Forget Green - What about White?

It's a headline too cool to pass up . . . Energy Secretary Steven Chu wants roofs around the world to be painted white.

It sounds ridiculous at first--what about hydrogen, solar, switchgrass, etc.? But if the data rings true, painting cars, houses, and roads white or a pale color would be equivalent to taking every car off the earth for 11 years. Even if that's an exaggeration, Dr. Chu is onto something. It makes no sense painting your house a dark color with a black roof if you live in Southern California. And ever walk down a street in Phoenix in August? As far as cars go, Japan would already be ahead--they all drive white cars as it is, and lighter colored cars would use less fuel to run air conditioning units (then again, they show dirt, so that's more water being consumed, but anyways . . .

It's no secret it'll take us years to wean us off of fossil fuels--doubtful in our lifetimes. So it's approaches like Chu's that'll give us opportunities to save the earth.

Geesh, why wasn't this in the stimulus package? Could you imagine the queues at Lowe's or Home Depot for free white paint?