As featured by the Los Angeles Times:
The gray sludge poured out of giant plastic buckets like pancake batter. Workers in neon vests and spiky cleats squeegeed it across a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles, smoothing it into a thin layer beneath a cloudless sky.
This light-reflecting goop is part of L.A.’s experiment to cool the city as it’s hit by climate change.
If global greenhouse gas emissions keep rising at their current rate, temperatures in L.A. will increase nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit by midcentury, scientists say. The metropolis is already nearly 6 degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas thanks to its masses of heat-absorbing buildings, paved surfaces and scant shade and vegetation.
Once the new coating dries, the pavement outside an Arts District warehouse-turned-green-technology campus will become a putty gray that reflects more of the sun’s rays than the dark asphalt it covered up. The material — one of a handful of products the city and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator are testing — absorbs less heat, and thermometer readings show it can reduce surface temperatures by 10 degrees or more.
