The Thermocol Experiment

The Thermocol Experiment & Gift of Magi Meme

Writing from Madurai, where the Vaigai holds our thirst like a grudge. In peak drought, Minister Sellur K Raju tried to “save water” by floating thermocol sheets on the dam. The wind laughed, the sheets scattered, and the internet did what it does best: memes first, memory later.

What was the idea? Block sunlight, reduce evaporation. That’s not inherently stupid - reservoirs do lose water to the sky. But you can’t hack physics with flimsy polystyrene.

What the science says (boring, therefore important):

• Evaporation drops only when you cover a large continuous area and keep it there. Lightweight foam won’t stay put against wind/waves without anchoring.
• Thermocol (expanded polystyrene) is brittle; it shreds into microplastics, the aquatic equivalent of dandruff you can’t wash off (Polystyrene).
• Even if it stayed, you alter light/oxygen exchange; that has consequences for fish and water quality.

“But LA did shade balls!” Yes - and no. Los Angeles used millions of UV‑stabilized HDPE balls with carbon black to prevent a carcinogenic chemical reaction (bromate) and secondarily reduce evaporation. It took proper materials, engineering, and truckloads of money (Shade balls). Copying the headline without the footnotes is how you turn a dam into a dumpster.

Costs and common sense:

• To cover meaningful area, you need durable floating covers or modular pontoons, anchored, maintained, and funded. Not classroom craft supplies.
• If you really want dual‑use, try floating solar (it shades water and makes power), or fix leaks and losses in the canals that bleed more than the dam’s surface most seasons.

On superstition vs pseudoscience: governments here will happily pay for rain pujas with a straight face, then face‑plant when they try “innovation” on the cheap. Pick a lane: either do science properly or stop pretending.

Was there a good faith impulse? Probably. Was the execution clownish? Absolutely. A drought state tried to outsmart the sun with thermocol. The sun won. The river will remember; so will the fish picking foam out of their gills.

If you need a moral: ideas are cheap, materials matter, physics always gets the last laugh.

P.S. Don’t do meth. Do math. One of them actually saves water.