Richmond (1/16/2014)

It has been snowing this morning in Richmond.  In Yorktown (where I live) there was no precipitation at all, but interestingly here in downtown Richmond there was a little.  Some of the cars coming in had two or three inches on top of them.  A person in the elevator told me that they had 3 inches at her home and was surprised that there was hardly any downtown (she said she lives in Richmond).  Looking outside my office window, the roofs are somewhat covered with snow.

Somehow this covering of the black roofs took me back to a discussion in the environmental movement some years in the past.  The idea was that white roofs would slow down global warming, or at least the heat island effect of larger downtown areas.  Back then it sounded like an interesting concept.  So I went on line to read some more about it.  In the Huffington Post I found the following article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samir-ibrahim/white-roofs-green-myth_b_2901288.html.  The concept might work in warmer climates, but not in colder climates, according to the article.  The author (Samir Ibrahim) gives all kinds of interesting reasons for this; but then he is in the roofing business, which makes you wonder if he has any interest in shattering the white roof concept.  Oh well, maybe another myth shattered.  I guess we need to go back to reducing emissions, and greening this world.  But now I recently heard a small presentation on the BBC on how older trees are more efficient in fixing carbon versus younger trees (sorry no reference here).  Oh well.