Inca culture and climate change – lessons to be learnt

I went to Rainbow Mountain this weekend and was – not for the first time since arriving in Peru – been wowed by the magic of this country and yet another spectacular view.  Peru’s Rainbow Mountain, on Vinicunca Mountain, reminds me of our very Mauritian seven coloured earth, but in wow version. I suppose it’s a similar kind of mineralogy phenomenon which caused the coloured earth at both places.  But there is a huge difference:  the seven coloured earth has been visible for ever in Mauritius whereas this humongous rainbow mountain was hidden under ice, as its part of the Peruvian Andes. 

It is only in 2015 that the glacier caps that once covered the Vinicunca mountain have since melted – a casualty of the changing climate of the planet – and that Peruvians and the rest of the world discovered with shock and wonder a Raibown Moutain that had been hidden for centuries.  
Which brought me to think that we are all part of the same world, and are all facing the consequences of the same climate change which is melting mountains in Peru and stealing aways beaches in Mauritius.

But it seems that Inca descents have a better understanding of climate than most of us.  Including Mauritians who, for the most part, seem not to realise what is happening to our beaches at top speed or seem to adopt strange patch up solutions, which at times worsens the problem.  

But Incas have been known to understand climate change for centuries.  In 1532, when the Incas first met a European, their empire stretched from what is now Ecuador to Chile.  A massive empire even if the Incas didn’t exist until about A.D. 1100!Before that time, the Wari and Tiwanauku occupied the central Andes. But then around A.D. 1150, the climate began to warm by several degrees. Archaeologists suspected that this worsening environment led to the disappearance of the Wari and Tiwanauku. But, instead of disappearing as well, the Incas used the climate change which extended the land that could be planted with melting glaciers that also provided them with more water for irrigation.  With all the extra land to be cultivated, the Incas could have had large surpluses of food which then meant more freedom to build roads, monuments and create an army big enough to conquer neighbours.  So, the scientific community seem to think that climate change allowed the Incas to grow and prosper because they understood it and managed it so well.

And this understanding of nature seems to be in their blood. Today, the same climate change which uncovered Rainbow Mountain is also provoking a water shortage in the Andes, which was always a water-rich region. To solve this problem, some Peruvian villages have begun to recover an ancient technique: the ‘water sowing’.  The guide who was with us at Rainbow Mountain explained that some villages are solving water shortage by using ancient but effective techniques dating from Inca times.  One is called “water sowing” and is about making “qochas”, small artificial kind of lagoons, in the hill tops, to capture water and direct it to mountain aquifiers that then feed the streams during dry season, preventing them to dry completely. And it works.

I have been in Cuzco for 3 weeks and can see how the Incas had great reverence and respect for nature, and for the ecology. This fact was the roots of their religion and worldview. In these days of climate change and serious ecological crisis, the Inca view on nature stands out and proves itself right. The Incas took care of the soil (because it was the source of all foods), water from rivers and lagoons, the entire flora, fauna and mountains which were also sacred.  This can be seen in many things still, including their architecture.  Seeing what is happening to our lagoons and beaches, I think that the world – and Mauritius – would have a lot to learn from the Incas.  I know I am.