Before leaving the country, John made the trip to Moray to find no Inca temples or buildings, but various model-sized oval-shaped terraced pits sunk into the earth dotting the landscape with irrigation system underneath. In fact, the entire scenery from the top was reminiscent of something out of a sci-fi movie. John learned that the international scientists had studied the design, height and the orientation of each terrace system with respect to the sun’s location at different angles coupled with wind’s effect at various times of the year. This led to the observation that a temperature gradient of greater than 25°F could be achieved between the top and the bottom of a particular terrace system with variable temperature in between. This gave rise to the speculation that this significant temperature difference, coupled with the amount of sunshine as well as rain-fall, was used by the early Incas to optimize growing conditions of different crops. In other words, these were their miniature outdoor agricultural laboratories. The knowledge gained here were then disseminated throughout other locations. John took a walk down the steps of one such system to appreciate the development of this advanced agricultural knowledge of the past civilization while remembering Sir Isaac Newton’s famous quote “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of the giants.”
Later, he journeyed to Lima, current capital of the country to catch a return flight. In the airport, he picked up an English-language international newspaper. The headline on the front-page announced his country’s pulling out of an international climate-control agreement due to the current dictatorial leader’s arrogance and ignorance. The leader and his henchmen termed the established scientific proofs of the rapid destructive changes in the environment from industrial pollutants as “Fake Science”.
John wondered whether the dictator had even known about Sir Newton, let alone his pronouncement!