Letter: Lighter color over asphalt would be cooler

Everyone is complaining about how hot our Hawaii weather has become, but no one is doing anything about it. Can we do something about it? Yes, we can!

We all know that the surest way of burning the bottom of your feet is to walk across a stretch of asphalt barefooted. Black asphalt is heated by absorbing the sun’s rays. It doesn’t cool down until two hours after sunset when it has finished releasing its pent-up heat into the atmosphere.

If parking lots were coated with a thin, light-gray finish, the amount of heat absorbed during the day and then released after sunset could be reduced substantially. Side benefits are that adjacent stores, offices or homes would use less air conditioning and the asphalt surface would last longer, since its expansion-contraction cycle would be shorter.

I believe an inexpensive coating could be formulated using incinerator fly ash and water as base ingredients. Put this all together and surely someone could make a dollar while the entire population benefits.

Bob Stengle

Aina Haina

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