Glen Rock October 5, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 13 The Glen Rock Public Library will show three environmental films in cooperation with the Glen Rock Environmental Commission to suggest ways that ordinary citizens can help preserve the environment. “Tapped,” which will be shown on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., will examine issues of the privatization of the water industry. The film asserts that water is one resource that Library to feature Environmental Film Festival should never be a commodity. Glen Rock, in cooperation with Midland Park and Wyckoff, is now engaged in legal action protesting the recent rate increases by the Ridgewood Water Company, which provides water to Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Midland Park, and Wyckoff. “Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?” will be shown on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. This film has won awards around the nation and prompted concern about plastic bags and their effect on waterways, the oceans, and the human body. Environmentalists have suggested for decades that consumers avoid the unnecessary use of bags and other containers, or that they should use long-life cloth bags to carry purchases home from the store. “Food Inc.” will be presented on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. This film reports on how the nation’s food supply is reportedly controlled by a handful of very large corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health. Glen Rock Environmental Commission members will mentor discussions after each screening at the library, which is located at 315 Rock Road. Lost City of Machu Picchu (continued from page 10) of the Incas” and Bingham world-famous. Grube described to his audience the logistics of a modern tour of Machu Picchu, today the favorite venue of visitors to South America, including airplane flights, trains, buses, and hotels. A show of hands indicated that five or six people in the audience of about 60 Northwest Bergen residents had already been there, and five or six others had serious plans to visit Machu Picchu in the not-too-distant future. The Sacred Valley, he explained, began at Cuzco, the old Inca capital of an Andean empire that covered parts of five modern countries and centered in Peru. The Inca – actually, the name refers to the ruler of the Quechua-speaking Indian people who had developed several previous civilizations -- were great road-builders, and tied their empire together with roads and sets of steps that made travel possible, even at 12,000 feet in elevation. Grube warned that anyone who intended to tour the Andes should allow enough time for acclimatization, since the thin oxygen content at high altitude is a challenge, and can be dangerous to older people or those with breathing problems. One of the wonders he marveled over was Moray, a concave, concentric amphitheatre with many tiers of planting surfaces. Grube said the Indians had used this structure to develop new strains of crops because each tier represented different temperature extremes. He also showed slides of modern Quechua-speaking people – the Peruvian Indian children today learn in Quechua in primary school and don’t start studying in Spanish until the third grade. The descendants of the Andean peoples still enjoy wearing traditional clothing of mixed Indian and Spanish origins, and still weave cloth from the wool of the llama, the vicuna, and the alpaca, on long strips of string rather than standing looms. Grube’s tour of a “lost” civilization revealed what Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee, and Jared Diamond have listed as one of the world’s pre-modern high points in human development and adaptation. He used an extensive set of slides to demonstrate how the Incan people depicted three levels of existence in their architecture and art: the underworld emblem was a serpent, the earth was a jaguar, and the heavens were a condor, all frequent motifs in Incan art. At the end, he showed a slide of a condor in flight over Machu Picchu – a rare event, he was told. Glen Rock Historical Society President Gunnar Berg and Glen Rock Historian Sue Tryforos said that anyone who was interested was welcome to attend the meetings of the Glen Rock Historical Society at the Main Line Railroad Station – the one nearer to the Rock – on the second Tuesday of the month. “I’m very happy to see so many historical people here,” Berg said.