Answer To India Heating Up – Paint The Roofs White?

Connecting the dots….

TOI reports that 2009 was India’s hottest year.(full post)

“Interestingly, of the 12 hottest years in the 108 years since 1901, when the Met department started maintaining temperature records, 8 have been in the past decade.”

Meanwhile Newscientist.com reports that cities can reduce temperatures by 0.6 °C if the roofs were painted white.

And imagine all those apartment building rooftops having gardens on the roof like this one below – a community space to enjoy greenery in concrete jungles, teach city kids that food doesn’t come from bags, and cool things down a bit too.

Pic at Apartment Therapy

Will Surat Lead India In Climate Change Adaptation?

15 years ago Surat was in the news for all the wrong reasons. According to this MNN post, Surat may just be becoming India’s model city for climate change adaptation. 

Kudos to Surat for leading the way. But, with India deemed one of countries that will be most impacted by climate change, is one city’s plan enough? 

PIc @ Telegraph: More than a million people in Andhra Pradesh have sought shelter in 100 relief camps Photo: EPA

‘The Hindu’ Joins 56 Newspapers Around The World On Climate Change Editorial

56 newspapers in 45 countries spoke with one common editorial demanding to seize the chance at the Copenhagen Climate change summit. The Hindu, our favorite Indian newspaper was among them. Read the powerful editorial there.

With the range of key players present, the world is watching for something to come out of over 192 countries being represented there. Not just anything, but something meaningful.

This ‘negotiation’ started 14 years ago in Berlin in 1995. The time for talk is over. It’s time for action.

Things You Always Wanted To Know About…Snow.

Besides being taught that no two snowflakes look alike, we just learned this about snow:

• Kashmir’s highest recorded monthly snowfall occurred in February 1967, when 8.4 metres (331 in) fell in Gulmarg, though the IMD has recorded snowdrifts up to 12 metres (39 ft) in several Kashmiri districts. In February 2005, more than 200 people died when, in four days, a western disturbance brought up to 2 metres (7 ft) of snowfall to parts of the state. (Wikipedia)
• Snow at the North and South Pole reflect heat into space because the ice acts like a mirror with the heat of the sun, and the heat bounces off the ice and into space. (Thinkquest Library)
• The largest piece of ice to fall to earth was an ice block 6 meters (20 ft) across that fell in Scotland on 13 August 1849. (Fun Shun)
• The largest hailstone recorded fell on 14 April 1986 in Bangladesh weighing 1kg (2.25lbs). The hailstorm reportedly killed 92 people. (Fun Shun)

A view of Gulmarg, a popular tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir in winter.

Building A Second Sun – $10billion…and Coconuts. Yes Coconuts.

Steel, concrete, a whole bunch of other ingredients and burnt coconuts…that’s the plan to build a second sun in the south of France as a source of fusion power. (Full post at New Scientist)

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