Time to consider a lick of climate

Published 30 August 2023

From Geoff Hammond, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK

When it comes to climate change, our roofs are considered part of the problem and part of the solution. My house is topped with Welsh slate, which I estimate absorbs more than 80 per cent of incident solar radiation. On a sunny day, it heats up dramatically and, of course, re-radiates the absorbed energy at just the sort of wavelengths that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is waiting to catch. It is a very efficient contributor to global warming (19 August, p 12).

I can take two courses of action: I could put solar panels on my roof, adding to a possible, but very slow, reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by using less fossil-fuel generated electricity. Alternatively, I could paint the roof white, which would immediately reflect most solar radiation back into space in a form that doesn’t really warm the atmosphere. This seems to be the best course, but I have never seen a domestic property with a white roof here. Am I missing something?

Issue no. 3454 published 2 September 2023