Swede here. Our forest industry have come under scrutiny the last years for their claim on sustainability. They only consider the amount of trees cuts vs trees planted. What they forget to mention is that they're clearcutting. Meaning they take down all trees in a large area, leaving a barren land that they then plant only one type of trees on. Often fast growing spruces. This has a devastating effect on the the ecological diversity. Sweden doesn't have that many forests left. It's mostly timber farms.
In Germany, we made the experience that monoculture forests are deceptible to insects and weather extrems. Also, there is fashion in timer and nobody knows what kind of timber will be fashionalbe in 20 years. The trend over here is to either plant a variety of diffrent trees or not plant new trees at all but allow nature to decide.
All lumber companies around the world that tout their work increasing the tree cover of Earth fail to mention it's all due to the expansion of tree farms. Birds can't make their homes in saplings.
Saving $100m a year wouldn’t even pay the cost of painting streets & roads white in the first place, and it would have to be redone frequently due to wear. We’d be better off painting roofs, which would at least last & have a direct impact on the cooling of the building.
youre not wrong about the costs but painting roofs, although it reflects more heat off from the house, doesn't properly reduce the "heat island" effect, because that is created in the roads and generally areas between building where people walk, people don't walk on roofs so theres no point of cooling the air above it (I know that it would reduce the temperature inside the building so less air cooling but it was to clear your point)
The better isolation is a huge political discussion in Germany as companies are not willing to pay the hefty sum needed to renew the isolation if they're also being told to lower rent prices.
Which is great (/s), because renting out houses is well known to be a way to print free money, and bigger housing companies have so much money that they regularly invest into very foolish projects, lose BILLIONS, and still continue to operate and be fine. And of course raising rent prices by the maximum amount allowed in a year, ever year. And when you're lucky / unlucky enough to have found a cheap place to rent many years ago, so that percentage isn't that bad, they'll find a way to get rid of you, renovate it and charge "market rates". I.E. the artificially inflated rent prices that are only as high as they are because they own most of the neighbourhood, and thus the "average rent price" that they are legally obligated to normalize to. My frustrated rant aside; Why are things like this (and for example a general speed limit, etc) always a big debate in Germany, when it reality it is clear what must be done?
Why can't we require concrete, glass, and steel to be manufactured in plants run on solar, or other renewables, depending on the region. In the USA desert land is cheap, build the factories there, with solar farms, near small town communities. Give them jobs and create a clean way to make all 3 of these basic products. Then transportation is the only issue left.
@@D_veraz Stop spreading lies. Solar pays for itself in 15 years, and then produces energy for free for the next 15 years. Nuclear is NOT profitable, when you add in everything, mining the ore, processing, decommissioning the plant, but the worst is waste storage and the security and forever maintenance it requires. Nuclear waste needs FOREEVER security and maintenance FOR EVER! Thousands and thousands of years at a cost of billions per year. Solar panels on the other hand can last 30 to 40 years and can be replaced one at the time as efficiency decreases. They are also decentralized. No total city black outs on storms or other catastrophes. They can not be weaponized by terrorists or in war. And they are 100% recyclable. Anyone who says that nuclear or fossil fuel is cheaper long term compared to solar is a blatant LIAR. This is a blatant lie repeated intentionally, or maybe unintentionally by the gullible. The numbers don't lie, only people like who either do it intentionally or are clueless.
The white paint on tar reflects the heat onto the buildings nearby. Also, it loses its reflectivity as tires leave tracks behind. Seems we need concrete with a "nature barrier" between the road and the street. Something I've seen for years but no one has done...because money Meanwhile I'm sure the upkeep of tar and the white paint over time is far more than concrete that's poured properly in the proper conditions.
Not too mention that you need to add an additive (sand, etc.) to keep the painted streets non-slick. OR how about those of us that live in northern climates? Ever hear about snow? We don't even use reflective paints or strips on our roads due to the snow plows. Our streets are consonantly being repainted due to the plows.
It does exactly what they want it to do. It makes driving less safe, due to traction and visibility. Then they can swoop in with their narrative that "its time to ban human drivers because muh safety and muh environment".
I don't know, but if it is more slippery I would retire my bike and drive my car everywhere. And recommend everybody I know doing the same. My life and the lives of beloved ones is my top priority.
There is a good chance that a white painted road could be slippery whem wet although abrasive paints are available. i would be more worried about the blinding glare of reflected sunlight personally.
@tomr6955 yes. Imagine this. Cars sliding everywhere... I prefer to be inside my car sliding like the others, in the case of accident I won't be killed at least.
Urbanisation does not lead to deforestation. If anything, suburbanisation does. But not even that, most deforestation is to make room for agriculture. Mainly food for animals.
In the video he speaks about projects that did. Building a brand new capital from scratch in the jungle is definitely making sure you have to cut down a forest.
@@screamingbirdheart Yes but those people who will live there, would have otherwise lived somewhere else, which would also require cutting down forest. And he describes urbanisation as a cause of increased deforestation, but less than 1% of global land is urban.
Biggest sin of architects nowdays is designing “cool” buildings instead of beautiful ones. When we have buildings worth preserving we happily reuse them. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about side effects of modern construction in the first place.. (well, not to the extent that prevails presently) If you’re an architect please consider honest beauty that in 50-100 years generations will want to preserve and find purpose for!
Beauty is subjective - there are many examples of "cool" buildings that were called ugly when they were built - and are now world icons. Please consider not presuming to give advice to professionals with whom you do not share a profession.
I'm not concerned about the "cool" buildings. I'm concerned about the boring ones. Every fastfood joint, rubber stamped office buildings, miles and miles of homes that are monotonous styled. Every city on the planet has roads of big box, chain stores, auto dealers that are ugly scars upon the land. Why save any of it?
You used the word “exasperated” incorrectly. The correct word should have been exacerbated or aggravated. Exasperated is best used as a descriptive word for people rather than objects or concepts.
@@Requios that's true for geothermal power, for domestic or district heating and cooling you just need to be deep enough to not get sways from surface temperature changes. It's using the mass of the earth as a thermal battery moreso than extracting the heat from the core.
Here in Pau, southwest France, a urban heating network (chaleur urbaine)is almost finish. Heat generated by a local incinerator is piped into large buildings, schools hospitals and government building's..Over 30km of insulated pipes were installed to connect the buildings to this network.
I’m all for cost efficiency, e.g. not over producing, inefficient insulation in buildings, etc. If there is a tangible cost-benefit behind these suggestions I could get behind them. But if the argument is “climate change” and this obsession with carbon but the hard cost-benefit is lacking (no fuzzy math to assess costs of “climate change”) I’m a no.
Reading some of the comments there seems to be a concern that all this is going to cost money. Look at the three main pillars of Sustainability: the environment, social responsibility, and the economic. Its a balancing act, if we want to live in a healthy and happy environment with services that help people then we will need to spend money. If the cost of living is too much then talk to your local politicians to ask them what they can do to help lower the cost of living. Don't complain that solving construction's unsustainable practices will drive the cost of living up. Look at the work you do and see how you can help reduce waste, energy, and materials. Reducing these three will help reduce the cost of construction and operations.
Concrete road is naturally white, stronger, and has longer lifespan compared to asphalt road, so maybe building concrete road instead of asphalt road is better. But it's probably more economical to paint building roof with white color since it will also save on air conditioning electricity demand. Actually, there is reflective coating that reflects sunlight better than white color, so it can be used on roof for even better result. But in the winter, black roof will save on heating gas demand, so maybe people can use black roof cover like car cover in the winter. Also, black solar panels also contribute to urban heat island effect. It also has a low solar energy to electricity conversion rate of below 20 percent. Therefore, in summer, black solar panel on top of building can lead to more air conditioning electricity usage than the amount of electricity the solar panel generates. But solar water heater can convert up to 80 percent of solar energy, so it might be more economical and green. Additionally, depending on the climate, green landscapes such as trees can heat up the environment because trees store heat and worsen air pollution because trees block wind. As such, I think the world needs more case-by-case scientific approach to fighting climate change instead of having symbolic one-size-fits-all solution.
Concrete is brittle, after a certain load it will shatter, especially on roads, where you apply huge forces on small areas that shift quickly. You can solve that with pavement stones, even made of concrete, but you will either degrade vehicles faster or travel at low speeds.
While on the face of it this would sound like a great idea; one has to think about the toxicity of the paint / covering (CARCINOGENIC PETRO-CHEMICAL-PHARMA-PFAS-FOREVER-CHEMICALS, ETC) ... because it WILL MOST ASSUREDLY (AS EVEN WITH 'PLASTICS') oxidize and sluff off and run with the rain water into, and near irreversibly contaminate the environment and waters, and ultimately make it into rivers, lakes, streams, aquafers, and ultimately to the ocean / seas. Better would be white concrete highways and byways .... but the cement they're made from is not very environmentally friendly in the manufacturing process. Better would be a much higher concentration of stone aggregate in the asphalt mix .... so eventually roads with this high percentage of aggregate almost look white, in comparison to asphalt with little stone aggregate.
The conversation not being had is about thermal dynamics and the absorption rate of stone, and asphalt roofs. Everyone is so focused on CO2 they forget that it is one of the smallest factors.
I will give a small fun bit info then. In terms of construction; if we list top 10 countries with highest emissions, China is at the top of the list at #1 place. And the amount of emissions china produces is higher than the other 9 countrys' combined 😂
Perhaps civil engineers can take a look at adding a central dividers on our cities roads, plant trees, or solar panels . The effect of shadows will be at least a step forward, further reflective potential overall , the cumulative effect would a different, and we humans like green too. Fred did a video on this in the past on B1M or the other channel.
@@skyscraperfan Really not worth the distance, the Wi-Fi really takes lightyears to reach you, travel instead to our own Milky Way, everything you can get over there at a much cheaper price, distance and things to do and you help the local economy and the environnement. Really a no-brainer.
In France, the new laws about insulation are debated even if they passed. Landlords are complaining that they don't have enough time or money for the renovations, as if they weren't leeching off people for years or even decades without any dime invested into maintenance.
As a property owner in USA, I have a different opinion. My expenses in any given month often exceed the property income. People stop paying months before they move, knowing it will take you that long to evict them so they can use their rent to get a new rental. I’ve seen renters take EVERYTHING, sell what they didn’t want, getting money for MY appliances, one even took light switches, and another cut the carpet in a strange pattern and it took a moment to realize the shape was that of their pick-up bed. I’ve had renters WET MOP wood floors, which can cost $8k to $15k to repair and refinish. I buy nice homes and make sure they are nicely appointed to get a higher quality of renter, however nowadays it seems there are less and less ethical renters. My goal on every unit is to make $100-$250 above all expenses, and when you have to spend $5,000+ when they move out to make it rentable again it is a serious issue. So yes, I don’t make enough profit sometimes to afford the VERY EXPENSIVE changes City services decides a home needs. They demand roofs be replaced $80,000+ when there are no leaks whatsoever on a 20 year old roof. And trust me, no minor repairs are overlooked, if it can damage my rental, it’s FIXED A.S.A.P.
@@Erin-ThorThank you for your respect- and insightful input. It is easy to demonise landlords, so it is nice to have someone remind the people that you are, in fact, also human. 😊
Re: lighter colored roads. Painting is not practical. Regular paint can wear off in just weeks or months. What would be the cost of repainting every road 4 times a year? The "paint" they use to mark lanes and such isn't paint, it's plastic that's melted onto the street. Do you really want to use that much plastic to save a little energy? But here's another idea. Tar is black. But the top surface of tar gets worn off pretty quickly. Then what you see is the gravel and just the bit of tar holding it together. So the main color of a road is the color of the gravel used. I remember seeing a red road once because it was made using red rock. So why not make roads out of white rock?
A lot of material waste goes into construction. Then there is the half-ass worker or push for deadlines creates shoddy work making energy saving measure are ineffective or less efficient.
Sounds good in theory but when cars drive on roads their black rubber tires wear down against the road laying down layers of black everywhere they go. Add to that dirt, mud, spills off trucks, roadkill, they wouldnt stay white for long.
Painting roads and buildings white will change the albedo of the planet. Not by much of course, but then saving a ton of carbon by itself does not help much. We can calculate an equivalence. CO2 reflects energy from space back to earth/white roads send it out into space again.
Yeah the road paint problem is very hazardous for motorcyclists and pedal-cyclists as well. I am thinking especially of the local planners somehow thinking that the paint they applied is going to protect us all from the 9000LB Hummer EV that keeps drifting over the "invisible protective barrier" that is that thin line of paint. That said I think what the road cooling solutions through a higher albedo (basically brightness reflecting heat) is through use of a brighter pigment in the asphalt itself.
The materials are different. Think colored asphalt sealant. The problem is, they too are made from petroleum products, so yes, they can reduce the urban hear load, but they emit CO2 in their formulation. As he also stated, a better alternative is to plant more greenery. This would require the tearing down of significant low-rise living spaces, the building of larger apartment blocks and the reforestation of the cleared areas: Mega-City One, if you will, with trees.
@@ZealofSparta even with asphalt if it rains and the sun hits the water I get blinded while driving.. Lightening the color of the road would make that situation much worse.
Probably the biggest overlooked idea, is to stop building up and instead build down. Reverse pyramid below ground construction would use less materials and need much less heating and cooling, with thought put into positioning based on the movements of the sun it can be sunny in every window a few hours a day. Imaging a city covered with parks and light rail on the surface with roads and buildings primarily underground
You really shouldnt be living underground with no direct sunlight or an easy way of freshening air. If anything, more transit should be going underground.
@@danielszekeres8003 That's what I'm saying. The design would be more akin to an open cut mine with each stepped level having access to a window to the outside world with sunlight for a few hours a day. But with the rest of the living space or office underground to take advantage of the thermal cooling and heating properties of being partially under the earth.
I don't really think painting roads will do much. For one, most roads are a light gray anyways, but if thats not quite enough, just look at white sidewalks and such. They still get super hot from sunlight. Maybe not as much as if they were black though. I think we just need to stop wasting as much heat. Also, someone else mentioned this, will painting roads effect the traction of tires? Won't they be slicker? Lastly, the white paint will look terrible with black rubber tires rolling on them constantly. Rubber is naturally white, but most tires are synthetic these days. I'm not saying its impossible, but I'm not exactly sold either.
What this video failed to mention was that the construction of the roads themselves are one of the biggest contibutors to human induced climate change. Painting them white might help reduce heat island effect but this ignores all the emissions created during contrsuction of the road, emissions created during maintenance if the road, emissions from the vehicles that use the road as well as particulate pollution of toxic molecules into our air, soil and water. You don't reduce road emissions by painting them white, you reduce road emissions by not having the road.
Fact check: 100..150kg co2 per ton of concrete co2 emissions per 1ton of cement are closer to 900kg but concrete is 10..15% cement and cement accounts for ~88% of co2 of average concrete mix
0.04% is CO2, on average water vapor in the troposphere is 1%. Water vapor has a CO2e=18 that means on average water vapor is 450 times more dominant as a greenhouse gas temperature forcing agent than CO2, but this really doesn't make any difference because earth's greenhouse effect is always held in saturation by water vapor and can't be changed in overall effect to add 10°F (5.55°C) to earth's average temperature and takes place within 20 meters of the greenhouse energy radiating surface, typically the earth.
Big sky scrappers with big Plato on every level for at least a 1 acer yard with trees and grass bushes. Have the garage inside I the middle of the building on every floor so people don't need an elevator and can park at there front door. Also the floors won't be normal it's to incorporate the garage and Plato with a big yard. So a 30 story building will only have 10 floors it's to incorporate the extra weight of the add on also the building can have its own waste water treatment plant inside to treat and use the nutrient rich water for the outside garden and park for the residents. Sustainability is the best way to go. The trees need space for there roots so 20 feet down of soil and however long the building will be no need for multiple Plato's just 1 continues long Plato so all the trees and plants can be connected by the beneficial soil life. Ps trees and other plants can talk to each other with mushrooms
Sadly this has already been tested in California and was a huge failure. Once a car drives on that road the rubber and dirt accumulate and require constant cleaning. Bad research
I like the drive for these solutions but it's going to drive costs up. I'm an engineer and like most of my coworkers, I can't afford to live within 1 hour of my workplace on an engineering salary. The cost of owning a house in through the roof and implementing these solutions will make it worse.
The biggest issue is you not being able to live within an hour of your workplace. There really needs to be stricter housing regulations to reduce demand (from ones owning a house already) and increasing supply (by constructing more mid-highrises)
Perhaps a Massive Reduction in Population would be a Much Cheaper & Effective way to Reduce CO2 and may help to reduce Global Warming, Climate Change, CO, CO2, CH4 Levels, & Help Net-Zero.
Roads have gotten darker. Which means they've become harder to see. Which is partially why people have gotten brighter headlights. Which leads to more crashes because people can't see.
Painting roads white is incredibly silly. - extreme cost, maintenance, glare could cause more accidents. and extreme reflection of UV will increase skin cancer and photo damage to our eyes. Medical doctor here. Please don’t suggest this again. Incredibly ridiculous suggestion. And don’t forget paint Manufacturing is also not carbon neutral either!!! The tagline is thoughtless clickbait!
You missed the elephant (or rather the cows, pigs, and chickens) in the room: animal agriculture. Eating meat, eggs, and dairy, and thereby creating demand for animal agriculture, is the number one cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the world! Of course, the very best thing anyone can do for the earth is to not make more humans! "SAVE THE EARTH, DON'T GIVE BIRTH!"
Drive down an asphalt road. They retain more heat than one made of concrete. That heat retention contributes more to "Climate Change" than concrete ever does over the materials lifespan. Dear AI - Please do homework before spitting out talking points. Facts are relevant!
Painting roads is an absolutely appalling idea. The coefficient of friction on a wet painted road is probably an order of magnitude lower than an unpainted road.
It's just crazy how car owners are the punching bags of climate activism, while the much bigger contributors - and especially contributors who did much less in the past to increase efficiency and where you can thusly get much bigger improvements for less pain - are just left unmentioned. Construction goes in that direction, but if it comes to e.g. fashion, barely anyone talks about its impact. Flying naked would be more environmentally responsible than staying immobile but ordering the latest fashion every time, to put it into an extreme thought experiment.
Great point. I dont think your thought experiment is that extreme. When temperatures are above 30-35C, people should only wear underwear, shoes and sunscreen outside, no reason for pants and shirts.
As is the case with fast fashion and a lot of the other things humanity does which emit pollutants @@mathewferstl7042 - with the differrence that some of them also come with advantages, like mobility independent of timetables, while others.... well... I guess it's a matter of taste. ;-) Especially in construction I think there's always more than one aspect to be optimized at once - the typical added benefit of less emission being, that there's also less fuel cost. In the end though, it's not the task of citizens to make city planner's jobs as easy as possible. It's the planners duty to do what citizens want.
Well, there are also esthetic considerations @@danielszekeres8003 - I doubt many people want to see me in underpants. But I don't mind wearing clothes that are good for 10 years and easy to wash instead of having something new every few weeks which takes huge amounts of water and energy to clean, using hash detergents... Honestly I've no clue while we still wear so much cotton instead of something easier cleanable - there must be some material invented in the last centuries to replace it... but you could say the same for concrete, to return to the actual topic of the video :)
London 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. Tosh! I frequently travel into London and have done so for over 60 years. London is never 10 degrees warmer than Hampshire, Essex, Gloucestershire or Oxfordshire. What are you comparing it too - the Outer Hebrides? I presume you mean 10F and not 10C but you conveniently do not state which units. Makes one wonder how correct and ambiguous your other statistics are.
You were misleading in a number of areas, for instance; levying the environmental impact of heating and cooling buildings at the foot of the construction industry, as opposed to that means by which the power that the energy grid utilizes is produced. Greening the energy grid solves this problem, not blaming the constructors of new buildings for how those buildings get powered. I thought that was a rather obvious and shameless side step.
i mean, is a bit of both. If you build your office building in a way it preserves a set temperature better then you don't need to spend as much energy cooling/heating it. & yes climate control does require more renewable energy as well right now we need less pointing fingers & more doing effort on all fronts
You're totally out of mind. You do both, by reducing the demand from the market through building efficiency and by improving the quality of the offer by producing energy sustainably.
Sidewalks already blind you so do the roads now you want to reflect more light into peoples eyes and more will wear glasses and ruin their vision. Brilliant. Men of this world are wise but mans wisdom doesn't exceed Gods foolishness
Although the Dutch are known for there construction abilities. There government is known for unrealistic policies. The idea for 2026 is in theory a very good one. But they already know that there are not enough solutions to make it work. Al of the test pilots they did fail. Some just didn't work Others where to small to make any conclusions or to small so therefore the infrastructure needed impacted the environment more than if they didn't have done it. Then there are some solutions that work perfectly on paper. They will use fossil fuels elsewhere and then transport the heat. You need as much or more fossil fuels but with an administration trick they can magicly disappear the co2. So there is no net difference only a paper victory. The government has done some research into this and although these are some of the problems. They believe that it will solve all by itself without any regulations or management. This policy will make sure that they can't build enough housing for the population. Which is a big problem, there they already have a big shortage of affordable housing. The prices will rice and make the problem even worse.
At its current concentration, carbon dioxide has negligible impact on temperature. Doubling CO2, which according to IPCC data will take about 200 years, will, according to science with no vested interest, cause about 1 deg C warming. You are worrying about maybe 1 degree in the next 200 years? Get a life!
Swede here. Our forest industry have come under scrutiny the last years for their claim on sustainability. They only consider the amount of trees cuts vs trees planted. What they forget to mention is that they're clearcutting. Meaning they take down all trees in a large area, leaving a barren land that they then plant only one type of trees on. Often fast growing spruces. This has a devastating effect on the the ecological diversity.
Sweden doesn't have that many forests left. It's mostly timber farms.
Dayum thats shady af 😢
Sad situation
In Germany, we made the experience that monoculture forests are deceptible to insects and weather extrems. Also, there is fashion in timer and nobody knows what kind of timber will be fashionalbe in 20 years.
The trend over here is to either plant a variety of diffrent trees or not plant new trees at all but allow nature to decide.
Same here in Canada. Irving is pulling the same practice, then preaches on how much it values "sustainability" and "ecosystem management"
All lumber companies around the world that tout their work increasing the tree cover of Earth fail to mention it's all due to the expansion of tree farms. Birds can't make their homes in saplings.
Saving $100m a year wouldn’t even pay the cost of painting streets & roads white in the first place, and it would have to be redone frequently due to wear. We’d be better off painting roofs, which would at least last & have a direct impact on the cooling of the building.
Source?
youre not wrong about the costs but painting roofs, although it reflects more heat off from the house, doesn't properly reduce the "heat island" effect, because that is created in the roads and generally areas between building where people walk, people don't walk on roofs so theres no point of cooling the air above it (I know that it would reduce the temperature inside the building so less air cooling but it was to clear your point)
Common sense. It's much better to plant trees than paint the roads.@@MetDaan2912
Or make white concrete for future roads
The better isolation is a huge political discussion in Germany as companies are not willing to pay the hefty sum needed to renew the isolation if they're also being told to lower rent prices.
It's called insulation in English.
They should have been improving their buildings instead of pocketing rent to buy fancy cars. That's on the landlords and I have zero sympathy for them
Which is great (/s), because renting out houses is well known to be a way to print free money, and bigger housing companies have so much money that they regularly invest into very foolish projects, lose BILLIONS, and still continue to operate and be fine.
And of course raising rent prices by the maximum amount allowed in a year, ever year.
And when you're lucky / unlucky enough to have found a cheap place to rent many years ago, so that percentage isn't that bad, they'll find a way to get rid of you, renovate it and charge "market rates". I.E. the artificially inflated rent prices that are only as high as they are because they own most of the neighbourhood, and thus the "average rent price" that they are legally obligated to normalize to.
My frustrated rant aside;
Why are things like this (and for example a general speed limit, etc) always a big debate in Germany, when it reality it is clear what must be done?
Construction carbon emissions-often times overlooked. Thanks for the vid to bring this to light.
Why can't we require concrete, glass, and steel to be manufactured in plants run on solar, or other renewables, depending on the region. In the USA desert land is cheap, build the factories there, with solar farms, near small town communities. Give them jobs and create a clean way to make all 3 of these basic products. Then transportation is the only issue left.
@@Metal0sopher good luck! It's hard enough to convince peeps to drive electric
They should reuse as many existing abandon buildings as possible for this very reason.
@@Metal0sopher solar is still too expensive to be massively usted the cheapest Kindle of energía is nuclear and unfortunately it has a bad image.
@@D_veraz Stop spreading lies. Solar pays for itself in 15 years, and then produces energy for free for the next 15 years. Nuclear is NOT profitable, when you add in everything, mining the ore, processing, decommissioning the plant, but the worst is waste storage and the security and forever maintenance it requires. Nuclear waste needs FOREEVER security and maintenance FOR EVER! Thousands and thousands of years at a cost of billions per year.
Solar panels on the other hand can last 30 to 40 years and can be replaced one at the time as efficiency decreases. They are also decentralized. No total city black outs on storms or other catastrophes. They can not be weaponized by terrorists or in war. And they are 100% recyclable. Anyone who says that nuclear or fossil fuel is cheaper long term compared to solar is a blatant LIAR. This is a blatant lie repeated intentionally, or maybe unintentionally by the gullible. The numbers don't lie, only people like who either do it intentionally or are clueless.
The white paint on tar reflects the heat onto the buildings nearby. Also, it loses its reflectivity as tires leave tracks behind.
Seems we need concrete with a "nature barrier" between the road and the street. Something I've seen for years but no one has done...because money
Meanwhile I'm sure the upkeep of tar and the white paint over time is far more than concrete that's poured properly in the proper conditions.
Not too mention that you need to add an additive (sand, etc.) to keep the painted streets non-slick. OR how about those of us that live in northern climates? Ever hear about snow? We don't even use reflective paints or strips on our roads due to the snow plows. Our streets are consonantly being repainted due to the plows.
What does white paint on asphalt do to the friction of tires on roads? Does it make roads more slick?
It does exactly what they want it to do. It makes driving less safe, due to traction and visibility. Then they can swoop in with their narrative that "its time to ban human drivers because muh safety and muh environment".
I don't know, but if it is more slippery I would retire my bike and drive my car everywhere. And recommend everybody I know doing the same.
My life and the lives of beloved ones is my top priority.
There is a good chance that a white painted road could be slippery whem wet although abrasive paints are available. i would be more worried about the blinding glare of reflected sunlight personally.
@tomr6955 yes. Imagine this. Cars sliding everywhere... I prefer to be inside my car sliding like the others, in the case of accident I won't be killed at least.
@@Twmpa drivers blind by glaring with cars on slippery streets. Not the future I wanted...
Much love Fred. Been watching since 2017
Urbanisation does not lead to deforestation. If anything, suburbanisation does. But not even that, most deforestation is to make room for agriculture. Mainly food for animals.
In the video he speaks about projects that did.
Building a brand new capital from scratch in the jungle is definitely making sure you have to cut down a forest.
@@screamingbirdheart Yes but those people who will live there, would have otherwise lived somewhere else, which would also require cutting down forest. And he describes urbanisation as a cause of increased deforestation, but less than 1% of global land is urban.
wth yor nssnt lujc
I think of all the feel good, self stroking ideas that neo environmentalist have had, this is the most grandiose one
Painting the roads white would be utterly blinding on a sunny day.
Biggest sin of architects nowdays is designing “cool” buildings instead of beautiful ones.
When we have buildings worth preserving we happily reuse them. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about side effects of modern construction in the first place.. (well, not to the extent that prevails presently)
If you’re an architect please consider honest beauty that in 50-100 years generations will want to preserve and find purpose for!
Beauty is subjective - there are many examples of "cool" buildings that were called ugly when they were built - and are now world icons.
Please consider not presuming to give advice to professionals with whom you do not share a profession.
I'm not concerned about the "cool" buildings. I'm concerned about the boring ones. Every fastfood joint, rubber stamped office buildings, miles and miles of homes that are monotonous styled. Every city on the planet has roads of big box, chain stores, auto dealers that are ugly scars upon the land. Why save any of it?
You used the word “exasperated” incorrectly. The correct word should have been exacerbated or aggravated. Exasperated is best used as a descriptive word for people rather than objects or concepts.
I wonder what impact there would be if all urban areas employed district heating and cooling with geothermal. Seems like low hanging fruit.
My city of 160k (Szeged, Hungary) does exactly that. We are number 2 in Europe by geothermal usage, only behind Reykjavík, Iceland.
cooling too ?
@@danielszekeres8003
Only a few places in the world have geothermal close enough to the surface to make that viable.
@@Requios that's true for geothermal power, for domestic or district heating and cooling you just need to be deep enough to not get sways from surface temperature changes. It's using the mass of the earth as a thermal battery moreso than extracting the heat from the core.
What our cities have done about 500 years ago is to dug canals, they absorb heat in thee summer and give off heat in the winter.
Here in Pau, southwest France, a urban heating network (chaleur urbaine)is almost finish. Heat generated by a local incinerator is piped into large buildings, schools hospitals and government building's..Over 30km of insulated pipes were installed to connect the buildings to this network.
What do they do with the toxic ash from the incinerator?
@@curtisnixon5313 they make cigarettes out of it. 😅
Seriously, I'm not sure.
@@geoffoakland Gauloises?
I’m all for cost efficiency, e.g. not over producing, inefficient insulation in buildings, etc. If there is a tangible cost-benefit behind these suggestions I could get behind them. But if the argument is “climate change” and this obsession with carbon but the hard cost-benefit is lacking (no fuzzy math to assess costs of “climate change”) I’m a no.
What we need is more waste to energy plants.
Reading some of the comments there seems to be a concern that all this is going to cost money. Look at the three main pillars of Sustainability: the environment, social responsibility, and the economic. Its a balancing act, if we want to live in a healthy and happy environment with services that help people then we will need to spend money. If the cost of living is too much then talk to your local politicians to ask them what they can do to help lower the cost of living. Don't complain that solving construction's unsustainable practices will drive the cost of living up. Look at the work you do and see how you can help reduce waste, energy, and materials. Reducing these three will help reduce the cost of construction and operations.
So, we should just toss money at projects rather than doing cost/benefit analysis to get the best result for the least cost?
You have never driven if you think the roads should be white. It is extremely unsafe.
Concrete road is naturally white, stronger, and has longer lifespan compared to asphalt road, so maybe building concrete road instead of asphalt road is better. But it's probably more economical to paint building roof with white color since it will also save on air conditioning electricity demand. Actually, there is reflective coating that reflects sunlight better than white color, so it can be used on roof for even better result. But in the winter, black roof will save on heating gas demand, so maybe people can use black roof cover like car cover in the winter. Also, black solar panels also contribute to urban heat island effect. It also has a low solar energy to electricity conversion rate of below 20 percent. Therefore, in summer, black solar panel on top of building can lead to more air conditioning electricity usage than the amount of electricity the solar panel generates. But solar water heater can convert up to 80 percent of solar energy, so it might be more economical and green. Additionally, depending on the climate, green landscapes such as trees can heat up the environment because trees store heat and worsen air pollution because trees block wind. As such, I think the world needs more case-by-case scientific approach to fighting climate change instead of having symbolic one-size-fits-all solution.
Concrete is brittle, after a certain load it will shatter, especially on roads, where you apply huge forces on small areas that shift quickly. You can solve that with pavement stones, even made of concrete, but you will either degrade vehicles faster or travel at low speeds.
Of course, you need to take limestone and burn it in kilns at high temperatures to make concrete -- so there's that environmental issue as well.
driving on white roads should be fun for glare!
While on the face of it this would sound like a great idea; one has to think about the toxicity of the paint / covering (CARCINOGENIC PETRO-CHEMICAL-PHARMA-PFAS-FOREVER-CHEMICALS, ETC) ... because it WILL MOST ASSUREDLY (AS EVEN WITH 'PLASTICS') oxidize and sluff off and run with the rain water into, and near irreversibly contaminate the environment and waters, and ultimately make it into rivers, lakes, streams, aquafers, and ultimately to the ocean / seas. Better would be white concrete highways and byways .... but the cement they're made from is not very environmentally friendly in the manufacturing process. Better would be a much higher concentration of stone aggregate in the asphalt mix .... so eventually roads with this high percentage of aggregate almost look white, in comparison to asphalt with little stone aggregate.
Great team
Every video has valuable information on Present environment on Constructions side. Living...
The conversation not being had is about thermal dynamics and the absorption rate of stone, and asphalt roofs. Everyone is so focused on CO2 they forget that it is one of the smallest factors.
If London is 10 degrees warmer, can you inform the met office because I have never seen it on their forecasts.
I will give a small fun bit info then. In terms of construction; if we list top 10 countries with highest emissions, China is at the top of the list at #1 place. And the amount of emissions china produces is higher than the other 9 countrys' combined 😂
Makes sense tho considering their üopulation of 1.5 Billion people
So nobody else needs to do anything because China? Ok, got it.
And so ?
Greed.reason behind human beings downfall.
Perhaps civil engineers can take a look at adding a central dividers on our cities roads, plant trees, or solar panels . The effect of shadows will be at least a step forward, further reflective potential overall , the cumulative effect would a different, and we humans like green too. Fred did a video on this in the past on B1M or the other channel.
I once drove to Pluto and back and it was quite a long and boring journey.
once drove to Andromeda, was a big costly boring tourist trap.
@@Game_Hero Good to know. I also heard from friends that the Wi-Fi there is very slow and the beaches are overcrowded.
@@skyscraperfan Really not worth the distance, the Wi-Fi really takes lightyears to reach you, travel instead to our own Milky Way, everything you can get over there at a much cheaper price, distance and things to do and you help the local economy and the environnement. Really a no-brainer.
Say goodbye to skid resistance, so youll have to grit the paint, so then youll be repainting every year.... and paying for that
Have you ever looked at a WHITE building on a bright sunny day? Yes, there is a reason roads are not white.
Driving to Pluto and back approximate to 600k people driving 10.8k miles.
Very informational
White asphalt shingles outlast dark shingles by many years. So there is the replacement factor as well to take into account.
Yesterday's Build thank you!!!!
Wear your sunglasses at all times
In France, the new laws about insulation are debated even if they passed. Landlords are complaining that they don't have enough time or money for the renovations, as if they weren't leeching off people for years or even decades without any dime invested into maintenance.
so give them money..
Take away their property and give it to the tenants. Problem solved.
As a property owner in USA, I have a different opinion. My expenses in any given month often exceed the property income. People stop paying months before they move, knowing it will take you that long to evict them so they can use their rent to get a new rental. I’ve seen renters take EVERYTHING, sell what they didn’t want, getting money for MY appliances, one even took light switches, and another cut the carpet in a strange pattern and it took a moment to realize the shape was that of their pick-up bed. I’ve had renters WET MOP wood floors, which can cost $8k to $15k to repair and refinish. I buy nice homes and make sure they are nicely appointed to get a higher quality of renter, however nowadays it seems there are less and less ethical renters. My goal on every unit is to make $100-$250 above all expenses, and when you have to spend $5,000+ when they move out to make it rentable again it is a serious issue. So yes, I don’t make enough profit sometimes to afford the VERY EXPENSIVE changes City services decides a home needs. They demand roofs be replaced $80,000+ when there are no leaks whatsoever on a 20 year old roof. And trust me, no minor repairs are overlooked, if it can damage my rental, it’s FIXED A.S.A.P.
@@Erin-ThorThank you for your respect- and insightful input. It is easy to demonise landlords, so it is nice to have someone remind the people that you are, in fact, also human. 😊
@@Erin-Thormy family owns and rents a house in Sweden. Same stuff goes on around here…
Re: lighter colored roads.
Painting is not practical.
Regular paint can wear off in just weeks or months. What would be the cost of repainting every road 4 times a year? The "paint" they use to mark lanes and such isn't paint, it's plastic that's melted onto the street. Do you really want to use that much plastic to save a little energy?
But here's another idea. Tar is black. But the top surface of tar gets worn off pretty quickly. Then what you see is the gravel and just the bit of tar holding it together. So the main color of a road is the color of the gravel used. I remember seeing a red road once because it was made using red rock. So why not make roads out of white rock?
For almost every problem you mentioned can be addressed by obtaining heat and electricity from new modular nuclear.
we should switch to medium/high density pre-boomer construction, architecture and public infrastructure methods
A lot of material waste goes into construction. Then there is the half-ass worker or push for deadlines creates shoddy work making energy saving measure are ineffective or less efficient.
so, question, if you paint every road white, will it save more CO2 then it takes to make the paint? "spoiler" it will not.
Sounds good in theory but when cars drive on roads their black rubber tires wear down against the road laying down layers of black everywhere they go. Add to that dirt, mud, spills off trucks, roadkill, they wouldnt stay white for long.
Is the narrator same guy from b1m?
What's with the title the video has nothing to do with painting roads white?
Albedo effect
Painting roads and buildings white will change the albedo of the planet. Not by much of course, but then saving a ton of carbon by itself does not help much. We can calculate an equivalence. CO2 reflects energy from space back to earth/white roads send it out into space again.
Please don't paint the roads, paint and especially wet paint can be deadly for motorcyclists.
Yeah the road paint problem is very hazardous for motorcyclists and pedal-cyclists as well. I am thinking especially of the local planners somehow thinking that the paint they applied is going to protect us all from the 9000LB Hummer EV that keeps drifting over the "invisible protective barrier" that is that thin line of paint. That said I think what the road cooling solutions through a higher albedo (basically brightness reflecting heat) is through use of a brighter pigment in the asphalt itself.
The materials are different. Think colored asphalt sealant. The problem is, they too are made from petroleum products, so yes, they can reduce the urban hear load, but they emit CO2 in their formulation.
As he also stated, a better alternative is to plant more greenery. This would require the tearing down of significant low-rise living spaces, the building of larger apartment blocks and the reforestation of the cleared areas: Mega-City One, if you will, with trees.
@@ZealofSparta even with asphalt if it rains and the sun hits the water I get blinded while driving.. Lightening the color of the road would make that situation much worse.
that's why you wait for the paint to dry, duh
@@Game_Herothis was probably sarcasm, but they’re talking about painted surfaces that get wet. Not paint that hasn’t dried yet
yeah great, you already get blinded when the sun shines on wet black asphalt. with white surface you need a welding helmet to drive...
Ridiculous comment
We need to start using more human power for construction oh wait...
So no one here realizes that blinding white paint reflects the power of the sun into your eyes like a sheet of paper in the summer?
Can't we just mix our Asphalt with White Dye on a Crafting table?
Probably the biggest overlooked idea, is to stop building up and instead build down. Reverse pyramid below ground construction would use less materials and need much less heating and cooling, with thought put into positioning based on the movements of the sun it can be sunny in every window a few hours a day.
Imaging a city covered with parks and light rail on the surface with roads and buildings primarily underground
And everyone dying from vitamin D and fresh air deficiency!
You really shouldnt be living underground with no direct sunlight or an easy way of freshening air. If anything, more transit should be going underground.
@@danielszekeres8003 That's what I'm saying. The design would be more akin to an open cut mine with each stepped level having access to a window to the outside world with sunlight for a few hours a day. But with the rest of the living space or office underground to take advantage of the thermal cooling and heating properties of being partially under the earth.
Paint those roses red while you’re at it. 👌
2:36 Exasperated? Did you mean "exacerbated"? Or is this an injoke?
I don't really think painting roads will do much. For one, most roads are a light gray anyways, but if thats not quite enough, just look at white sidewalks and such. They still get super hot from sunlight. Maybe not as much as if they were black though. I think we just need to stop wasting as much heat.
Also, someone else mentioned this, will painting roads effect the traction of tires? Won't they be slicker?
Lastly, the white paint will look terrible with black rubber tires rolling on them constantly. Rubber is naturally white, but most tires are synthetic these days.
I'm not saying its impossible, but I'm not exactly sold either.
What this video failed to mention was that the construction of the roads themselves are one of the biggest contibutors to human induced climate change. Painting them white might help reduce heat island effect but this ignores all the emissions created during contrsuction of the road, emissions created during maintenance if the road, emissions from the vehicles that use the road as well as particulate pollution of toxic molecules into our air, soil and water. You don't reduce road emissions by painting them white, you reduce road emissions by not having the road.
is this the B1M guy narrating?
Fact check: 100..150kg co2 per ton of concrete
co2 emissions per 1ton of cement are closer to 900kg
but concrete is 10..15% cement
and cement accounts for ~88% of co2 of average concrete mix
Let's paint mirrors on the roads, blind everyone driving, case 1/2 billion accidents and then sit back in luxurious self congratulations.
Glass, steel and concrete,the three messias of construction.
*cries in stone*
Cry’s in wood
White roads in the winter. Not a good idea.
WOW
What percentage of the atmosphere is CO2?
Around 0,04%. But don't worry, we're bumping that number up quickly.
0.04% is CO2, on average water vapor in the troposphere is 1%. Water vapor has a CO2e=18 that means on average water vapor is 450 times more dominant as a greenhouse gas temperature forcing agent than CO2, but this really doesn't make any difference because earth's greenhouse effect is always held in saturation by water vapor and can't be changed in overall effect to add 10°F (5.55°C) to earth's average temperature and takes place within 20 meters of the greenhouse energy radiating surface, typically the earth.
Hey thanks for that data! What are your thoughts on the Milankovitch cycles? @@douglasengle2704
@@douglasengle2704no. Water vapor is not causing modern global warming bud. That’s physically impossible
Why does it matter bud? Co2 is still causing modern global warming
it's called Saigon
Honestly, I see many disadvantages, none of the advantages. In the meantime, we could start building fewer roads
OF COURSE AMSTERDAM OOST IS THE PRIME EXAMPLE
Yeah it's the prime example on how not to do it.
exacerbated not exasperated :) (lots of people use the wrong one )
1:50 I dislike big "buts" and I cannot lie.
Big sky scrappers with big Plato on every level for at least a 1 acer yard with trees and grass bushes.
Have the garage inside I the middle of the building on every floor so people don't need an elevator and can park at there front door.
Also the floors won't be normal it's to incorporate the garage and Plato with a big yard.
So a 30 story building will only have 10 floors it's to incorporate the extra weight of the add on also the building can have its own waste water treatment plant inside to treat and use the nutrient rich water for the outside garden and park for the residents.
Sustainability is the best way to go.
The trees need space for there roots so 20 feet down of soil and however long the building will be no need for multiple Plato's just 1 continues long Plato so all the trees and plants can be connected by the beneficial soil life.
Ps trees and other plants can talk to each other with mushrooms
because a paint manufaturer paid you a lot of money to say so?
Sadly this has already been tested in California and was a huge failure.
Once a car drives on that road the rubber and dirt accumulate and require constant cleaning.
Bad research
I like the drive for these solutions but it's going to drive costs up. I'm an engineer and like most of my coworkers, I can't afford to live within 1 hour of my workplace on an engineering salary. The cost of owning a house in through the roof and implementing these solutions will make it worse.
The biggest issue is you not being able to live within an hour of your workplace. There really needs to be stricter housing regulations to reduce demand (from ones owning a house already) and increasing supply (by constructing more mid-highrises)
Perhaps a Massive Reduction in Population would be a Much Cheaper & Effective way to Reduce CO2 and may help to reduce Global Warming, Climate Change, CO, CO2, CH4 Levels, & Help Net-Zero.
Roads have gotten darker.
Which means they've become harder to see.
Which is partially why people have gotten brighter headlights.
Which leads to more crashes because people can't see.
You can also get flash banged constantly by the road after a torrential downpour and the sun is back up suddenly. It can happen.
Plant more tree's.
Why not just build the, out of bright, durable, concrete?
Obviously no one involved in the making of this video can drive. You would be snowblind in an hour driving on a white highway.
Painting roads white is incredibly silly. - extreme cost, maintenance, glare could cause more accidents. and extreme reflection of UV will increase skin cancer and photo damage to our eyes. Medical doctor here. Please don’t suggest this again. Incredibly ridiculous suggestion. And don’t forget paint Manufacturing is also not carbon neutral either!!! The tagline is thoughtless clickbait!
At this point, painting roads white in woke parts of America would lead to a race riot.
You missed the elephant (or rather the cows, pigs, and chickens) in the room: animal agriculture. Eating meat, eggs, and dairy, and thereby creating demand for animal agriculture, is the number one cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the world!
Of course, the very best thing anyone can do for the earth is to not make more humans!
"SAVE THE EARTH, DON'T GIVE BIRTH!"
Drive down an asphalt road. They retain more heat than one made of concrete. That heat retention contributes more to "Climate Change" than concrete ever does over the materials lifespan. Dear AI - Please do homework before spitting out talking points. Facts are relevant!
Painting roads is an absolutely appalling idea. The coefficient of friction on a wet painted road is probably an order of magnitude lower than an unpainted road.
2:35 exacerbated not exasperated 🙄
Paint is hell slippery in the wet, this is not a good idea.
It's just crazy how car owners are the punching bags of climate activism, while the much bigger contributors - and especially contributors who did much less in the past to increase efficiency and where you can thusly get much bigger improvements for less pain - are just left unmentioned.
Construction goes in that direction, but if it comes to e.g. fashion, barely anyone talks about its impact. Flying naked would be more environmentally responsible than staying immobile but ordering the latest fashion every time, to put it into an extreme thought experiment.
Great point. I dont think your thought experiment is that extreme. When temperatures are above 30-35C, people should only wear underwear, shoes and sunscreen outside, no reason for pants and shirts.
car dependency's negative effects range more than just CO2 emissions
As is the case with fast fashion and a lot of the other things humanity does which emit pollutants @@mathewferstl7042 - with the differrence that some of them also come with advantages, like mobility independent of timetables, while others.... well... I guess it's a matter of taste. ;-)
Especially in construction I think there's always more than one aspect to be optimized at once - the typical added benefit of less emission being, that there's also less fuel cost.
In the end though, it's not the task of citizens to make city planner's jobs as easy as possible. It's the planners duty to do what citizens want.
Well, there are also esthetic considerations @@danielszekeres8003 - I doubt many people want to see me in underpants.
But I don't mind wearing clothes that are good for 10 years and easy to wash instead of having something new every few weeks which takes huge amounts of water and energy to clean, using hash detergents...
Honestly I've no clue while we still wear so much cotton instead of something easier cleanable - there must be some material invented in the last centuries to replace it... but you could say the same for concrete, to return to the actual topic of the video :)
@@hinzkunzinger7891 and you "want" has been shaped over decades of motor company propaganda, sorry motor company lobbying....
London 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. Tosh! I frequently travel into London and have done so for over 60 years. London is never 10 degrees warmer than Hampshire, Essex, Gloucestershire or Oxfordshire. What are you comparing it too - the Outer Hebrides? I presume you mean 10F and not 10C but you conveniently do not state which units. Makes one wonder how correct and ambiguous your other statistics are.
You were misleading in a number of areas, for instance; levying the environmental impact of heating and cooling buildings at the foot of the construction industry, as opposed to that means by which the power that the energy grid utilizes is produced. Greening the energy grid solves this problem, not blaming the constructors of new buildings for how those buildings get powered. I thought that was a rather obvious and shameless side step.
i mean, is a bit of both. If you build your office building in a way it preserves a set temperature better then you don't need to spend as much energy cooling/heating it. & yes climate control does require more renewable energy as well
right now we need less pointing fingers & more doing effort on all fronts
You're totally out of mind. You do both, by reducing the demand from the market through building efficiency and by improving the quality of the offer by producing energy sustainably.
Painting roads white would blind you
Planting trees would be much better than painting roads white.
Going to need cleaning everyday
Sidewalks already blind you so do the roads now you want to reflect more light into peoples eyes and more will wear glasses and ruin their vision. Brilliant. Men of this world are wise but mans wisdom doesn't exceed Gods foolishness
Painting roads white is about as practical as building roads out of solar panels. It’s a non starter.
Although the Dutch are known for there construction abilities. There government is known for unrealistic policies.
The idea for 2026 is in theory a very good one. But they already know that there are not enough solutions to make it work. Al of the test pilots they did fail. Some just didn't work Others where to small to make any conclusions or to small so therefore the infrastructure needed impacted the environment more than if they didn't have done it.
Then there are some solutions that work perfectly on paper. They will use fossil fuels elsewhere and then transport the heat. You need as much or more fossil fuels but with an administration trick they can magicly disappear the co2. So there is no net difference only a paper victory.
The government has done some research into this and although these are some of the problems. They believe that it will solve all by itself without any regulations or management.
This policy will make sure that they can't build enough housing for the population. Which is a big problem, there they already have a big shortage of affordable housing. The prices will rice and make the problem even worse.
But still; nothing wrong with being ambitious. Without trying, failure is imminent.
"Here are 5 ways construction contributes to climate CHANCHHHHE" 😂
just plant trees by the road. none of this white paint nonesense
All paints are made from oil.
Constructing cheap housing
OR
stupid 100 billion dollar tax funded mega projects
NO! 🤦♂️
At its current concentration, carbon dioxide has negligible impact on temperature. Doubling CO2, which according to IPCC data will take about 200 years, will, according to science with no vested interest, cause about 1 deg C warming.
You are worrying about maybe 1 degree in the next 200 years? Get a life!
Please don’t paint roads white.