Why solar-powered canoes could be good for the future of the rainforest

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/12/02/ [login to see] /why-solar-powered-canoes-could-be-good-for-the-future-of-the-rainforest
Shortly after sunrise, the students of Barrio San Luis begin their school run. Around a dozen girls and boys, wearing backpacks and carrying notepads in hand, hop down the muddy river bank and into the boat that provides their daily transport.

Their highway is the Rio Wichimi, a chocolatey brown river lined with towering, parrot-filled trees. It winds through pristine jungle deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon. And the fuel that powers their vessel – a large canoe with a roof of glossy black panels – is the fierce tropical sun.

"We don't have roads here," says Nela Atamait, a teacher accompanying the kids on their way downstream to a high school in the village of Wichimi. "So we travel by river, like our ancestors did. It's more natural and it doesn't destroy our forest."