In this thread the subject of the urban heat island effect came up. Searching more for the potential of heat islands to contribute to climate change all I could find was silly stuff trying to claim that measurements are faulty because they reflect the heat island effect more than true mean temperatures (not true as the temperatures recorded are increased in rural and urban areas both), and how climate change will worsen the heat island effect, but nothing that goes the other way. But I wonder how much it does go the other way?
Decreased snow cover as mean temperatures increase will contribute to global warming; does the massive urbanization in China and elsewhere in the world creating large expanses of heat islands, heck heat continents, play a role as well, and could reducing that effect on a massive scale indeed be protective not just at a local weather level, but at a climatic one?
Any data that others can find that I cannot?