Rainwater-harvesting expert Brad Lancaster says community and conservation are keys to desert living
By MARI HERRERAS email the Weekly
Sustainably Yours-Brad Lancaster
Brad Lancaster is not wild about the word “green.”
“The term ‘green’ doesn’t cut it, especially the way it is being marketed,” Lancaster says as he drives back to Tucson after teaching several weeks of rainwater-harvesting workshops in New Mexico while also promoting the two volumes of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond. “This idea that we can buy our way green is bogus. We need to be asking ourselves: What are we trying to do, and how are we trying to live?”
Lancaster answers these questions in his books; the most recent volume focuses on how to use earthworks to harvest rainwater. A third volume is due out next year. Overall, Lancaster’s books teach desert-dwellers new ways to look at conserving water, while at the same time growing food-producing gardens, using solar energy and taking advantage of gray water from the shower or washing machine.