It seems that light-colored rooftops and roads really can curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change, according to a study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Radiative forcing and temperature response to changes in urban albedos and associated CO2 offset, by Surabi Menon, Hashem Akbari, Sarith Mahanama, Igor Sednev and Ronnen Levinson.

This particular study employs a global model to extrapolate on the supposition that cool roofs and cool pavements, in cities around the world, not only keep them cooler but can also help to cool the world.

The potential of cool roofing and paving to help cancel the heat-island effect of densely populated cities and suburbs is very exciting. A fellow researcher at Berkley, Art Rosenfeld, explains it simply, “If all eligible urban flat roofs in the tropics and temperate regions were gradually converted to white (and sloped roofs to cool colors), they would offset the heating effect of the emission of roughly 24 gigatons of CO2, but one time only. However, if we assume that roofs have a service life of 20 years, we can think of an equivalent annual rate of 1.2 Gt per year. That offsets the emissions of roughly 300 million cars for 20 years!”

According to Yale environment 360, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has directed all department offices to install cool roofs on any new buildings or when replacing old ones.

There are some very helpful links at the U.S Department Of Energy's Cool Roof Resources for Federal Agencies.

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In a world where news is noise and there is plenty of it to go around, it is important to practice discretion.

Global warming, climate change, environmental innovations, gains and disasters... I could go on all day, but I won't. Suffice it to say that it is important to find and distill reliable green news, so that we can be informed and act effectively on behalf of our beleaguered environment.

As a lean, green society of eco-advocates it is essential that we band together to make a loud green noise.

Here is a list of helpful green-focused websites and resources:  

1. Yale Environment 360 is an online magazine "offering opinion, analysis, reporting and debate on global environmental issues."
2. Environmental News Network--ENN's mission is to "inform, educate, enable and create a platform for global environmental action."
3.  World Wildlife Federation--WWF's mission is the conservation of nature. "Using the best available scientific knowledge and advancing that knowledge where we can, we work to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth."
4. Global Green USA, "is Global Green is working to address some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. In the United States our work is primarily focused on fighting global climate change by creating green buildings and cities."
5. Environment and Sustainable Food at Change.org highlight the latest news and actions pertaining to sustainable food and the environment.
6. Treehugger, which declares itself "a media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream."
7. Grist, "a beacon in the smog, seeks to draw out the real meaning behind green stories and to connect big issues like climate change to daily life."
8. The Environment and Health division of the nonprofit news organization Mother Jones is a great up-to-the-minute resource.
9. Worldchanging's mission is "to inspire readers around the world with stories of new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future."
10. Green blog at The New York Times seeks to "introduce us to many of the central figures in the environmental landscape, asking them questions on our behalf. 

Good, responsible social networking is one way to help build a more informed, sustainable and empathic civilization.

We here at Super Eco encourage you to find the green news you trust and tweet and/or Facebook it to the world!

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Just in case we needed it, another nail in the coffin of denial about global warming arrives in the form of a brand new scholarly paper. This month in Global Ecology and Biogeography A Journal of Macroecology, a report was published in which researchers present compelling evidence of shifting biomes.

Patrick Gonzales--visiting scholar at the Center for Forestry, UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources--states that this paper is "the first global view of observed biome shifts due to climate change" and that "it's not just a case of one or two plant species moving to another area. To change the biome of an ecosystem, a whole suite of plants must change." In other words, intelligent plant-life is actually shifting to more comfortable digs.

Providing insight into this bellwether report Science Daily relates that over the past century vegetation has been gradually shifting toward the poles, where temperatures are cooler, toward the equator, where rainfall is greater.

The gravity of this paper rests in its apparent utility as a planning tool. "Scientists had not quantified this risk before," said Gonzalez. "We developed a simple classification system that natural resource management agencies can use to identify regions in greatest need of attention and planning. We have worked with the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore the application of our results to adaptation of natural resource management."

The paper clearly implies that the speed of these biome changes will depend on our efforts to curtail global warming and that shifting vegetation is sure to have a massive impact upon world economies.

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I daresay that climate change naysayers will be forced to sit up and take notice when the price of their beloved java rises through the ceiling, roof and beyond. Eventually we all may be dialing back our coffee consumption in the face of skyrocketing prices.

Global warming is having a devastating impact on coffee growers as they scramble to claim land at higher altitudes upon which to plant their crops.

According to Nestor Osorio, head of the International Coffee Organization "There is already evidence of important changes" he states that "In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries, five times more than in the 25 years before."

Climate change has shifted the delicately balanced patterns of rainfall and aridity needed for coffee to flourish and prosper. From Brazil to Indonesia coffee is a mainstay export and one of the most important trade commodities in the world.

Fair trade coffee may be the coveted gift you want to give for any occasion as it becomes more and more precious.

Pero anyone?

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Seriously? Donald Trump wants Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked, claiming that record-breaking U.S. snowstorms prove Gore goofed on climate change and that strategies aimed at curbing carbon emissions have threatened the American economy. "With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore," the billionaire trumpeted to an audience of 500 at his Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y.

Trump continued, "Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn't care less. It would make us totally non-competitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America's stupidity."

We can only hope Trump was joshing his well-to-do cohorts in order to make a point. Despite snowy conditions here at home, other parts of the world are (naturally enough) experiencing variations of their own, such as Vancouver's painful lack of snow just in time for the Winter Olympics. Local and regional weather patterns do not negate the larger picture of climate change. In fact, scientists often predict that snowfall will increase in areas affected by global warming, since when all other things are equal, warmer air holds more moisture and the potential for greater amounts of precipitation.

(Photo credit:Wikipedia)

In the end, climate change doesn't really matter—it's the side effects we can all get behind fixing. Republican craftsman of public opinion Frank Luntz, infamous for devising such charged phrases as the "death tax," says environmentalists are fighting the wrong battle. Changing the very language we use to address the issues caused by global warming, he claims, would go a lot farther in getting people focused on their ways and the world around them. Pragmatic language aimed straight at specific issues ignites more action than fiery rhetoric about climate change and the world at large.

"It doesn't matter if there is or isn't climate change," he said. "It's still in America's best interest to develop new sources of energy that are clean, reliable, efficient and safe." Green light words: "cleaner," "healthier," "safer," "independence from foreign oil." Red light words: "sustainability" and "carbon neutral." In fact, Luntz warns Republicans that continued squabbling over climate science could give them a political black eye. Time instead, he says, to engage the public over American jobs, American energy and American oil—whether or not it's "green" or "sustainable."

Luntz's common sense strategies may help us move forward together despite those with their fingers in their ears, humming over brand new reports from NASA showing that the last decade was the very warmest ever. Ultimately, we don't have to agree on the concept of climate change or, strangely enough, even the facts—as long as we can all get behind efforts to change the effects.

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All puns aside, the international climate change conference coming together next week in Copenhagen is a burning topic for our times. The event brings together several momentous threads in global consciousness and development: contentious debate, scientific scandal, political maneuvering ... With so many heavy-hitters swinging such big bats at the issues, it's hard to tell whether it the event will prove a catalyst for change or become mired in breast-beating rhetoric and politically charged disagreements.

To the rescue: Tonic.com's Copenhagen for Dummies: A climate conference primer. This reading's about as easy as it gets.

• So just what is all this talk about Copenhagen, anyway?
• Sounds like a party. Who's going to be there?
• Hmm, this all sounds kind of familiar ... haven't they done this before?
• Kyoto! Yeah, that's it! So why go through this again?
• But isn't it all bunk anyway? Didn't I just hear something about all of this being based on faked data?
• So what's likely to happen over December as COP15 unfolds?

The answers are straight talk that'll catch you up on the issues, putting you in position to make sense of the deluge of news that'll be flowing out of the conference next week. Motivated readers can go straight to the source and pick up their news from the conference web site itself. Hot stuff!

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The big news this weekend: With no time left to corral a worldwide agreement on trimming greenhouse gas emissions at next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen, politicians and environmentalists alike are scrambling to salvage what they can from the situation. U.S. President Obama is now throwing his support behind a Danish plan to view Copenhagen as the first in a series of commitments, rather than an opportunity to forge a landmark global climate protocol.

So what's the holdup? Embarrassingly enough, it's the U.S. Senate. Lack of progress in the U.S. legislature has thrown the entire world into a holding pattern. As Grist notes, "the Senate, already unrepresentative thanks to the disproportionate influence of rural, low-population states, has become, thanks to the routine use of filibusters and holds, grotesquely undemocratic."

And so the world waits. And waits. Reports Grist: “Clearly, the U.S. has been slowing things down,” said Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Union’s chief climate negotiator. Alicia Montalbo, chief negotiator for Spain (the next country to hold the rotating European Union presidency), echoed Kaiser’s sentiments more indirectly, saying: “There’s a certain level of frustration in seeing that not all countries share (the) vision.” More of the same came from Denmark’s climate minister, Connie Hedegaard: “We can’t imagine having an agreement without the United States, they have to be a part of it,” she told Agence France-Presse.

Speaking of being a part of it—you are, in a most literal sense. There's never been a better time to make your voice heard. The way your own representatives conduct themselves on Capitol Hill is literally shaping the world as we know it. If your reps are among those playing with stall tactics, let them know their behavior is unacceptable. It's time to turn the heat up on efforts to chill climate change progress.

Onward.

(Photo credit:woodman2, SXC)

Google carbon cycle map

"How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else." Buckminster Fuller

"Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience, it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason." Leonardo DaVinci

The importance of maps in our lives is without question. Mapping our world increases our global understanding and can help us find our way to a greener future. This the focus of Google Maps new Carbon Cycle imaging map, by mapping the carbon currents, the places where our carbon emissions collect and disseminate from, we can contextualize our carbon impact upon the planet.

Maps help us find our way when we are lost and this map, his new tool in the architecture of information, is no different, it is likely to help us to frame ourselves into the complete ecological picture and enable us to access and choose a sensible, sustainable way forward.

We agree with Treehugger, that Google Earth's new Carbon Cycle Imaging Map and Great Green Google Earth Layers can be powerful teaching and motivational tools for a greener future.

(Photo credit:woodleywonderworks on flickr)

It took less than a week for American drivers to burn through the original $1 billion the federal government earmarked for its "cash for clunkers" program, and the government has re-funded and extended the program. The Car Allowance Rebate System (as it's formally known) allows drivers to trade in their inefficient vehicles for a healthy rebate towards a new, fuel-efficient car.

The incentive program is obviously boosting auto sales—but what about the environmental impact? According to the Chicago Tribune, the most popular car to be turned in at Ford dealerships was the Explorer (about 16 miles per gallon combined city/highway), while the most popular car bought was the Focus (better than 29 miles per gallon). That switch saves about 5,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every year, which adds up to something like $806 a year in gas.

Which is the greener choice, your old car or a new model? If you choose to hang onto your old set of wheels, look for other ways of cutting down on emissions (and save cash). Our favorites:

• Use your car less. A low-car diet is the way to go! (Even Gary Numan gives it a whirl.)
• No hybrid? Save gas anyway.
• Don't overlook public transit options.
• Consider car sharing.
• Try carpooling—it works for more than the daily commute to the office.

(Photo credit:PhotoDu.de, flickr)