Our planet is warming up at an alarming pace, and many people continue to deny it. It may not be affecting life of everyone, but many places including Los Angeles are reaching record high temperatures. An excessive heat warning has been issued to many parts of the California that is expected to last through the entire weekend. The city of L.A. is dealing with the problem quite intelligently. They are covering their streets with reflective white paint to keep the temperatures low.
Los Angeles is a heavily paved city, and the asphalt covered roads are drowning the city in the intense heat due to the heat island effect. The roads absorb an enormous amount of heat, thus raising city temperatures significantly.
L.A Street Services is spreading a white colored coating on many of the city’s roadways. Street Services say that it could bring the temperature down by 10 degrees on a summer afternoon. Many streets in the 15 electoral districts of L.A have been coated, and the same idea may be implemented in the rest of California shortly.
Los Angeles is not the only city adopting this measure. In the city of Canoga Park, 30 miles from L.A, the temperatures on one road dropped from 93 degrees to 70 degrees, thanks to this white coating. A parking lot in Encino was coated, and the temperature dropped from 160 degrees Fahrenheit to 130 Fahrenheit.
L.A has taken many steps to deal with the heat island effect that just continues to rise with urbanization. Residents were offered rebates for coating their roofs with the same paint about three years ago. Experts believe that even covering 35% streets in the city can reduce the average temperature by one degree. That does not sound like a lot of difference, but the Environmental Protection Agency reports that it can save $100 million per year in energy saving for the city of L.A. alone. If the same is applied to the entire state, the drop in temperature will make a considerable difference.
The solution is already working successfully to reduce the average temperature. This is an example that many parts of the world can conveniently follow to battle the heat wave of this summer and the next ones.
