Mr. Rodrigo Botero García’s story and statement for the High-Schoolers of the world!
While at Stanford Law School’s Bright Award Ceremony, Micah asked a critical question to Mr. García during the interview portion:
RECOMMENDED TO WATCH (Starts at 1:30:05):
https://www.youtube.com/live/3-e5zdy_Fac?t=5405s
(Transcribed by Micah Bozic)
1:30:05
Micah: Hi, My name is Micah Bozic, what should the high schoolers all around the world know, if they want to make an effective difference in the Amazon right this second.
Dalton: What can high schoolers do if they want to make an effective difference now.
García: Yeah, it’s a difficult answer because if you don’t have the capacity to maintain safety for the kids in the schools, you can’t ask them to be part of the solution In many areas. In many areas, the main threat for the population is that the the army groups now have control in the schools, so in my opinion, one of the main decisions is how to create better conditions on safety for the scholarship population. In other types of zones where there are better conditions, we have in them the best allies to do this behavioral change because these new kids (picks up his phone as an example) are more closer to technology for communication and for information. This is a clear barrier in the rural areas where the elders don’t want any type of solution which includes for example technologies right, and communications. So we’re looking that these key guys in the zones, could be the perfect leaders from the transition for this refunding culture of this refunding behavior that they are talking about. But it’s impossible if we do not have better conditions of safety for them, but in our experience, we are now focusing our efforts in recruit kids from the schools to be part of this new model of transformation of the forest.
Dalton: Were you asking about students in Columbia or students in the US?
Micah: Everywhere!
Stanford Law Professor Barton Thompson: I mean what about in the U.S.? You have kids that are really disturbed about what’s happening in the Amazon, and they want to help.
Garcia: Well, there’s areas for example where I was talking with you (* refers to Micah about an earlier discussion*) about what can kids do who have the capacity to manage a drone right, to drive a drone. We need a lot of people managing drones, for example to teach other kids in these rural zones to do monitoring. We need to do monitoring for fires, to control invaders, to control deforestation, or to do monitoring of the restoration zones. And, it’s hundreds of kilometers that we need to cover, and it’s absolutely difficult if you are going to be walking, or doing tracking, or in modes, we need for example, in your case, kids who could teach another one to be the monitors of the forest. This is in my opinion, an excellent opportunity!
Dalton: “Drone Guardians”! I can see a school or a project or a rotary scholarship for somebody to be drone guardians of the Amazon. I think we’re at about time.
Stanford Law Professor Barton Thompson: Well I have a question, so my question, so we talked about what high school students can do, what about foundations? What should foundations in the United Sates and elsewhere in the world who have money that they would like to use to make a difference, where should they be focused?
1:34:19
