The vast Amazon rainforest is one of the most environmentally sensitive regions on Earth. There, innovators have designed a sustainable way to ferry people along its massive river instead of using noisy, polluting diesel-fueled boats. They've made solar-powered canoes. These boats are “a symbol of what conservation could look like,” Angel Wasump told CNN. Wasump is a director of operations for Kara Solar. It's the company that is making these solar boats. Wasump belongs to the community they serve, too. Wasump is a member of the Achuar. They're an Indigenous people. And they live in the Amazon. There are very few roads in the Amazon. This means transportation mainly takes place by water or on foot. At present, there are a half-dozen solar boats running on the river. Kara Solar hopes to expand that number to 250. Its aim is to do so within five years. The solar boats can carry up to 20 people. The handful in use are already changing life for many people. The boats take children to school. They ferry patients to doctor visits. They also carry loved ones to reunions and funerals. Most importantly, they are helping riverboat operators ditch sputtering vessels powered by fossil fuels. Such boats have been long blamed for their fuel spills that kill fish. The new solar-powered “fire canoes” or Tapiatpia (electric fish), as they're commonly called, aren’t perfect. They come with high up-front costs, between $25,000 and $40,000 to purchase, and they’re not as fast as the diesel boats. But they are quiet, harkening back to a time when boats on the river ran only on human power and the currents. Plus, there are no fuel costs. This results in long-term savings. "We want to show that another way is possible," Kara Solar founder Oliver Utne told NPR. Thought Question: If you could invent something to help people and nature at the same time, what would it be and how would it work?
