Alterations to Our Country’s Roofs Will Impact Climate

Since 2003 nearly two trillion tons of ice have melted in the world’s coldest regions, causing sea levels to rise 50 percent faster than 15 years ago.  The causation has been blamed on the Global Climate Change. As countries scramble to develop solutions for man’s contribution to house gases, there are some effective and less expensive remedies.  The Greeks were pioneers in philosophy, art, and most importantly science.  Having an understanding that dark colors absorb heat and light colors reflect it, the Greeks painted their buildings throughout the Mediterranean in white.  Just look at all the pictures of Crete.  Doing so drastically reduced the temperatures in the cities and helped keep the buildings cool.

More recently, a study done by the Heat Island Group further reinforces this notion.   Painting roofs white in warm climates could decrease air conditioning by 20%, thereby demanding less energy, and releasing less CO2 into the atmosphere.   In fact, the study suggests that if the 100 most populous cities were to paint their roofs in reflective colors and use concrete instead of asphalt, the amount of heat reflected from the Earth would be enough to offset decades of Global Warming.  The understanding of this concept has been known for some time.  In 2005 California passed legislation that required flat commercial roofs to have reflected paint.  A new law enacted in July 2009 extends it to slope residential and commercial.  Other states along the Sunbelt should follow suit as a means to compact our climate change immediately.  Those in the cooler areas have another method to use: Green Roofs.

Green Roofs are roofs that are covered by vegetation and act as a means to insulate the building by reducing the cost of heating and cooling the structure.  The vegetation contains shallow roots that won’t exceed the modulars they were planted in.  These non-permanent fixtures increase the longevity of the roofs while serving as a filter for air pollution and the collection of storm water.  Private companies such as GreenGrid Roofs have successfully constructed green roofs throughout major cities across the country including numerous governmental buildings, thereby turning concrete jungles into the picture below.

The crisis with our global climate is not an issue that must be left for bureaucratic nations to handle along.  It is one that we as humans who continuously contribute to the problem must also steer.  Painting our roofs white and placing vegetation on flattops may seem inconsequential, but so is recycling a tin can and riding a bike.  The actions are small, but their effects in numbers can change the world.

Don’t Put All Our Eggs In One Basket, Or Butterflies and Economic Crisis

On the one hand, the global financial crisis has reverberated around the world. Millionaires are canceling or curtailing their spending which in turn affects the spa owners, household staff, boutique owners and others who service their needs. A poll in the Washington Post stated that many individuals are anxious about their future. Foundations have suffered losses and are cutting back on the amount and number of groups they are funding. The reasons behind the collapse seem complicated and obtuse.

Yet, in reality, there are as simple as the old adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The aggregation of banks from many to few is a lesson we should have learned before–there is security in diversity. By concentrating banking with a few large firms, the risks are also concentrated. As the Youtube video of Taleb and Mandelbrot (two brilliant thinkers) describes, the very process of globalization has led to a network effect (but not in a good way ).

In this case, interdependence makes the global financial system more vulnerable because risks are shared in complicated ways and mathematically, the overall effect is much larger. While networks and the effects they can have are usually considered desirable, as the butterfly effect (articulated by Mandelbrot) shows, one seemingly unrelated act can have a rippling effect throughout a system.

Many economists are looking to Keynsian economics and massive stimulus to resuscitate the economy and avert a depression. Others are pressing for increased trade talks and a revival of the Doha Round. A recent Foreign Affairs article proposes that the IMF and WTO coordinate more, particularly around currency issues. Yet, the diagnosis of the problem may be wrong.

While Keynsian economics makes sense and may contain the current crisis; the larger issue remains: we are now living in a networked global financial system. We need to have a better understanding of the system itself and seek new, innovative thinking about ways to remake the system to encourage pro-poor growth and mitigate risks rather than pool them. Encouraging a new Doha Round and relying on past economic formulas is not the answer.