"Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet" by Lisa Lucero

Much is made of the temples and striking artwork of the ancient Maya. Justifiably. Ever since U.S. travel writer John Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood explored the ruins of Copan in Honduras, publishing Incidents of Travel in Central America in 1841, the world has been aware of the “lost world” of the Maya.

Stephens’ dramatic accounts and keen insight at what he found along with Catherwood’s meticulous engravings at numerous Maya sites proved to be a revelation. The public learned about structures like the Temple of the Sun and the Monument at Quirigia, of pyramids and plazas, of carvings and hieroglyphics, of the grandeur of a culture that didn't just exist in a harsh environment for more than 4,000 years but flourished.

Much has been learned since Stephens and Catherwood wielded machetes to cut their way through the area of the world now known as Mesoamerica. We now know the Maya were not only builders, farmers, artists, and warriors--but masters when it came to a sustainable lifestyle. 

Lisa Lucero, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, has investigated Mayan life in Belize for over 35 years. Her book, Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet, suggests Mayan accomplishments weren’t limited to architecture and art.

“Maya reservoirs at the hundreds of cities supplied millions of people for over 1,000 years,” she said, referring to a period that encompasses the Classic Maya period (250 to 900 A.D.) How did they keep water clean enough for drinking? Lucero talks about the aquatic plants the Maya cultivated to maintain water quality in the same manner as constructed wetlands cleanse soils. “I love talking about water lilies,” she said, referring to sensitive plants that can only grow in clean water. 

Maya kings (one ancient pot pictured in the book shows a king with a water lily headdress) had to be water managers before anything else. In times of drought, maintaining an adequate water supply for a growing population became increasingly difficult, said Lucero. Sustained droughts finally proved calamitous, forcing families to pack up and move, she said.

While many Mayan cities were already abandoned a thousand years before Stephens and Catherwood arrived, Lucero doesn’t view the exodus as a huge mystery. “People focus on the collapse of the Mayan kings (by 900 A.D.). They did disappear. But the people just moved on. They voted with their feet,” she said.

The very fact that the Maya were able to maintain cities in a jungle environment for so long without the technology we now hold in such high esteem is testimony to their understanding of environment and an ability to use the plants, animals, and earth to create what we call a sustainable existence today.

The fact is the Maya didn’t disappear, she said. “More than 7 million Maya live today—some in Illinois,” said Lucero. “The Maya have adapted to many changes over the millennia—demands from Maya kings, Spanish and English colonial rule, and massive droughts. They continue to adapt today in Central America and elsewhere, and many of their ancestral practices are alive and well,” she said.

The problem of climate change requires learning from the Maya, said Lucero. “We are all connected. We are part of one huge family and we need to take care of one another,” she said.