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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 25, 2023 12:51:48 GMT
Recently a friend of mine who is a dr of physics convinced me to start fighting climate change by myself. That's true, and I'm deadly serious about it.
He told me (over a glass of beer) that by enhancing the earth's albedo we could diminsh and even stop the increase of global temperature, if only enough people joined in. Some nobel prize winner already pointed this out many years ago!
The method is really simple, cheap and effective, though it really sounds to good and easy to be true:
If you've got any roof, building, wall etc. just anything of your own with a flat surface facing the sky, simply paint it white!
At day it'll reflect the warming sunlight, and at night it will even radiate infrared waves (=heat) through the night sky right back into the universe! The terminus technicus is passive radiative cooling. Because it doesn't need any electricity.
You may even use stronger methods, and install such things as mirrors, aluminium plates or space blankets, any shining metal, flat, facing up.
If only enough people join in, it'll help to reduce the heat of the cities instantly and remarkably, cool down your home, reduce draught and kickstarts many more positive side effects, working endlessly and effectively 24/7, day and night!
So, instead of despairing about the news and waiting that some MP blokes wake up, only to see them spending my money on anything silly or even dangerous, I already went ahead, did something really useful and pulled some space blankets over the roof of my carport.
Because it really would be a pity if my beautiful Main valley dried up so that there would grow no vineyards any more...
I hope many of you join me, do the same and talk about it...
Cheers,
Brian
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Post by vodnik on Aug 25, 2023 13:11:25 GMT
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 25, 2023 13:13:30 GMT
...ist that for the comming version of DBA Sounds more like HoTT.
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Post by stevie on Aug 25, 2023 13:14:52 GMT
When ♫ “ driving-along-in-my-automobile”♪, I like to listen to BBC’s Radio 4. They have a program called “Desert Island Discs”, where a ‘celebrity’ has to imagine they are alone on some tropical island, and what music they would take. At the end of the program they get to choose one luxury item to have as well.
One person being interviewed said that their 5 year old suggested bringing a car door... ...that way the window could be wound down to keep cool…
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 25, 2023 13:28:30 GMT
When ♫ “ driving-along-in-my-automobile”♪, I like to listen to BBC’s Radio 4. They have a program called “Desert Island Discs”, where a ‘celebrity’ has to imagine they are alone on some tropical island, and what music would they take. At the end of the program they are allowed to choose one luxury to have as well. One person being interviewed said that their 5 year old suggested bringing a car door... ...that way the window could be wound down to keep cool… Sometimes children are much brighter than grownups. The 5 year old is absolutely right, because there really is such an open window in our atmosphere. That's why passive radiative cooling works. While clouds and some gases absorb most of the radiation and heat up the world, they let the most effective heat waves pass through. Physics call it the atmospheric window. You see, the (car) door to save the planet stands wide open... We only have to show the bad heat waves the way...
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Post by stevie on Aug 25, 2023 14:04:35 GMT
My favorite Sci-Fi writer from the 1970’s, Larry Niven, has one of his alien races (The Puppeteers: highly advanced, but complete cowards afraid of everything)facing severe Global Warming caused by their technological society composed of trillions of individuals. So they moved their homeworld to be further from their sun. Indeed, they moved it away altogether, not needing the extra heat. (See →this ) I’m a strong believer in the dangers of climate change, but the best solution is to reduce our population. Then you could burn fossil fuels, but wouldn’t burn enough to alter our atmosphere. You could also kill whales, but they’d be able to breed enough to avoid extinction. And you could cut down part of the rain forest, but not enough to prevent it from growing back. The problem is, how to reduce our population? I have a solution. Here in Britain there is debate about the cost of maintaining and updating our nuclear deterant. Well, before our Trident missiles become rusty and fail to work, let’s press the button now. It’ll not only save loads of money, but it would also reduce unemployment as well.
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Post by elliesdad on Aug 26, 2023 7:28:54 GMT
I’m a strong believer in the dangers of climate change, but the best solution is to reduce our population. Then you could burn fossil fuels, but wouldn’t burn enough to alter our atmosphere. You could also kill whales, but they’d be able to breed enough to avoid extinction. And you could cut down part of the rain forest, but not enough to prevent it from growing back. The problem is, how to reduce our population? Indeed. For example, let’s say there’s a couple (they live in one house, with just a single car). They then have 4 children. In, say, 20 years the children will all expect/want their own car. They will also be looking at moving out of the parental home into one of their own (let’s not get into the argument of “can they afford it?”). It’s safe to say the 4 children will probably be moving in with partners of their own, so each child only requires 1/2 a house each. In this 20 years we’ve seen this bunch of people treble in size (from a single couple, to a family of 6). The couple lived in one house, whereas they & their children have now expanded into the equivalent of 3 houses - the parental home plus 4 x 0.5. From a single car they now drive 5. Food? That’s trebled too, as the family grew from 2 people to six. Thank goodness I’m not a politician. Cheers, Geoff
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 26, 2023 7:56:12 GMT
I’m a strong believer in the dangers of climate change, but the best solution is to reduce our population. Then you could burn fossil fuels, but wouldn’t burn enough to alter our atmosphere. You could also kill whales, but they’d be able to breed enough to avoid extinction. And you could cut down part of the rain forest, but not enough to prevent it from growing back. The problem is, how to reduce our population? Indeed. For example, let’s say there’s a couple (they live in one house, with just a single car). They then have 4 children. In, say, 20 years the children will all expect/want their own car. They will also be looking at moving out of the parental home into one of their own (let’s not get into the argument of “can they afford it?”). It’s safe to say the 4 children will probably be moving in with partners of their own, so each child only requires 1/2 a house each. In this 20 years we’ve seen this bunch of people treble in size (from a single couple, to a family of 6). The couple lived in one house, whereas they & their children have now expanded into the equivalent of 3 houses - the parental home plus 4 x 0.5. From a single car they now drive 5. Food? That’s trebled too, as the family grew from 2 people to six. Thank goodness I’m not a politician. Cheers, Geoff I'm not so sure about that. I've got three children, now teenagers. I find that all of them think a lot about our world and they question each aspect of life of their parents. And their moral standards are really high. (I even had to reduce my meat consumption. ) They simply try to find their best way through modern life, and that's o.k. I did the same. Cheers, Brian
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Post by stevie on Aug 26, 2023 10:06:06 GMT
I think Elliesdad makes a good point. When I was born (although some say I crawled out of a dirty test tube), there were 3 billion in the world. Now it’s as near as dammit 8 billion, that’s nearly 3 times as many…and I ain’t dead yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if it reached 11 or 12 billion by the time I’m pushing up the daisies. That’s an increase of 4 times, in just one lifetime. If this continues then someone born today could well face a world of over 36 billion… Now some scientific experts say that world population growth could be slowing down. Yeah…and I could win the lottery. ♫ “There may be trouble ahead…”♪ I've got three children, now teenagers… …They simply try to find their best way through modern life, and that's o.k. Let’s hope we leave them a world to grow up in.
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 26, 2023 10:53:50 GMT
I think Elliesdad makes a good point. When I was born (although some say I crawled out of a dirty test tube), there were 3 billion in the world. Now it’s as near as dammit 8 billion, that’s nearly 3 times as many…and I ain’t dead yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if it reached 11 or 12 billion by the time I’m pushing up the daisies. That’s an increase of 4 times, in just one lifetime. If this continues then someone born today could well face a world of over 36 billion… Now some scientific experts say that world population growth could be slowing down. Yeah…and I could win the lottery. ♫ “There may be trouble ahead…”♪ I've got three children, now teenagers… …They simply try to find their best way through modern life, and that's o.k. Let’s hope we leave them a world to grow up in. Yep, and that's why I just have started to paint 0.4% of it white... www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2021/Q2/the-whitest-paint-is-here-and-its-the-coolest.-literally..html...or silver. Isn't it silly? Our best scientists know it and tell us what to do, and yet... You could simply start by taking any old mirror or looking glass you've got lying around at home and put it somewhere in the open. Under the open sky. That's it. (And then search your home for more mirrors...) It looks tiny, and sounds too easy, but it works. Instantly, with the velocity of light, a whole day and even at night. That's physics.
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Post by Baldie on Aug 26, 2023 11:40:14 GMT
Fortunately I have no kids and a dog that should not outlive me.
Planet will hopefully outlast me and the terrible damage we have inflicted on it will unfortunately have more impact on others than me.
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 26, 2023 13:13:03 GMT
And that's exactly why we should start right now with cooling it down.
As D. Wallace-Wells said, "it is far worse than you think", because the main part of global warming (93%) takes place in the oceans.
Maybe you know that warm water expands. So the scientists say: when the deep parts of the oceans heat up too and expand, then the sea level will rise within a few generations by about 150 to 180 feet. And stay there for the next 250,000,000 years.
Then say farewell to the Netherlands, Hamburg, Singapore, New York and London...
But if a billion people paint their roofs white, we will gain just enough time to prevent this.
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Post by carll on Aug 27, 2023 8:52:39 GMT
Nice work 'Brian Boru'
Re "Because it really would be a pity if my beautiful Main valley dried up so that there would grow no vineyards any more... I hope many of you join me, do the same and talk about it..."
And yes each generation has to learn for itself so sometimes innovation and sometimes mistakes repeated, but yes I am with you on this one. I have two small flat roofs and one apex roof. I could investigate white wash. the cold windy wet winters here may reduce its effectiveness but worthy of experimentation. Cheers CarlL
PS on over population then we may be the authors of our own homo sapien extinction but we are just one species on our "ark" ...
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 27, 2023 9:29:26 GMT
Nice work 'Brian Boru' Re "Because it really would be a pity if my beautiful Main valley dried up so that there would grow no vineyards any more... I hope many of you join me, do the same and talk about it..." And yes each generation has to learn for itself so sometimes innovation and sometimes mistakes repeated, but yes I am with you on this one. I have two small flat roofs and one apex roof. I could investigate white wash. the cold windy wet winters here may reduce its effectiveness but worthy of experimentation. Cheers CarlL PS on over population then we may be the authors of our own homo sapien extinction but we are just one species on our "ark" ... Great, carll, now we are already two! Concerning effectiveness: a good effect/cost ratio have space blankets, because they are cheap and big and reflect 99% of all radiation. So they prevent heating up. Best on flat roofs. But they tear easily, so you have to strengthen them with duct tape (and maybe eyelets) before you fasten them. Maybe even better is white paint, because though it reflects much less radiation (80–90%) it'll last longer. It seems to work best on massive stone, concrete wall tops etc. because it lessens the heating and the stone transforms the rest of the absorbed solar energy into IR waves of big wave length–the ones that fly straight through the atmospheric window, even at night... Cheers, Brian
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Post by Brian Ború on Aug 27, 2023 10:10:01 GMT
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