Everybody is trying to do their part to reduce the effects of climate change. But most of us are also probably hoping for some major shifts in our energy infrastructure to make the biggest differences. But a group of scientists in California would like to see the Department of Energy back a relatively simple idea: lightening up the colors of our rooftops and roads to reduce the energy that our homes and land absorb.

On The Takeaway is Surabi Menon, a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in Berkley, California, to explain how this would work.