When Electricity is Expensive Use the Wind and Sun

The island of Taquile in Lake Titicaca was also surprising. We learned about the very traditional customs related to dress and salutations. You can spot the single people by the men´s hats and women´s shawl. Although these people have changed very little about their culture in hundreds of years, they have too started using solar panels, wind turbines and rain water harvesting. If they can do it, why can´t we?

One of the conclusions reached by Pearce in When the Rivers Run Dry was that simple things like rain water harvesting might be a key solution for places facing water crisis like Los Angeles. L.A could meet half of their water needs with rain water harvesting instead of buying water from hundreds of miles away. One home we saw on the island used sheet metal to create a gutter system, a sawed off coke bottle as a funnel and a garden hose to siphon water into a holding tank. It was so simple but very effective.