# What would happen if we covered all the oceans with white stuff?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 31, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688 "2021-07-31T07:41:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688/1 "2021-07-31T07:41:34Z")

</div>

Say 85% or so. Not with plastic, though!  
Is 15% light penetration a killer for life in the seas? What would happen to winds and rainfall? Can scientists design such a life form - white algae perheps - that we could use for building material and as a carbon sink?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688/2 "2021-07-31T08:11:26Z")

</div>

It has been done before.

> **[The story of Snowball Earth](https://astronomy.com/news/2019/04/the-story-of-snowball-earth)**
>
> Ancient rocks suggest that ice entirely covered our planet on at least two occasions. This theory may help explain the rise of complex life that followed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688/3 "2021-07-31T12:51:10Z")

</div>

One catch is that the oceans are already fairly reflective. You’d get more benefit from whitewashing the land.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688/4 "2021-08-01T13:30:12Z")

</div>

I don’t think that’s true. [Wikipedia’s figures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#/media/File:Albedo-e_hg.svg) put open-ocean albedo at around 0.06, while land albedos range from 0.08 to 0.40. They also have a handy graph (below) showing the typical ranges.

Of course, in terms of “bang for your buck” it’s probably easier to whitewash the land than the oceans, so it may be true that if we were to seriously consider this, we’d want to start with the land.

> **[File:Albedo-e hg.svg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albedo-e_hg.svg)**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-all-the-oceans-with-white-stuff/947688/5 "2021-08-01T13:38:26Z")

</div>

I recall reading that someone was already working on a lighter variety of corn plant (maize for our European friends). Those acres and acres of corn in the Midwest…

And there have been studies on replacing black tar on flat roofs with white elastomers. But that was about air-conditioning costs.