It may be true that a good paint job warms up a room, but social media users have called into question a paint name tied to the planet's overheating.
"'Climate Change' seems like a really scary name for a paint chip of a wispy, moss-tinted white that would look great in my bathroom," wrote one Redditor in the community r/CrappyDesign.
The post shows a stack of paint swatches. The greenish sample on top is labeled with the phrase that describes broad shifts in Earth's temperatures and weather patterns over time — shifts that have been dominated by human causes in recent decades.
Although the Reddit post is from 2019, others on social media have more recently called out the mysteriously named paint, also identified as Behr color #S350-1.
"Behr Paint Company, I'm curious why you picked off-white as the color for climate change," LinkedIn user Emily Mediate queried about a year ago.
For Behr's part, the company has a web page describing "Climate Change" as "icy green-gray with a tonal richness" and part of the green color family.
As of December 2024, the tint still appears to be available at Home Depot stores.
Behr — which has a logo featuring what could be taken for a polar bear (and yes, there's online discussion and a paint tint for that too) — has made efforts to be more sustainable through its products, packaging, and operations.
Many of its paints are certified for lower volatile organic compound emissions, to preserve cleaner indoor air. The Climate Change tint is available for at least some of these Greenguard Gold certified products.
Elsewhere, paint is becoming a tool to fight the effects of Earth's warming. Researchers in Singapore have found that reflective "cool paint coatings" can make city dwellers feel cooler and save on air conditioning in buildings. Stanford University engineers have similarly found that structures with reflective paints save money on energy bills. One L.A. neighborhood has even painted murals that reflect heat to cool scorching-hot pavement.
Researchers are also working on solar paints with embedded particles that, like solar panels, convert a portion of the sunlight hitting them into energy — in theory so buildings won't need as much energy from fuels that create planet-warming gases.
The paint tint Climate Change doesn't boast photovoltaic or highly reflective powers, but it has sparked online responses ranging from critique to amusement.
"Climate change is not a calming wall paint color for your bedroom; it's a jarring change to our environment that is impacting our health and livelihoods," Mediate said on LinkedIn.
A Redditor pointed out that Behr has curiously named a different color "Tornado Season."
Another commenter felt the paint name would simply make fodder for fatherly humor. They quipped, "'I wouldn't go pee right now, we have climate change in the bathroom.' — my dad would love this."
Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
