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Each day, the earth receives a certain amount of energy from the sun and releases energy back to space. Global warming is caused partly because we are releasing energy from oil and coal faster than it can escape. One way to prevent global warming would be to reflect some of the sun’s energy back into
space to offset the amount of energy that we release by burning fuels.
By placing mirrors on rooftops, the sunlight would bounce back and the local region would receive less energy, helping to cool it off. This would work well in hot regions near the equator. Not only would it send energy back to space, but your house would be cooler because the sun is not heating up your roof.
Of course this might pose a problem for pilots flying overhead who could be momentarily blinded by the reflection. Flight paths near airports would need to be free of mirrors.
The mirrors could be normal bathroom mirrors or even those AOL disks turned upside down. In winter you turn the mirrors over so the sun can help heat your house.
(?) Reusing disks, if not the very first idea,
snow_20scraper
...was certainly one of the first. [DrCurry, Jul 11 2005]
See Rayford's comment
Cooling_20the_20Earth
This exact idea. [DrCurry, Jul 11 2005]
See phundug's comment
Mirror_20Hat
More half-baked version. [DrCurry, Jul 11 2005]
More Mirror
Earth_20Disco_20Ball_20Days
[Amos Kito, Jul 11 2005]
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Annotation:
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Didn't someone do this before? |
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Either way, I think the AOL disk thing has been done to death around here. |
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[DC] You may be thinking of my solar collector. (edit, after seeing your second link) Or not. |
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[vax] Don't listen to [DC], AOL CD's can solve most of the world's problems if used creatively. |
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welcome vax to the madhouse! |
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strap one to the back of your cat p'raps. |
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But you'd be reflecting the sun's energy back into the atmosphere. Can anybody calculate the amount of energy that would actually make the trip back out to space? Um, then what's absorbed into the atmosphere would be radiating in all directions, so some of that would escape . . . I think there was something in Bad Science that relates to that. |
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Mirrored roof tiles seem a very good idea to me, just for your house's sake. |
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It's true that these would be less effective than if you had them in space, but it's easier to put them on your roof and it would definately get some (even most) of it's energy off the earth. |
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you know i can't say it would work becuase everday you would have to clean them cause dust gathers on mirrors and then beig outside where pollen and everything is....also if you are at the equator it would cause the cds to proably melt cause last wensday some tires that where in the sun where mesauered and the tempature was around 160 degrees and i think the cds would heat up to around the tiles....just a thought |
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