Nature Just Got Real!

Ep #2 - Amazon on Fire-part 1

April 15, 2020 K.B. Carr
Nature Just Got Real!
Ep #2 - Amazon on Fire-part 1
Show Notes Transcript

Do you wonder why the rain forest is on fire and what we can do about it? My guest is Chelsea Raiche from Friends of the Rainforest, and she gives us a unique perspective on this troubling issue, as well as some things we can do about it. This is part 1 of 2 episodes.

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https://www.friendsoftherainforest.org/

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spk_0:   0:00
Are you wondering why the rainforests is burning in what we can do about it? Find out on today's show. Amazon on fire Starting right now. Welcome to the weird and wacky planets. Nature just got really podcast. The kids join cable car Author of the weird and wacky planet Siri's with Chuck Darwin Saito and Captain Jack as they bring you the real skinny on what's really going on in the natural world. And now he's your host. Cavey car Hi, M K B car. This interview is with Chelsea Rage, the director of a Marine four Friends of the Rainforest. And this is a part one of two shows. So I just want to make you aware of that. I also want to make you aware that I've been a horrible Cole, So I sound terrible. And Chelsea had no external mic, so the sound isn't great, but I felt like the information waas, uh, important enough. So I went ahead with the interview, and, uh and so bear with us. I'm sorry about the sound, but please enjoy Amazon on fire Part one.

spk_1:   1:21
Hello? Hello. Hello. Or maybe I should say Ola, since we're discussing the rainforest today and today my guest is Chelsea Rage. And she is the executive director of Friends of the Rainforest. And I'm so excited to have you here today. Hello. Thank you. Happened. Really? Thank you. All right. So tell us about for the rainforest and what it is that you do. So, friends of the rainforests, we've been around for almost 20 years, and we're actually started by a teacher who was very passionate about the rainforest. And she visited Costa Rica and just fell in love with the rainforest. So she started doing a lot of work to protect it. And since then, we've really grown. So we do three programs. We have our education program where we go into schools, but we also provide curriculum and lessons that people could use better where they are in the world. We do ICO tours. So we bring a lot of student groups. So mostly schools and they go. They stay in the rainforest in a field station, you design your own research and we have a piece HD naturalist who's there with you to help you collect data and make sense of what you're seeing. And then you get to present that back to your class, and then we also do granting. So we are all donation funded and we receive donations. And then we grant those donations to organizations that are actually working to protect the rainforest. Nice. I would love to go on an ICO tour stays. Maybe we could take a film crew or something. Doing something with that. That would be super fun. Yes, so so you. You. What is that? Children's eternal rain forests. And how did that come about? So the Children's air turned rainforest in Costa Rica is located in the Central Valley, and it's the largest private of rain forest reserve. It is about 56,000 acres, and what makes it kind of special is that it's in the middle of a lot of smaller reserves in Costa Rica. So it has a lot less border that they have to protect because there have a kind of a buffer around them and that that's really unique because it makes it easier for them to patrol hot spots or areas that they know they're People come in to try to poach or log or mine or anything like that. So really say Yeah, let's talk about that. Why would it need to be protected? So right, What are the things that you're protecting it from and how are you protecting it? So a lot of people think if you want to save the rainforest, you buy a piece of land and you say This is for the rainforest. And while that's a start, it doesn't actually protect it. So you have to remember that there's a lot of people that grew up using the land for different things, and they don't necessarily understand the environmental impact of going in and cutting down trees or poaching animals or even mining. A lot of people hand for gold, and they used mercury, which actually hurts the amendment. So because of those things, we have to have the guards and we have to have the education. We have to do a lot on the ground in those countries to kind of help people understand why preserving the rainforest is very important because it's the people in those countries that really have to do the work, right? Right for sure. Okay. And so So you go into two schools to educate students about the rainforest and I think I read on one on one your site that there was that that some schools had cut rainforest education. It's just blew my mind. It was just like what? What? What? What? Why Why would they do that? Yes, so we go into mostly ST Louis area schools that just because that's where we're located. But actually, we have a board member now in the San Diego area, so she's gone into a couple schools out there. We also have a curriculum online that anybody can download, and that's free to use. And it has lessons that you can use in your classroom wheels of educational articles. So if someone is interested in the rainforest, but you don't really know where to start, go to our website. Go to Friends of the Rainforest, that organ and click on educational resource is, and you'll get a whole bunch of articles and really cool facts about the rainforest. Oh, that's great. Also, we'll have. We'll have that link in our show, Notes to s Oh, so teachers or home schoolers can go in and utilize that resource? That's awesome. Yes. Um, on the second part of your question, I forgot already. You're not going to other other school. So that was great. What you asked about cutting, cutting? I I don't understand it because I love the rain forest. Uh, I think it has a lot to do with all of the new standards everybody is trying to meet. And all of the testing there's more and more testing now. So it's not as much about, um Are we learning valuable things and more about are we learning what's on the test? And tropical ecology? Rain forced really only cover about 5% of the world's surface, so it kind of gets, you know, thrown to the side. Um, right. You tend to focus more on our local what are local ecology is very important. But when we're looking at us as global citizens, we really need to think about all of the variety that we see in all the different ecosystems. Agreed? Agreed. All right. And, uh, So you do go into other schools besides just ST Louis. So? So that program could be expanded in the future. You can absolutely at that. Perfect. Perfect. That'd be so awesome. If you ever come to Michigan, let me know. So I wouldn't know would check it out going up to Chicago to if we had, you know, a couple schools that wanted to do it. We'd make the trip, you know, cream them all in and make it happen. So if there's any teachers out there homeschool groups that say we have, you know, four classes we want you to come visit. But for real, you let me know if you're in my area. I'd love t o participate, or just watch. What you're doing is super cool. All right, So what kind of activities do you do in the classroom? So when you go into a classroom and present your program, my submits a program, you have activities that kids can do or what? What is it? Oh, so we have lessons for everybody pre K through high school, and most of those are on our website, and we let the teacher decide what works in your unit and what in your classroom with your students. Because our our job is to get kids excited about the rainforest, right? Your job is to meet the standards and played everywhere. We actually have put on our website the standards the NGS s which most teachers air using now. So our lessons you think Look through and see. Does this meet the standard? I need to be, um we tried to take that work out of it for the teachers, but we have a lot of fun. New lessons. One that's not on there. Actually, we have our our animals and some of these guys you can actually get on our website and take them home. But this lesson is about building their habitats. So you get a little card that has clues about your animal and you have to find him, and then you have to find or her and then you find what does my animal eat and where does my animal, Liz, and, um, where does it? What else we owe you? Don't just your animal endangered clues about what it looks like. So, um, the adaptations of that animal. So we have about 20 of these different animals, and so they get to one. You get to hold a really cute fuzzy sauce kind of hardship to the way you feel about all of these really cool animals. And you get to share that with the group all while you're doing something interactive. Um, and that's just a fun, you know, they're they're fun. But we also have this little guy. This is Botley. He's our robot, and he is a coding robot. So kids get a chance to learn how to do some basic code hidden. And they get Thio. They have a map, basically, and they have to get badly to the resource is into the animals. So they used their their coding and they put in their code for badly. And he makes his way to the resources in the animal. So we have everything from engineering to felt bored, you know? It's just whatever you want to do. We can do it. Oh, awesome.

spk_0:   10:17
I love it. I love it because we're on the same page

spk_1:   10:20
there, about education and, uh, in the resource is on the planet and really giving kids information that they need to make sound decisions in the future. Right?

spk_0:   10:33
I hope you enjoyed part one of Amazon on fire. We went through why the rainforests are burning. And, uh, part two, we're going to address. What can we do about it? So stay tuned for that. And now a word from our sponsor. Have you ever seen a dragon coveting fingernails? How about a mermaid who vacuums the ocean floor every day or a pocket Dracula no bigger than your thumb? You can meet these animals and mawr in the book Weird and Wacky Endangered Creatures one part of the weird and wacky planet Siri's by K B can look for them wherever books are sold and get your flippers on your own coffee. Now here's Chuck Darwin with are weird and wacky. Word of the week. It's time for the weird and wacky word of the week. The world of the week is deforestation, which means the act of cutting down or burning all the trees in an area usually for logging or farming purposes. The opposite word is reforestation, which of course, means planting trees in an area previously populated with trees. Used this way, the words are now owns. To use the words as a verb, we would say that regions have been deforested or reforested. See how many times you can use either of these words in a sentence today and impress someone with your genius until next week. I am Charles Darwin. Cheerio, Thank you, Chuck. Appreciate that. Now we're going to turn to ask the captain where you asked my dog anything you want. Take it away, Jack. I got a question. Ask that, Captain maybes. This week's question comes from J in New Orleans, Louisiana Js What's the most poisonous animal in the world? Well, J, I thought the answer was Mommy. When she cooks, I was wrong, but just barely. The answer is the golden poison dart from also called the Poison Golden Hero Front. It's a one of 100 poison dart frog species, and it lives on the coast of Colombia. And don't Front has enough poison that killed 10 people, even though they are no bigger than a paper clip at around 1 to 2 inches, the indigenous people of Colombia have used their poison tongue for centuries. Poison dart frogs live for about 10 years in the wild, and the only predator they have is a snake that is resistant to the airport. But their habitat is in a tiny plot of rainforest, and they are in danger because of deforestation in their area. They're tiny plot of land gets tinier and tinier. Great news for an animal that is also tiny on unrelated, almost unrelated note. Did you know that a group of Fox is called an Army? I have never seen a bunch of fags hanging out together, though, so I don't think we have too much to worry about unless they learn to make their own poison darts. Hauser's Am I right? I hope that answers your question. J. If any of you wanna ask me something, just the militant Nature just got Rio at gmail dot com. I'm always listening. This is Captain Jack signing off till next week. Bye. Thank you, Jack. Remember, you can email Jack and ask her any question you want, and she will give you an answer. I can't guarantee it's going to be the right answer, but we'll do our best. And now it's time for this week's creature feature with Tito Go Ahead, Tito and now the weird and wacky weekly creature feature. This week's weirdo is the pink Amazon River dolphin, a pink dolphin. Can you believe it? This'll dolphin is a freshwater dolphin that lives in the river systems of the Amazon rain forest. The differences between the Marine dolphins, while those that live in the ocean and these guys is that instead of a docile Finn, they just have a ridge. And their beaks are much longer to accommodate the 140 teams. That's a lot of two fists just saying. Also did I mention they're pink? That difference is hard to miss. Scientists think the bright color comes from Capitol. Arie's being close to the surface of their skin. Kind of like when you humans blush. I used to be five species of river dolphins, but the other four are extinct. These guys air endangered, but they might have been saved from extinction for the native people believe they possessed magical powers and bad luck to kill one. So good on that, my say, huh? They use echolocation, the fine stuff just like other dolphins. And they have a 40% larger brain capacity than human stoop as wickets, Mom. But my favorite thing about pink Amazon River dolphins is that they used those hundreds and 40 teeth Eat Parana! Parana! Huh? Take that yet. Crazy pointy! Two nutjobs. If these guys are tough enough to eat Parana! They rocked the color pink all day long. I wouldn't tease him about it if I were you. You know what I'm saying? I'm Tito and I'll see youse all next week. Thank you. That wraps up today's show. Amazon on fire Part one. The question of the week is Do you think that rain forest education is valuable in schools? And you can answer that question by leaving a comment here on YouTube or on iTunes? You can email it to nature. Just got real at gmail dot com, or you can call us. Leave a message at 6162596742 Thanks so much for listening. You have a great rest of your day. Bye bye. That wraps up the show for today. Thank you to our sponsor weed and Wacky Planet. And thank you for listening. Thank you for caring. And thank you for sharing. Don't forget to write a review and subscribe So you don't miss an episode. Let us know if you do, and we might mention you on the show until next week. Go have an adventure in your neighborhood.