L.A.’s shade ball experiment is nothing to joke about. “The shade balls are a novel way to protect drinking water, and Californians’ latest attempt to adjust to their four-year drought,” reports Bloomberg.

On Monday, the city’s mayor Eric Garcetti dumped 20,000 of the shade balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir. It’s the final stage of Los Angeles’ $34.5 million water quality protection project, according to ABC 7.

https://twitter.com/thenewconfucius/status/630835857235140608

Garcetti plans to save 300 million gallons of water by deploying the small, black plastic balls. He tells Bloomberg,

“By reducing evaporation, these shade balls will conserve 300 million gallons of water each year, instead of just evaporating into the sky. That’s 300 million gallons to fight this drought.”

Other shade balls they should throw in the reservoir:

1. Chris Brown

2. Sean Penn

3. Paula Deen

4. Bill Cosby

5. Donald Trump

https://twitter.com/_hoffman/status/631122113739403264

[via Bloomberg, ABC 7]