August 12, 2015

Los Angeles Just Found an Awesome Way to Fight the Drought. It Involves Balls. Here Is a Video.

 

On Monday afternoon, the mayor of Los Angeles found a ballsy way to fight California’s unprecedented drought:

 

LA just completed a project at the LA Reservoir to save 300 million gallons of water by deploying shade balls on its surface, saving our city over $250 million dollars while keeping our water clean & safe.

Posted by Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday, August 10, 2015

There are now 96 million “shade balls” floating on the surface of the LA Reservoir. They’re made of plastic, the same kind of polyethylene that gallon-sized milk jugs are made of, so they don’t pose a threat to the drinking water, according to the LA Times. They’re designed to keep water from evaporating and are expected to conserve 300 million gallons per year. And at a cost of $35 million, they’re about $250 million cheaper than the alternative, a tarp-like covering.

So, saving California from the drought just takes leadership from someone with a pair of…sorry I’ll just stop now.

#shadeballs.

 

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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