00:00 In an attempt to combat scorching temperatures, Arizona is putting sunscreen on its roads.
00:05 Reuters reports the city of Phoenix is using a gray coating designed to reflect heat and
00:10 sunlight away from the surface.
00:12 The hope is it would help beat the urban heat island effect.
00:17 The atmosphere is heated from the bottom up and when we look at satellite imagery of where
00:22 hot surfaces are in our city, it's very clear two features stand out, roofs and roads.
00:28 Here we're looking at a strategy to make our road surfaces a little less hot that will
00:31 ultimately produce benefits for residents in these neighborhoods where we're applying
00:35 the cool pavement.
00:36 In a 2021 study, the Arizona State University found that cool pavement has an average surface
00:42 temperature 10.5 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit lower than traditional asphalt.
00:47 But the heat in Arizona this summer is such that residents in the area doubt the cool
00:52 pavement is helping reduce temperatures.
00:55 Masavi Perea, deputy director for Chispa Arizona, a climate justice organization, said the city
01:02 should focus on things with more immediate impact, like planting trees and having cool
01:06 corridors.
01:07 "We need to do more things that we know that are already working.
01:13 We need to plant trees, we need to fix our parks, we need to have cool corridors, we
01:16 need to have water, we need to have, I mean if you see it right, people want to walk,
01:21 there is no where they are going to sit.
01:24 When new technology is welcome, of course, right, because we need to try something different
01:28 because what we have been doing is not working, but we need to also invest in the fundamental
01:32 in what we know that is working."
01:33 (upbeat music)
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