We’ve been told that US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, is a genius. An absolute genius. The smartest man alive other than President Obama.
Chu’s latest brainstorm would have us combat global warming by painting everything white – roofs, roads, sidewalks, everything gets a coat of white paint.
Unfortunately, the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair did the math on this brilliant strategy:
The total area of the U.S. (50 states + D.C.) equals 9,826,630 km^2.
According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Geophysical Union, all constructed so-called “impervious surfaces” (buildings, roads, parking lots, roofs, etc.) in the USA total a combined 112,610 km^2. Which is a bit less than the total area of Ohio, a bit more than Virginia.
That means we’ve got about 1.14% for Dr. Chu to paint.
That should make a big difference.
This isn’t Chu’s idea. It was actually proposed last year by Hashem Akbari, a scientist based at the prestigious Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
Eco wackos assume the entire world looks like Manhattan. As anyone who’s ever flown over the country knows, it’s mostly empty. 98.86% empty, in fact.
Blair points out that Chu accentuated his hypocrisy by travelling to and from the meeting in a jet-black SUV.
Someone needs to find out if Chu owns stock in a paint company.
Source: Tim Blair/SyndeyDailyTelegraph
