Polar Bear Patrol
Anyone who doubted the the intellectual strength of Nobel Prize recipients after Al Gore got his gong must really be scratching his head after Obama’s new Energy Secretary, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Chu, suggested that we paint all our roofs white to prevent global warming. This is not only silly – imagine the glare and the heat generated from so much sunlight bouncing around, it overlooks a rather obvious problem: roofs get dirty. Of course, in Obama world, this may be a feature, not a bug, because it will provide employment for the otherwise-unemployable while using up stimulus funds. Here’s a gang now, preparing to scrub a once-white California roof. Given Los Angeles’ smog conditions, these guys will be back again next week.
Politicians/academics who never had a job in real world or ran/started a business (and usually can’t drive so advocate mass transit for all) are always moronic in their “policy” advice, Nobel or not
Much prefer Stanford-trained engineers (not physicists) who actually made a few bucks by starting valuable companies, e.g., one of Stanford’s Comp Sci profs is a billionaire (from google); Stanford’s President (also an engineering prof) is prob a centimillionaire from starting various tech companies….prefer engineers and financiers who have real-world intelligence to opine on economically rational (and technically possible) solutions…but communists are threatened by such an approach
Here’s some interesting information from the Wall Street Journal – both for the Administration to ponder as well as our Conn. Senate Democrats:
“Here’s a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:
Maryland couldn’t balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O’Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were “willing and able to pay their fair share.” The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would “grin and bear it.”
One year later, nobody’s grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller’s office concedes is a “substantial decline.” On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year — even at higher rates.”
Hey, anon, silicon valley money often has very little to do with business-smarts…
careful what measure you’re using to find experts.
in this case you’re just substituting one set of questionable credentials for another
Wally,
I am not sure that story makes your point. Federal tax receipts are down approximately 1/3 because of the economy. The 1/3 decline in MD millionaires may have more to do with declining incomes than “millionaires” leaving the state.
From the article you posted it wasn’t clear what the answer is… i.e. moving vs declining income
Chris: At the risk of being serious (not that you aren’t), here’s my problem with this idea – it is potentially counter-productive in the northern climes.
While painting a roof white will reflect sun and keep the attic cool in the South and the North in the Summer, it also prevents an attic from gaining any warmth in the Winter.
While I was once an engineer, I can not divine whether I would prefer a marginally less hot attic in Summer or a marginally colder attic in Winter. Given some homes have air handlers which could include flowing warm water for heat, I would argue that a colder Winter attic is less desirable. In the power outage that hit back Greenwich a couple of winters ago, we lost three coils in our air handlers because the attic temps dipped to near zero for almost two days. I learned a lesson about draining the lines if we lose power but the point is that attic temps can impact equipment.
Clearly, the further North one goes, the more relevant this could be.
Retired IB’er – you’re right, it isn’t clear. But it is noteworthy that the state in question is Maryland, which is essentially the DC market, which has not been nearly as impacted by the crisis as NY. It could be that so many are making less, or it could be that they relocated to Virginia, the District or somewhere else.
Well Fly, I want you to march straight back to Stockholm and give them back your prize! Look, dummy, you have these Stimulus guys paint your roof white in the springtime and then black in the winter! sHEESH, DO i HAVE TO DO ALL THE THINKING AROUND HERE?
Oh Chris, please forgive me, I was trying to apply some logic to the situation. Let me quote Emily Latella, “Never mind”.
Chris, this is another one of your puzzling posts where you think it’s funny to deride someone much smarter and accomplished than you are, and you ironically use incredibly flawed logic: “imagine the glare and the heat generated from so much sunlight bouncing around”. Um, no — that’s quite wrong. The color white reflects the sun back into the atmosphere/outer space. Black absorbs light/energy and results in more heat being retained within the atmosphere, which a lot of people know offhand and was also mentioned in the article.
Here are a couple of links for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_roof
http://coolcolors.lbl.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo
My guess is that Chu (and others) have suggested white because it’s cheaper and more readily available than more reflective types of paint/materials. If your real point is that white could get dirty looking and look bad and that isn’t appealing to wealthy people in Greenwich and the U.S., well that’s fine and I’d agree. But even dirty roofs would still be more lightly-colored than current roofing materials. But if you think about all the areas of the world that are less well off and don’t care as much about having a slightly dirty residential roof (or commercial buildings everywhere that are tall enough that you can’t even see the roof), then this seems to be an interesting idea.
Why you want to needlessly criticize innovative ideas by smart people and put forth faulty logic like your comment about the glare heating things up is beyond me.
Let me know when you post about the earth being flat. I’ll send you some links to refute that too.
A reasoned counter opinion is productive. But that’s not what your doing with this type of post. Please stick to real estate, where you do say many smart things.
So do you want to paint roofs in northern climes? I think not. Paint roads white? Only if you don’t mind driving off the road during winter. Alright then, we’ll give Mr. Chu, accomplished as he is, credit for meaning roofs and roads in southern climates. How many is that? What is the square footage, total? How many people in southern climes can afford to paint their roofs white? Chinese? Indians? Africans? If EtcEtc.we limit the roof jobs to areas and people who can afford them, how large is that and what is the effect on global climate? What will we use to paint these roofs? What is the energy cost to produce and apply that paint? How often must they be painted? Etc. Mr. Chu’s brainstorm sounds as silly and ill-thought out as CFL bulbs, residential recycling and bamboo flooring. You warmists can’t have it both ways – either the world is in crisis and huge, economically-devastating changes must be brought about immediately, or it isn’t. Panicking about a crisis while doing nothing but engaging in assorted, feel-good circle jerks is neither productive nor persuasive. I’ll believe you guys when Gore gives up his jets, 100 foot barges and 20,000 sq. ft. home and when 20,000 “experts” stop flying to Bali at taxpayers’ expense to frolic in the sun and express their deep concern about the environment. Until then, pass me the suntan lotion and a cigarette, would you?
You are really not making sense. He’s not saying to paint roads white – he means to not use black asphalt. Umm, you know that big road that goes through town — I think it’s called I-95? Next time you drive it, take a look at the light-colored concrete parts you drive on (which isn’t for all sections, but it’s concrete for many stretches). Lots of highways in the U.S. use concrete for sections instead of blacktop. Just pay attention when you drive around.
It’s the same thing with commercial rooftops. They have to pay ongoing maintenance costs to reapply a black covering from time to time. He’s saying to use something that is white or more reflective instead. If you take a look around next time you’re at a higher floor in Brooklyn or Manhattan, you’ll see that roofs are increasingly using a silver material rather than black for this very reason. I guess you think all those property owners are brainless as well, even if they’re Republican.
This guy is not Gore, so why are ranting about Gore? Gore may be hypocritical in the way he lives his life, but that has nothing to do with Chu’s suggestion.
And, Chu isn’t saying that this is a magic bullet. Nothing is. It’s all about the cumulative impact of many smaller actions. It’s like the idea of each vote counting – a single vote usually doesn’t decide an election, but that doesn’t mean we don’t vote — it’s the aggregation of all votes.
Sorry you are so bitter that the majority of the country voted for a president you don’t support. Maybe you can get over that at some point and see things in a more objective way than just criticizing everything and everyone regardless of merit.
Hey, the Merrit’s white too, come to think of it – maybe Fu Man Chu’s on to something after all!