In 2021, researchers at Purdue University announced that they had developed the whitest color on Earth.
The color is so white that it can reflect more than 98% of the light. This is especially useful because light generates heat – and we here on Earth are running a bit hot these days.
The researchers say that if the paint is used on a building, it will reduce the surface temperature, reduce the inside temperature and reduce the need for air conditioning. But what if there was an even bigger application, like lowering the temperature of the entire planet?
According to Jeremy Munday, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis, who researches clean technology, if Purdue’s paint-like material covered 1-2% of the Earth’s surface, the amount of light reflected back into space would increase. She goes. The amount of heat absorbed by the planet would be reduced to stabilize the global temperature.
In other words, it could do a lot to solve climate change. Also, Munde told the new York Times, the amount of light that bounces back into space won’t do much damage to the universe. “It would be like pouring a cup of regular water into the ocean,” he explained. many times,
But how big is 1-2% of the Earth’s surface? Earth’s total surface area is about 197 million square miles (and most of it is water), so the paint would need to cover between about 2 million and 4 million square miles.
For context, the total land area of the United States is a little over 3.5 million square miles, so we’d need to paint the country from sea to sea painted white to sea painted white.
That would be a lot of paint. Very.
If we assume the new paint works like commercial paint, as the Purdue researchers suggest, one gallon will cover about 400 square feet, so we’d need about 139 billion gallons to cover just 1% of Earth’s surface. gallons of super-duper white paint would be required.
Of course, this number doubles if we need to cover 2% of the surface. And none of this takes into account how difficult it would be to depict oceans, deserts and trees.
Painting things white to bring down the temperature is not a new concept. Just drive around my home state of Texas and see how many cars are white.
Many places around the world are already painting surfaces white, and Purdue’s new paint will help. But it shows that we have a long way to go before the problem is resolved.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
More from Business Insider:
