A large enough number of such roofs could «completely offset warming due to urban expansion and even offset a percentage of
future greenhouse warming over large regional scales,» says sustainability scientist Matei Georgescu at Arizona State University, who lead the research.
That CO2 lags and amplifies temperature was actually predicted in 1990 in a paper The ice - core record: climate sensitivity and
future greenhouse warming by Claude Lorius (co-authored by James Hansen):
The Last Interglacial climate was characterised by strong seasonality with warmer summers and cooler winters, which does not compare with the outcomes of
predicted future greenhouse warming where both warmer winters and summers are expected.
«The Ice Core Record: Climate Sensitivity and
Future Greenhouse Warming.»
Lorius, C., J. Jouzel, D. Raynaud, J. Hansen, and H. Le Treut, The ice - core record: climate sensitivity and
future greenhouse warming, Nature, 347, 139 - 145, 1990.
Hansen and others show that sulfate aerosols can significantly cool the climate, raising confidence in models that incorporate aerosols and show
future greenhouse warming.
1990 Claude Lorius, et al., «The Ice Core Record: Climate Sensitivity and
Future Greenhouse Warming.»