For Churches, caring for creation is more and more becoming mainstream and acceptable regardless of whether you think global warming is humans’ fault or cows’ fault. But the changes necessary are so expensive and complex, how can churches realistically deal with global warming and creation care?
Well, creation care is easier than you might think. All you have to do is paint your church roof white.
According to a recent study, roofs are an important material to look at and consider how to make it more environmentally-friendly.
Hashem Akbari, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley lab, just released a study showing that the average American 1,000-square-foot white roof could offset 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
According to his data, roofs constitute 20 to 25 percent of urban surfaces, while pavement is about 40 percent. Therefore, if all of those surfaces were switched to a reflective material (or color) in the 100 largest urban areas in America, his calculations show, this would offset 44 metric gigatons of carbon dioxide. That’s more than all countries emit in a single year. Further, that’s worth about $1.1 trillion at current carbon trading rates.
So even if you can’t afford solar panels for your creation-friendly church, here’s something you can do instead. It’s a simple (but not too ridiculously expensive) hack!
Leave a Reply