Cover the Deserts, Cool the Earth

According to a recent report in ScienceDaily, engineers Takayuki Toyama of Avix Inc. in Kanagawa, Japan, and Alan Stainer of Middlesex University Business School, London, have published a radical solution to stem the tide of global warming: Cover parts of the world's deserts with a reflective sheeting.

The heat caused by human activity represents only 1/10,000th of the amount of heat the planet receives from the sun.

Reflective sheets placed on deserts would not only reflect some of the sun's heat back into space, but also slow down the process of desertification.

They calculate that 60,000 square kilometres covered with reflective sheet, costing around $280 billion, would be enough to create a net cooling without having to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.

• Protect an acre of rainforest through Conservation International
• Join the Greenpeace "Energy [R]evolution"
• Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate change
• Analyze and reduce your impact on the environment with the National Grid Floe

photo: HORIZON