You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on
demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI and KOST HD two, Los Angeles, Orange
County. It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy kig It
it not a it's are you hearing me? I'm not hearing me? Okay,
Well it's it's five oh one. This is your wake up call for
a Thursday, June twentieth. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. But
I can't hear myself in my headphones. Very weird. So today's the first
day of summer cool right, you know why? Somebody had switched a button.
I was listening to a pre delay of me, so I just heard
me going it it it Okay, we're back. So today, first day
of summer Solstice happens at one fifty this afternoon. It's the longest day of
the year, fourteen hours and twenty one minutes of daylight. It's all downhill
from there. It's going to be a great day. I can feel it.
Here's what's ahead on wake up Call. LA City Councilman Kevin de Leon
plans to introduce emotion to rename Pershing Square after former slave Bridget Biddy Mason,
who became a prominent LA citizen and landowner. Back in the eighteen fifties.
She was a co founder of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church. The downtown
square was dedicated in honor of World Old War One General John J. Pershing
in nineteen eighteen. The threat of a strike is looming for six thousand Food
for Less workers in southern California. No deal has been reached following two days
of negotiations this week, but the union and parent company Kroger say they're still
talking and we'll be back to the bargaining table on Monday. People in Risita
and other parts of the San Fernando Valley have complained to the Department of Water
and Power that their tap water smells and tastes moldy or dirty. Yeah.
The LEDWP says it has tested the water and it is safe to use and
drink. Officials say the smell is caused by a natural seasonal presence of algae.
Let's get started with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty
four hour newsroom. A new one hundred and sixty five million dollars tower on
skid Row has opened to house the homeless. The Wineguard Tower is on skid
Row with two hundred and seventy eight subsidized units and loads of community amenities.
Lamare Bas said at yesterday's ribbon cutting, the taxpayer funded project should be looked
at as an example of how to serve previously home people. Just because you
were on housed, that does not mean that you should live in substandard housing,
as though it is a punishment. Bass was joined at the opening by
local and federal officials. A second tower is being constructed across the street in
downtown La. Michael Monks KFI News. A standoff with a man who barricaded
himself inside an apartment in Long Beach has ended Pilise. One person was held
hostage overnight. They were let go this morning. The guy police where after
was arrested a short time later. The first named storm of the season is
headed toward northeast Mexico, but it's already causing damage along the Gulf Coast.
ABC's Jim Ryan says Texas has seen torrential rain and flooding. The forty five
mile at hour winds of Tropical Storm Alberto are whipping up high waves in the
Gulf of Mexico, but it's the flooding potential that has homeowners worried from South
Padre Island to Galveston, four hundred miles away. Officials in Mexico have already
reported three deaths caused by the storm. They say two kids in the state
of Nuevo Leone were riding bicycle in the rain and got electrocuted. The other
death was in the city of Monterey. South Korea says it'll reconsider its policy
of limiting its support to Ukraine because of an agreement reached between North Korea and
Russia. South Korea's presidential office condemned the agreement that vowed mutual defense assistance in
the event of war. South Koreas's the agreement threatens its security and warned that
it will negatively affect Soul's relations with Moscow. The Inland Empires getting a Trader
Joe's marking the chain's one hundred and ninety first store in California. An official
ribbon cunning ceremony will be held on June twenty eighth at the New Muria at
a location before doors open at nine am. The store is going to participate
in the company's Neighborhood Shares program that donates one hundred percent of unsold products still
fit for consumption to local community organizations. I didn't know Trader Joe's did that.
I love that. Let's say good morning to ABC's Stephen Portnoy. Stephen,
the Supreme Court has been busy, but they still got a lot of
work to do. Well. There's a lot we're waiting to hear from the
Court. The way it typically works, as we've discussed, the Supreme Court
begins its term in October and winds down by early summer. And here we
are toward the end of June, and we expect that by the end of
this month, if not perhaps treading a bit into July, the Supreme Court
will release the entirety of its case load and will understand how the justices have
ruled. There are twenty one cases from this term still outstanding, and these
are big, important cases. We don't know when any particular decision is going
to drop. So what we have is a list of twenty one topics.
They include whether cities have the power to find people who sleep in homeless encampments
or whether that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, whether
a state can prohibit gun ownership by someone who is the target of a domestic
violence restraining order, or whether that violates the individual's Second Amendment rights, Whether
the First Amendment was violated by the Biden White Houses pressure that applies to social
media companies to take down certain posts, And of course, the most widely
watched case of the term, whether Donald Trump enjoys absolute immunity for his official
acts as president. There are other cases involving abortion rights, the power of
the administrative state, and Purdue Farm of bankruptcy. A lot of really substance
of and important stuff that could come out from the Supreme Court, and we
don't know when it's going to happen. The only days that are scheduled are
today and tomorrow and perhaps the lat additional days through next week. Okay,
So do they have to make decisions on all twenty one or could they hold
any of them over? They would not hold them over. What they could
do is seek off ramps, like for example, last week when the issue
was announced on the abortion pilm if for pristone, the justices didn't decide whether
the FDA acted appropriately or not they left the merits to some other future case
potentially. Instead, they unanimously agreed that the doctors who brought the case didn't
have standing to sue, and that was one thing all nine justices could get
behind. So they didn't really resolve the underlying issue that can happen in any
case. Oh okay. And then that you mentioned that the term could end
at the end of June or even July, so there's not an official end
date like there's an official start date. There is a tradition, oh okay,
that the Supreme Court generally releases all of its opinions by the end of
June, but there has been there have been occasions where with a heavy case
load, additional days are added to the calendar in early July. Okay.
And as you mentioned, we could get decisions today. We just don't know,
and we have no idea what order or anything. We just know there's
some big ones coming or kind of hanging in in the balance. And we
say that because we know along of the list of twenty one there are really
significant cases. There are on this list of twenty one some cases that are
not as interesting to the American public. Every case that makes its way to
the Supreme Court is interesting to say and has lasting impact in the law in
some way or another. But the cases that are going to be big news
are on this list, Okay, all right, And then they reconvene the
first Monday in October. And I only remember that because there was a movie
about it. You got it, Okay, Stephen Portener, thank you so
much. We'll be watching for those decisions, you bet. All right.
Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four
hour newsroom. The LAPDS trying to find a parole league considered armed and dangerous
who was allegedly seen loading a rifle in the South La area. Police were
called Tuesday night to the area of sixty ninth Street and Avalon Boulevard. Officers
found Ezekiel Garcia, but then he took off. Police lost him after he
ran into a junkyard. Garcia's forty two, about five to seven, one
hundred and fifty seven pounds, with short black hair. He is on active
parole for murder. The price of your avocado toast might be going up.
The FEDSI two employees with the US Department of Agriculture who were inspecting shipments of
avocados had been a so and held captive by guys in the Mexican state of
Michua Khan. The inspectors have since been released. US inspectors are stationed in
parts of Mexico to expedite shipments of produce and to prevent the import of diseases
that could ruin crops in the US, but because of the attack, on
Monday, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said shipments of avocados and mangoes had
been stopped until further notice. Steve Gregory Quaya Fineos, a sixteen year old
girl from Lake Forest, and a teen from Chicago, have been killed in
a jet ski crash in Illinois. Officials say a jet ski collided with a
boat on Lake Maria Tuesday night. The sixteen year old and the other girl
were on the jet ski when it crashed. The teens were pronounced dead at
a nearby hospital. Top advisors to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to
meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the White House. ABC News says
the meeting is supposed to happen today and that Israel's Defense minister will also meet
with Defense Secretary at Defense Secretary Lloyd Osz in the coming days. The US
canceled another high level meeting with Israeli delegates on Iran. The administration says the
meeting was never fully finalized on the schedule anyway. Others say it was canceled
over Netanyahu's recent video claiming the US was withholding weapons needed for the Warren Gaza.
Louisiana has become the first state to require the Ten Commandments be posted in
public school classrooms. Opponents questioned the law's constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely
to follow, but supporters say the purpose of the measure is not only religious,
but that it has historical significance. ABC's Derek Dennis's a poster of the
Ten Commandments in a large, easily readable font will be in all classrooms from
kindergarten all the way through state funded universities by twenty twenty five. The bill
signed yesterday includes a context statement describing how the Commandments were a prominent part of
the American public education system for almost three centuries. The most seismically active volcano
in the Cascade Range has been rumbling three hundred and fifty small quakes that have
rattled under Mount Saint Helens since February. Seismologists say magma maybe moving beneath the
volcano. The last eruption was in two thousand and eight. The big eruption
was May eighteenth, in nineteen eighty or was it nineteen eighty one? I
got the day right wrong on that Mount Saint Helens is considered the most likely
volcano to erupt in the future in the US. I was. I was
in Oregon when that one blew. It was pretty freaky. I did my
little fact check. Mount Saint Helens did erupt on May eighteenth, nineteen eighty,
so I actually had it right. Who knew. Here's what we're following
in the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. A Juneteenth celebration in Oakland has turned
violent bullysey A fight broke out during the celebration at Lake Merritt last night.
At least four people ended up being shot, several others were injured. At
least one person was arrested for an assaulting and officer. There were about five
thousand people at the event. The first name storm of the Atlantic hurricane season
is churning off the coast of Texas. Drenching the coast with heavy rain.
Tropical Storm Alberto could bring fifty mile per hour winds and up to three feet
of storm surge from Mexico all the way up to Louisiana. A study of
nearly a million people suggests those who feel happy have more career success, make
more money, and are just more successful in life. Social scientists and happiness
experts. I think it's great that there are happiness experts also say that unless
you're using your money to buy experiences, donate, or get extra time,
it really doesn't buy you happiness. Okay, classrooms in Louisiana are going to
be required by law to display the Ten Commandments. We're talking about that.
More on handle on the news right now. Though, Let's say good morning
to ABC's crime and terrorism analyst Brad Garrett. Good morning, Brad. Haven't
talked to you for a while, that's true. Good morning, Namy,
Good morning. So the LA School Board has voted to ban cell phones and
social media at school. Are the cell phones really that bad for the kids
to have? Yes, okay, good talking to you, Red. Yeah,
that's it. We'll see you later. So the holy issue with cell
phones, obviously, is that they have all these positive aspects. You and
I use them, the world uses them every day. The problem is that
kids become and they're particularly vulnerable to becoming addicted to cell phones. If you
have them in school, you know they're going to constantly want to pull those
phones out, use them in class, use them in the hallway, and
so it creates a huge distraction. So it's it's a learning inhibitor, for
lack of better terms. But the bigger picture, amy is that the excessive
use of cell phones and social media by kids and adolescents are having, by
a number of studies I've read, you know, really negative impact on their
brains. And in fact, two social psychologists say it actually is rewiring their
brains to spend so much time and it results in them feeling or having less
empathy, being drawn to you know, some very for some kids, some
very dramatic or violent imagery that they just keep watching and watching and watching,
and it creates a certain amount of meanness where people can say and do whatever
they want. I mean, the number of kids that, like when I
was growing up, obviously they weren't cell phones or tablets or computers, and
so it was all in person and what many of these experts are saying,
is that's what kids are missing, and it creates basically fragility in kids.
Where we would go to a playground, go to wherever, we'd have to
deal with people in person. Well, you know, what you say and
how you act are going to be different in person than they are via social
media. And so it's a combination of all those things. And then if
you add to this, when smartphones basically sort of came into the picture or
in the twenty tens, you see this dramatic drop or increase i should say,
in depression, anxiety and other stuff in kids, and they believe and
I think this is probably right. It's directly link to excess it cell phone
use. You know when you talk about being addicted to cell phones and you
think about it, that, oh, that can't happen because it's not a
physical substance like with nicotine, with smoking it's addictive, or with alcohol drinking
it's addictive. But as you mentioned, it rewires your brain. And I
think about some days that I sit and I play my little solitaire game and
I'll just sit there and play it and play it and play it and play
it. Like why I'm watching TV or whatever, and I'll go, you
know, I should put this down and go do something else, and you're
just like mindlessly playing it, and it's like you feel like you can't stop.
It's they're called dopamine hits. You know, you get DoPT dopamine through
all sorts of the pleasure things you do in life. But if you get
constantly get hits of it, then you you don't want to leave it.
And and and social media knows that. And that's why you know, through
algorithms, if you pull up whatever you pull up, they're going to send
you more and more information. If you get into you know, dark phonography,
they're going to send you links to more of that. And and so
that's the big concern. And because kids and adolescent's brains are not developed,
they're just so vulnerable. So all of this stuff. So now you're throwing
in mega dopamine hits. You're you're making them to be more cynical and more
judgmental, which obviously is a huge problem across this country right now. And
you're teeing them up for I think having some mental disabilities or lack of better
terms as adults in their ability to handle themselves and handle other people. Yeah,
and then then going back to the anonymity thing or that you're not dealing
with people in persons so you can make a snarky comment. I mean you
see it on social media all the time because people don't have to take responsibility.
And it made me think, yeah, when you confront somebody on the
playground, you've got one or two bullies in the school, but now everybody
can be bullies. Well that's that's exactly right. And if you take kids
that get into really dark violence that I'm going to the stuff I talk about
all the time, like mass shooters, you know, the social media you
know, just sort of helps facilitate. You know, you already have to
be driven that direction, but it sort of adds gas to the fire.
And then they take social media together their phones with them to shootings. They
have an audience. So basically they have replaced and maybe on a less extreme,
the kids have replaced the interaction on the playground, the interaction and whatever
to interacting in the anonymity of your bedroom on a phone. Okay, and
then Brad, what good what's the danger to Will it be amplified as we
start using AI more? Oh? I don't even want to think about that.
Yes, of course it's going to encourage kids maybe to cheat because it's
going to be easy to do, and the school systems the universities are going
to have to get up to speed the best they can to figure out.
You know, is this these words come out of this kid's mouth or was
it pulled together by AI? But it's you can also see how AI can
alter your reality based on what it creates. So again I'm going to be
dark about this subject. I mean, AILE is doing and will continue to
do, some unbelievably wonderful and maybe even life saving things, but like so
many things else else, I mean, in this whole world of technology,
it can have a really dark side. Yeah, And I just wanted to
mention in your show notes that you mentioned that in the future an entire generation
of adults that grew up not having to solve problems on their own because they
have AI that could really impact things. It already impacts it. I know
that. Like with people that I've hired to work for me at other places,
I'm like, here, you need to learn how to problem solve.
Don't just do the task, learn how to solve the problem, anticipate the
problems, and they like, they have no concept of that. Absolutely not.
You're totally right, and so how is that kid going to overcome that
as an adult. That's why I use the word disability. I mean that's
a disability in my view. I mean the ability to figure out people,
to read them and can confront them in a you know, in a rational,
non violent way, is a skill set that everyone needs. Some are
obviously better than others. But my goodness, and I see it every day
around here. I see it around my son's kids or friends that it's like,
you know, they just don't really get it, and you know,
really boils down to a certain extent to parents basically being the sheriff taking away
phones, taking away tablets, whatever it might be. I don't mean permanently,
but limit the amount of time because it's all going to be an uphill
battle because everybody around them has technology. Okay, Well, then so the
LA school district deciding to ban them at least during school hours. That forces
them out of the phone and back into the real world. Hopefully we'll see
some positive results. Bred Garrett, thank you so much as always for your
information and your insight. We appreciate it. You're welcome here. Amy talk
too soon. So called poison pills have been added to ten crime bills in
California. Both the state Senate and Assembly will now vote to finalize the bills
on the floor. During an Assembly committee hearing yesterday, Republican assembly Woman Kate
Sanchez said the poison pill amendments will deny Californians a fair vote on an initiative
to repeal Prop forty seven. It's anti democratic, it's unfair and tippy flank,
it's borderline corrupt. State Senator Scott Wiener, who accepted the amendments to
his bill, said he doesn't see how the poison pills would affect the ballot
measure. The poison pill amendments would make it so that if a ballot initiative
to repeal Prop forty seven passes, the crime bills would be nullified. Blake
Charlie kay if I News Robert F. Kennedy Junior's campaign has raised about three
million dollars for the month of May. That's a sharp drop from April,
when it took in nearly eleven million. The number nowhere close to the Biden
or Trump campaigns. Biden reportedly took in an additional eight million dollars from one
fund verser earlier this week. Kennedy's been trying to get on enough ballots to
qualify for the first presidential debate. He hasn't met that threshold, so for
now, it'll be President Biden and former President Trump debating one week from today
on CNN. Don't know about you, but that is going to be must
see TV for me. The Dodgers take on the Rockies in Colorado today.
The first pitch is going out at twelve ten. Oh I love a daytime
game. You can listen to every play of every Dodgers game on AM five
seventy LA Sports and stream all the games in HD on the iHeartRadio app Keyword
AM five seventy LA Sports powered by LA Care for all of LA. More
than six hundred Smart and Final warehouse workers in southern California are going to walk
the picket lines today their warehouses are closing. The workers have been told they
can reapply for jobs at a warehouse in Rancho Cucamonga, but they say they'll
be making ten to twelve dollars an hour less, which they call an unfair
labor practice. Residents in Venice say a homeless RV camp is growing and police
aren't enforcing a law that prohibits overnight camping, say Abbott. Kenney Boulevard is
littered with broken down r vs, trash, personal belongings, litter and human
waste. Justin Timberlake's attorney says he's looking forward to defending the pop star against
his drunk driving charges, but least say Timberlake was pulled over Tuesday night on
Long Island for running a stop sign after leaving a hotel in the Hamptons.
He refused a breathalyzer and failed field sobriety tests at five point fifty World Rainforest
Day is coming up on Saturday. We're going to find out how our rainforests
are doing and what we can do to help save them. Close to the
home, it's not a forest, but it's a big old piece of land
that's going to be getting a facelift. It's two thousand acres in the Sepulvit
a basin. So let's say good morning now to the founder and director of
the River Project, Melanie Winter. Good morning, Melanie, good morning.
So we've got a vision for the Sepulvita basin called La Vision. And I
know this story came out on Monday because Low County state and city leaders unveiled
the plan for the restoration, and I wanted to get some more information about
it, like what all is going to happen and where is this piece of
land? Yes, this is well. If you've ever driven north over the
Supulvida Path into the San Fernando Valley up the four h five, you can't
help but notice this big, huge chunk of open space just to your left
at the bottom of the hill and right there at the base of it to
one oh one four five interchange is a huge dam that you often see in
car commercials. So behind all of that is two thousand acres of open space.
It's a flood management facility that the US Army Corps owns, and the
dam itself was built in gosh, sorry, nineteen forty or so, it's
too early for me, but still on that, but it's and it's got
eight miles of living waterways, just three miles of the Los Angeles River,
half of which has no concrete on the sides or the bottom. It does
concrete, no, not in the subpulsitive basin. It's our wonderful, amazing
treasure. And then the tributaries. Tributaries are channelized in various ways, but
they don't have concrete on the bottom. So the potential here is to do
what we call floodplain restoration and allow the rivers, the river and the tributaries
here to be living, uh, you know, rivers which have all these
benefits for us. That opens up water supply and more flood risk reduction and
habitat and biodiversity and kayaking and canoeing and fishing and you know it's just and
shade and community and so yeah, and if you go there, the crazy
thing is there's this land for lots of land the city leases for recreational purposes.
So they over the years they sort of did this ad hoc design,
you know, peace reread piece. Oh let's do some baseball field here,
Oh, soccer field here. Oh this there, But it's not it doesn't.
It kind of ignores this amazing resource of all these waterways, and it's
all very hodgepodge. So we have this opportunity to redo the basin in a
way that makes it more accessible for everybody, that makes it more twenty first
century for everybody, and it's the kind of things that it offers and also
provides all this climate adaptation for us local water supply, public safety, habitat
or diversity, you know, community going. So it's a rethink on this
incredible resource that so many people don't know anything about. Well that's what I
was going to say, I don't know anything will yeah exactly. And it's
like, like you said, two thousand acres, it's two and a half
times the size of the Central Park. Okay, so what we have in
the valley, which is crazy. So we have all this land to work
with, and so the vision then is to reconfigure and fix some of the
issues that are with it. Like there's a couple of things that we learned
about and that was like there's a there is a kayak launch spot, but
there's an issue with it. Yeah. So the river itself right now has
these what they're called drop structures that make it difficult to kind of do what
you would naturally do, which is start upstream and go all the way downstream
and then back up. So to avoid those little couple of drop three drop
structures, they start by the dam and it's not that easy to set up.
So we did the technical feasibility study for this work a few years back,
and you know, looked at where it was the best place to do
a kayak launch and how could you make that work easily and not have to
be so you know, making things up with spit and polish. Okay,
So you're going to just improve some of the stuff that is planned, like
we had. There's bike paths that aren't connected, so maybe work to fix
those issues. And then who is going to be paying for this, Melanie,
right, there's always that question. Yeah, Well, I think there's
so many different things that this project can do. But there's a lot of
different funding sources. There's federal funding that's available through the Inflation Reduction Acts currently,
and I'm sure there be other sources of funding down the road as well.
This is not going to happen overnight. There's also state funding that's available
currently, and hopefully if we pass the climate bond at the state in the
coming year, there'll be funds for that as well from the state. You
know, there could be we don't they haven't shared with us yet what exactly
exactly what the Olympic events they're going to be staged there, But if there
are some then there's the potential for private philanthropic dollars to contribute to that of
this as well. Okay, and then when as this project continues, is
all of this area currently open to the public or are just parts of it
open? Oh? No, everything's open to the public now, Okay.
So if you want to go hiking around, you can go there. Yeah.
Yeah, there's a wildlife area. The wildlife reserve over on the east
end of the basin is really phenomenal to visit because you can see the pulsed
The basin is one of the hot spots for birders in Los Angeles. Three
hundred species of birds you can discover by walking through the wildlife reserve, and
there's people do guided tours there as well. Or you can go play any
sport you want, from cricket to soft all the best skiple to baseball to
model airplane flying, to lawn bowling to paddle balls. Oh and there's a
great dog park. There's a paddle boat on one of the lakes. And
then there's the canoe and kayak program that's happening over the summer. Okay,
so you and the bike paths are there. Now a couple of big issues
are. We really want to increase the number of bike and walking paths throughout
the basin, and we want to connect better transit to it. Okay.
So there's already a lot of cool stuff and this is just going to make
it better. Okay, this is great. I'm going to go check this.
It's going to take a while because this is a big project, but
you know, yeah, gotta start summer the basin. Okay, the Basin
Explore. It's amazing. Okay. So Melodie Winter is the founder and director
of the River Project. Thank you so much for sharing that information. This
morning. I got to go check this place out. Have a great day
you too. All right. It was justin Timberlake Tuesday night. But now
rapper Travis Scott has been arrested on charges of being drunk and disorderly and also
for trespassing in Miami. He has posted bond. It's not clear if he's
been released yet. A pro Palestinian protest banner has been taken down from Yosemite's
El Capitan. Climbers scaled the rock face earlier this week and hung the banner
fifteen hundred feet off the ground. The banner read stop the Genocide on ice
cream shop in San Diego has been named the best ice cream in the US.
OS dry Cleaning on Adams Avenue in North Park has been was named after
the dry cleaning business it replaced in twenty eighteen, and to celebrate being named
number one by USA today, OS is going to be selling one dollar Gelatto's
July first until they sell out. We're just minutes away from handle on the
news this morning, women are going to have to register for the draft for
the first time. Let's say good morning now to the founder and CEO of
Rainforest Partnership, Neanta Spelman. Good morning, Neonte, good morning, How
are you? I am wonderful. We have a Rainforest Day coming up on
Saturday, so tell us what is Rainforest Day and what do we do on
this day? So World Rainforest Day is a day that we globally come together
and locally to celebrate these amazing, incredible, magical ecosystems that are vital to
life on our planet. And it's June twenty second. June twenty second.
How many rainforests are there in the world, Neanta? Do we know?
So? You know rainforests are around the tropics, right, we have them
in four of our continents, and we have lost about fifty percent of them,
but we still have a wonderful amount of them in the Amazon, in
in Africa, in Southeast Asia greatly, and a little bit in Australia.
Okay, So I was going to ask you how they're doing, and you
just said we've lost fifty percent. But is the rate that we're losing going
down or are we increasing them? How is that going? I know,
there's it's kind of fallen out of the you know, the our spotlight that
we don't hear about the rainforest as much. But I'm guessing that they're still
trying to cut them down. Yes, So defas station rates have actually gone
down in the Amazon, it's it's literally a multiyear low, finally in Brazil
in particular, after some very alarming rates that occurred. In fact, if
you think about it, even now, we lose like in twenty twenty two,
we were losing about a football field every five seconds. Oh my god.
So yes, pretty incredible. And then now we lose them a great
deal to other things like fires, and not just for agriculture and cattle ranching.
But you know, there is good news because yes, because we are
paying more attention and the world is really trying to rally and say, how
do we stop deforestation by twenty thirty And so for me there is optimism.
I love optimism. And now I had heard and I don't know if this
is correct, because you said where the rainforests are when we went up.
I went on a cruise to Alaska a couple of years ago, and you
take your breath in and I swear you can feel the air like it's just
richer and more vibrant because of all the trees all over the place. And
somebody said that that was a rainforest too, Is that technically a rainfores?
It is? In fact, you are talking about our beautiful, incredible temperate
rainforests. And I am being silly because I am focused on tropical rainforests.
But we do have temperate rainforests. And you know, from Washington all the
way into British Columbia and further north, these temperate rainforests are incredible with these
giants. And you're right when you're in the rainforest and you take a breath
and you just quiet down and you listen, and you feel like you're in
a different, magical place, and there's incredible biodiversity in the tropical rainforests,
but in temperate rainforests as well. There's so much life and it does feel
very different different, It's really weird. It's the endergy is different, the
air is different. And I think if we all experience that, I think
we would revere and protect them in a very different way. Yeah. I
didn't realize we had rainforests in Africa. Yes, In fact, the second
largest tropical rainforests fit in in Africa, the Congo Basin. Yeah. Yes,
and Southeast Asia is just as incredible. And these tropical rainforests, they
hold fifty percent of our biodiversity, and they make up you know, they
make up about six percent of our surface area of our planet and they're less
than three percent of the land area, so not a lot. And they're
so important because they regulate our climate and our water cycle. They're so connect
to us. And so you're in California. All the listeners are in California.
And here's the incredible thing. The waters that you have in the ocean
they have they have chemical markers from the Amazon. Just think about it.
It's not just the you know, the water uh up in the air,
in the atmosphere, that's been circulated by these forests. It's not just the
air and the oxygen that's been circulated, but even our you know, oceans
connected it. We're very, very connected on our planet, and these forests
are so important. Are we replanting of the any like where there's been deforestation?
Are there projects now to replant that? Neanta, there are projects for
replanting. But here's the thing. The best we can do for our planet
is to keep the forest standing that are already there. These are complex ecosystems,
and so whereas in the temperate rainforest you were talking about, there are
a few species of trees in in the in the Amazon or some of the
other tropical rainforests, the hundreds of species of trees alone, and so that
complex ecosystem, you know, it takes a long time for that to be
restored, and so replanting is not the same as actually protecting the standing forests.
And so this is what we celebrate. Why we celebrate them, it's
to say we're interconnected. Why you know, they're they're important to our life
on our planet. They're important for you know, safeguarding our climate. We
have heatwaves around the world, and how do we take advantage of these beautiful
ecosystems that evolved over millions of years on our planet. Trees, greened up
planet, made life possible. So how do we celebrate them? How do
we pay more attention to them? And for those of us who work like
Rainforest Partnership is the organization. I found it and we run and we're based
in Austin, Texas, so we're US based, but this day is celebrated
around the world and we invite the world and not just people in southern California
and California and the US, around the world. And that's what we've seen
that people love to come together and it's protect them right and protect the rainforest.
Don't only replant them, but stop knocking them down. So World Rainforest
Day is June twenty second, NANTA or nanta. Where can we get more
information about the rainforests and how they're doing and what we can do to help
save them. So the first thing World Rainforest Day dot org is the website
to go and make a pledge and get a digital toolkit to share why you
care, go find you know. Of course, we would love you to
donate to Rainforest Partnership. We do work on the ground, but really find
any rainforest organization to support and really do something for the environment for our planet.
On World Rainforest Day in your backyard. Connect you know, look at
the birds, take a breath, Thank a rainforest. I love that.
Okay, yes, we will do that this Saturday. Neanta Spellman, founder
and CEO of Rainforest Partnership, thank you so much for your time and again,
if you want more information, World Rainforest Day dot org, and we're
all going to take a collective deep breath and thank the reinforest. Thanks Nanta,
thank you so much. All right, take care, okay. Good
thing to celebrate on this first day of summer. Right, sunshine, trees,
birds, all that stuff. It is six o'clock. This is KFI
and kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange County, live from the KFI twenty
four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up call.
If you missed a NA wake up call, you can listen anytime on
the iHeartRadio app. Taking a deep breath in honor of world rains for US
day. You've been listening to wake up Call with me, Amy King.
You can always hear wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday.
On KFI AM six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.