Additional Blog Post: Getting Ready for Earth Day Festival!

These are some things Planet Rehab(place of mentorship) for our annual Earth Day Festival. This year's theme is Alice in Wonderland! We plan on educating our guest about the environment by using the childhood movie Alice in Wonderland. We will also have a lot of food, a petting zoo, and live performances from a band as well. The mushrooms on the bottom are what the volunteers and I have been creating for the past month and we've made various shapes and sizes. To the top right is our flyer for out event and to the top left is one of our many Alices.

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Preparation

My 20 interview questions:

1. How can becoming vegetarian raise awareness?
2. Becoming vegetarian can best help the rainforest how?
3. What do you know about becoming vegetarian, in relation to one's health and the environment?
4. How can becoming vegetarian benefit the public?
5. What, do you think, is the hardest part about convincing people that meat is bad, for their health and the environment?
6. What companies use the most meat products?
7. What's the best way to educate people but also help the to retain the information?
8. What's the easiest way for stores/companies to practice responsible sources?
9. Can responsible sourcing be an easy way for the public to practice?
10. How do you think responsible sourcing can help benefit the rainforest?
11. What do you think is the best way convince people that eat foods that are traditional to their culture, that have meat in them?
12. Responsible Sourcing can best help the rainforest how?
13. Which companies do not practice responsible sourcing?
14. What products/resources are being taken from the rainforest unsustainably?
15. How can these products/resources be taken from the rainforest in a sustainable way?
16. Can people, as individuals, practice responsible sourcing?
17. Will getting huge companies to practice responsible sourcing, be hard? What's the best/easiest way?
18. Is becoming vegan more efficient rather than becoming vegetarian?
19. Does one have to become vegetarian to help the rainforest? What if the amount of meat consumed is cut in half?
20. How does responsible sourcing help the rainforest the most efficiently?

Additional Blog: Upcoming Event (Earth Day Festival)

For the past four years, Planet Rehab has hosted an Earth Day Festival event. This year we plan on doing another but in a more entertaining way. He made a them for this years Earth Day and the theme is Alice in Wonderland. Earth Day is a day in which we acknowledge what has been going on in our planet. It raises awareness about the negative things we've done and are still doing. We plan on education everyone on what's going on and HOW to stop it.

As of now we are getting ready and making props for this event. We have started to make paper mache mushrooms which will be six feet tall and many other sizes as well. We are making huge flowers out of paper which we will place around the back yard for the guest to see. We also have set up tables in many different way to see which would look the best. We will also have a new member to Planet Rehab, Helen. He is known to be one of the largest tortoises in the United States, weighing over 250lbs. We have high hopes for this event and are extremely excited to show others what we are all about.

 

These are pictures of what we've been making on our craft nights. So far things are looking pretty cool.

Blog 16: Answer 2

1. What is the best way to maintain equilibrium between man and nature in relation to the rainforest?

2. The best way to maintain equilibrium between man and nature in relation to the rainforest is by becoming vegetarian.

3. The best way to maintain equilibrium between man and nature in relation to the rainforest is responsible sourcing.

4.  My three reasons

1. We, as individuals, can practice this by avoiding products that have been taken from the rainforest unsustainably.
2. Indigenous people can work with the rainforest in order to make a profit, instead of destroying it.
3.  Huge corporations and companies have practiced responsible sourcing because their customers were able to pressure them into doing so.

5. I found an article by "Rainforest Alliance" that shows corporations how to become part of the solution by practicing responsible sourcing. While looking for article/information on responsible sourcing I found information about companies like Walmart, Target, and Trader Joe's becoming part of the solution for the rainforest as well.

6. My mentor Gary C. Mitchell has brought this answer to my attention on several occasions when explaining that becoming vegetarian was also a way to help the rainforest.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my Independent Component 2, I will become a vegetarian. I will be logging what I eat for dinner everyday. I will update my hours log every night about the things I eat and what substitutions I will have to use in order to avoid using meat.

2. Since I will be a vegetarian until the end of Independent component, I'll be doing more than my 30 hours. So I'll be showing my hours through the dinners I eat with a vegetarian touch to them. I'll record what I eat everyday onto my hours log.

3. By becoming vegetarian it will allow me to have experience and be able to have a self example for my first answer. I can explain how easy/hard it was, what it was like, and if I will continue my vegetarian diet.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

• Literal

(a) I, Nick Herrera, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 35 hours of work.

(b) My mentor Gary C. Mitchel and with the help of his partner, Carlo Rios, both helped me understand what is at stake as of what is going on now in the environment. Moreover; the rainforest.

(c) Mentorship Hours

(d) Gary and I were able to pin point what were key things that are important about the rainforest, how it affects us, and how it's going to ruin us when its gone. We also spoke about how educating people can also make a huge difference. The things Gary and I know, should be common knowledge. Together we determined what my second and possibly third answer to my EQ should be.

• Interpretive

On Tuesday nights Gary and several of other senior volunteers come together to discuss upcoming events for Planet Rehab. We also discuss things going on in the environment. It varies from the ocean to the deserts. We also make crafts for the events we have so we can make some extra money to throw in our fund for the "Rainforest Initiative." We sell these items at fair prices. Before craft night, I usually come an hour earlier to have some one on one with Gary in order to get more incite on how the rainforest is doing. We speak about the major issues for the rainforest, solutions for these issues, and how to prevent them. Within our findings I have been able to set my foot on a couple of answers for my EQ. I have some photos of my mentorship at with Gary/Planet Rehab.

 

 

• Applied

This component helped me find my second, possible, answer to my EQ. The second answer I am considering is Education. If EVERYONE knew what was happening to our rainforest. They would be definitely be an automatic response to it. Unfortunately not everyone knows what's happening to the rainforest. According to the book "Deep Jungle" the Earth's land was fourteen percent rainforest. Today its at a staggering six percent. That's more than half of what we use to have. I feel that if every nation and it people knew this, it would definitely save us. As of now there is very little hope for humans to survive another two hundred and some years. As long as everyone is uneducated, nothing will change.  

 

Additional Blog: What I get to see while at mentorship

Monarch Caterpillars

Kiki the Sun Conure

Mandarin Ducks

Russel Crow

Parakeets