A "New" Way of Dealing with Drought:
Humans have been working to protect their drinking water for decades, but now as the climate warms we're revisiting old ideas in new ways.
Back in the 1950s, the Bureau of Reclamation added a chemical to the top of a reservoir in Oklahoma City to reduce evaporation, but the "skin" was subject to the wind and kept blowing off the lake.
A new company called MoreAqua claims a newer version (made with coconut and palm oils) can be used to cut evaporation by as much as 75 percent. The trick is to use normal irrigation equipment to pump the chemical upwind, and a monitoring system to change the pumping to follow the wind patterns. The company told the New York Times, "the material is odorless and tasteless… and contains antioxidants and vitamin A."
Thus far the expense has kept the experiment from being widely tested, but funding is being sought. via New York Times' Green Blog
