Don’t coat your asphalt driveway with black tars; use reflective coatings instead or replace with lighter-colored materials.

Asphalt at fault: a dark driveway heats up the neighborhood and contributes to flooding.

RODALE NEWSROOM, EMMAUS, PA—Everybody’s waiting for electric and hydrogen-powered cars to save the planet from global warming, but you can take action right now by thinking about where your car is parked. A study recently published in the journal Climatic Change concludes that cool pavements (and cool roofs) in cities that get warm or downright hot could team up to offset CO2 global emissions by 44 metric tons and save billions of dollars. Dark surface areas absorb solar radiation, heat up homes and cities, causing people to crank up air-conditioning. Lighter-colored “cool surfaces” reflect heat rather than absorb it, keeping things cooler, especially in cities.

THE DETAILS: Researchers from the California Energy Commission and the U.S. government’s Heat Island Group used population data to conservatively estimate that 1% of the world’s land area is urban. They used data population data to determine that roofs (25%) and pavement (35%) account for 60% of urban surface areas. With so many of these dark surfaces sucking in heat, cities often experience heat island effects and bake 6 to 7 degrees hotter than nearby, more sparsely populated towns.

WHAT IT MEANS: If your home has a driveway, think twice before repaving and slathering thick tar all over it. Installing a blacktop driveway is just asking for an earth-baking. To help turn the corner on climate change:

• Choose a reflective driveway coating, available at most hardware stores. Better yet, opt for permeable and porous concrete pavers—blocks of concrete set into the ground--that have a high fly ash (a recycled material) content.

• Instead of asphalt, consider a driveway of light-color stone or gravel, which allows rainwater to absorb into the ground rather than run off and contribute to flooding.

• Beware of driveway sealants. A 2005 study out of Texas University and the U. S. Geological Survey found that carcinogenetic chemicals from coal-tar-based driveway sealants washed off into nearby streams. That’s not good for anyone—particularly the fish that went blind, lost their fins, and died as a result.

• If you own a business, consider a break from traditional blacktop parking lots. Besides making the area hotter, they create runoff problems, which can affect the quality of your drinking water and contribute to flooding.