Energy Secretary Stephen Chu's advice to have flat roofs painted white (to reduce energy use) prompted this incredibly stupid (even by Limbaugh standards) response from Rush: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/...
For those who can't bring themselves to defile their computer screens with a Limbaugh web-page, here are some excerpts:
They just throw these statistics out. If we paint every roof in America white -- well, yeah, every flat roof -- and that's another thing. Why does the roof have to be flat? White is white, the sun's up there, the sun shines down on a flat roof or an angled roof, what the hell difference does it make?
...........
Here's the real question about this. I need a scientist to answer this for me. I understand how clouds at altitude can help reflect the heat. But I want to know how something white on the surface of the planet, where does that reflected heat go? If the road is white, and the heat reflects, aren't you going to boil if you happen to be walking on it in the summertime? Where does this reflected heat go? Are we being told here that reflected heat is not damaging at all but direct heat is? It seems to me if we had global warming wouldn't we want dark roofs to absorb the heat? Yeah, it may be cooling your house a little bit, but... This is all such gobbledygook.
This is a classic example of Poe's Law in action. If I didn't see this directly at rushlimbaugh.com, I would have dismissed as a parody of wingnut idiocy.
Those of you out there who know some Rush fans who still have firing neurons between their ears might want to rub their noses in this stupidity. Make them embarrassed to admit that they ever listened to Rush.
Those of you who are (or know) elementary-school/junior-high science teachers might see this as a "teachable moment". Rush's understanding of basic science is so pathetic that even elementary-school kids would have no problem picking his idiocy apart.
A fun "extra-credit" assignment for science students might be to write a "letter to Rush" explaining to him some basic concepts, like why black asphalt will burn your feet more quickly than a light cement sidewalk will on a hot sunny day.
It would be fun to see a fully-tenured science teacher have his/her 6th/7th-grade students write polite, thoughtful "letters to Rush" explaining to him the very simple science that he obviously does not understand, and then calling a local reporter to cover the story. How wonderful it would be to see middle-school science students "schooling" Rush about basic science. It would be even more wonderful if something like this would open their parents' eyes and realize how utterly stupid Limbaugh (and other wingnut talk-radio) hosts are.
(Now, I fully admit that I may not be very realistic here, but at least let me indulge in my little fantasy...)