'Cloud-Milking' Is Keeping Forests Alive In Areas Devastated By Drought

'Cloud-Milking' Is Keeping Forests Alive In Areas Devastated By Drought

'Cloud-Milking' Is Keeping Forests Alive In Areas Devastated By Drought Forests around the world have fallen victim to fire and drought, and the lush laurel trees of the Canary Islands are no exception.  “In recent years, the Canaries have undergone a severe process of desertification and we’ve lost a lot of forest through agriculture,” environmentalist Gustavo Viera told The Guardian.  “And then in 2007 and 2009, as a result of climate change, there were major fires in forested areas that are normally wet.”  As the technical director of Life Nieblas, a publicly funded water collection project, Viera and his team have been at the forefront of “cloud-milking” — a zero-energy technique that uses a netting of metal pins to collect condensation from low-hanging fog.  “We needed to solve the problem of the fragility of the netting while minimizing the environmental impact,” Viera said.  Illustrated by Carra Sykes “We developed a system that imitates pine needles, which are very good for c…