Already One Of The Spanish Speaking World’s Leading Voices On Environmental Conservation Through Their Long-Running Selva Negra Foundation, Last Week Saw The World’s Leading Latin Rock Band Take Part In A Special Multimedia Broadcast Entitled “24 Hours of Reality: The Cost Of Carbon”
(Translated Transcript Of Maná Leader Fher Olvera’s Interview On Carbon Pollution)
1. How is Mana erasing the carbon footprint from its tour, “Drama and Luz”? What are you and Mana doing to compensate?
It’s a little difficult to calculate how much CO2 we released, in our tour. But an environmental scientist from the ITESO University in Mexico calculated: with the planes, the equipment, the concerts, even with the transportation of the fans… he estimated around 9,000 TONS of CO2. Which is a lot.
So the plan is to plant half a million trees in the Bosque Primavera in the state of Jalisco Mexico. We are going to plant 50 thousand trees a year. we are going to do all this in ten years.
2. What are your top environmental priorities?
For Mana it is very important to support Selva Negra that is our environmental foundation. It was founded 18 years ago. First we were working very hard on the protection of sea turtles and in all these years we released more than 2 million sea turtles to the ocean.
Then, we worked on reforestation in many countries, but the most important thing that we want to do is inspire people to take action. We want that the people think globally and act locally in their own communities.
Now we have the great opportunity to create one voice, I’m talking about social media, which is a great tool to do that.
3. How can people join in what you are doing?
Everybody can help, what we really have to understand is that climate change is caused by the CO2 emissions. So, for example we can share our cars, use public transportation, use our bikes or simple, walking more often, etc. Also we can start planting trees in our local communities.
There are hundreds of different ways to help our environment. What I always suggest is to join an environmental organization in your city so you can realize what your community needs.
Something that is very important, we have to stop to be a high consumer society. We have to go to back to the basics, because there we can find happiness.
Together we can fight against the destruction of jungles, rivers, and oceans. We must fight against corrupt governments that don’t care about the planet. We must start now, not tomorrow. A green revolution, it’s the only option.
4. What is the situation with environmental education in Mexico?
Environmental education is the most important aspiration that we can have as citizens of the planet. Environmental education should be started when the kids are young and it is very important that schools have Ecology as an official subject. Ecology for me is more important than Geography, because without Ecology and if we don’t learn to take care of our planet, we won’t have Geography. We really believe that new generations can make the difference. We were working with former President of Mexico Felipe Calderon trying to do this, but in Mexico the public educational system is complicated and very corrupt. At the end of the day, I know that sooner or later we have to do this, like I said we have no option.
