cloudiness by increasing the stability of the air,
thereby reducing the vertical transport of moisture...
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