volunteerism - The Environment Report

Transcript

Wendy Spencer is a busy woman, so busy we had to catch her between meetings, in a hallway, on her cell phone. Spencer is CEO of Volunteer Florida, the Sunshine State’s official volunteer recruitment program. She’s registered thousands of volunteers to spend their Florida vacations picking up trash.

“When oil hits it will be easier to clean the shoreline if it is free of litter and debris.”

So far, 3,000 volunteers have logged more than 17,000 hours of work in Florida alone, and there are countless more in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, but what if you can’t jet down to the Gulf Coast?

Well, some people are coming up with a few creative ideas like getting a shampoo, cut and style.

John Coy owns Fran Coy’s Salon Spa in Ann Arbor. He says when he looks at the cutting room floor, he sees opportunity.

“Right now we just have this one bag of around 30 pounds of hair stored up to go, and you can see it just has inside it all different colors of hair,and you can see there’s just all different types of hair of different lengths and colors.”

Coy ships the hair to a San Francisco-based non-profit environmental group called Matter of Trust. The group sends the hair to warehouses in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, where it’s stuffed into donated pantyhose. Some people are calling them “hair sausages.” The official term is “booms.” The homemade booms are put in the water to soak up oil and keep it from shore. Fran Coy’s Salon Spa has donated 100 pounds of hair to the effort, and customers say they’re happy to help. Julie Blackhall is getting her haircut today.

“I think it’s great. I mean I’m not going to do anything with my hair that you cut off. Why not help the world with it?”

The response has been overwhelming. So far, nearly half a million pounds of human hair and animal fur have been donated nationwide. So much, Matter of Trust’s warehouses are overwhelmed and they’re not accepting any new donations.

There is some concern it won’t all get used. Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say these hair booms can get water logged and sink, and a Coast Guard spokesman told the Huffington Post the booms can add to the debris problem when they wash up on shore.

Still, some towns and counties along the Gulf Coast are willing to take the chance, and will continue to use these hair booms.

The BP oil spill isn’t just an environmental crisis. It’s an economic one too. Thousands of coastal families have lost work because fishing boats aren’t fishing and tourists aren’t visiting.

Wendy Spencer of Volunteer Florida says it’s only going to get worse.

“Our food banks are being impacted by people who are out of work. We are seeing an increase in the applications for food stamps. Go to your local food bank. Say, look, can we provide some help in collecting food and connect with the food banks in Florida or Alabama and have this shipped in to the region to help?”

And, she says, don’t forget money. It might not be as hands-on as getting a haircut. But, she says, Gulf-based social service and environmental organizations could really use the cash right now. For the Environment Report, I’m Tanya Ott.

Lynn Scarlett is the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Interior's Office of Policy, Management and Budget.
Carl Pope is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club. (Photo courtesy of the Sierra Club)

As the campaigns for President advance, President George W. Bush’s environmental policies are being examined. The Bush administration has been criticized by many of the large environmental groups. But Bush supporters say the White House approach to environmental protection is working well. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham talked with one of the architects of the Bush environmental policy, Lynn Scarlett. She is Assistant Secretary of the Department of Interior’s Office of Policy Management and Budget. Scarlett says the Bush approach to the environment goes beyond just punishing polluters, but encourages everyone to do more:

Transcript

As the campaigns for President advance, President George W.
Bush’s environmental policies are being examined. The Bush
administration has been criticized by many of the large environmental
groups. But Bush supporters say the White House approach to
environmental protection is working well. In the second of two
interviews, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
talks with the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Interior’s
Office of Policy, Management and Budget, Lynn Scarlett. She’s one
of the architects of the Bush environmental policy. Scarlett says the
Administration’s approach to the environment goes beyond just
punishing polluters, but encourages everyone to do more:

SCARLETT: “You know, our vision is one of cooperative conservation. Some years ago the
great conservationist Aldo Leopold talked about a nation of citizen-stewards, that we can’t get the
conservation job done and the environmental job done unless each person in their own backyards
and working together engage in conservation and environmental entrepreneurship, if you will.
So, for us, we’re trying to seek those partnerships, partnered problem-solving, we’re trying to
emphasize innovation and what I like to call environmental entrepreneurship, the imagination of
many minds creatively figuring out how to reduce our environmental footprint and then working
in cooperation across a mosaic of landscapes, public lands, with private landowners and across
the country.”

LG: “It would seem that an approach like that would require a lot of volunteerism in the private
sector and many times that volunteer effort has been lacking. It seems that we need some kind of
regulation from the federal government or from the state governments to make sure that the
environment is protected.”

SCARLETT: “You know, the vision is a multi-faceted one. Of course, we have, since Earth Day
1970, a whole suite of environmental laws that were unfurled, our banner environmental statutes,
and we are very committed to ensuring compliance with those statutes. So, the question is really
a matter of emphasis. As we go forward in the 21st century, I think the question we all have to
ask is: ‘How do we get to that next step of environmental progress?’ We build upon the
regulatory achievements, but we have to begin to ask ourselves ‘How can we work together to get
that next increment of progress. And when you look at what’s actually going on in the nation,
you see tremendous cause, I think, for optimism.”

LG: “There are no doubt some innovative ideas popping up out of the private sector to deal with
environmental concerns, but the Big Greens, the environmental organizations, are issuing scathing
reports about the record of the Bush administration. And they would disagree with your
characterization that we’re making progress. They would indicate that we’ve lost ground in
environmental protection.”

SCARLETT: “You know, I think that we have to look at the actual results on the ground.
There’s always politics at play, of course, in conversations about environment, but the real test of
success is on the ground and also the kinds of commitments that we’re tangibly making. I like to
say environmental progress is a journey not a destination. There’s always more to be done. But,
this administration has the highest dollars ever expended by any administration going towards
environmental protection whether it’s on the pollution side and pollution clean-up or on the land-
management and conservation side. We have a number of new programs. The President initiated
a landowner incentive program. It’s one patterned after what he had done in Texas to try to
stimulate and engage people to participate in species protection, particularly ‘at risk’ and
‘threatened’ and ‘endangered’ species. He inaugurated a private stewardship grant program with a
similar focus. So there’s an awful lot that is occurring that is getting results on the ground.”

LG: “Well, let’s try to get to the nut of the philosophical difference between the Bush
administration and many of these environmental groups who find great fault with the Bush
administration’s approach to environmental protection. What do you think the key differences are
between the White House perspective on the environment and these environmentalists?”

SCARLETT: “I think the fundamental difference, the major reorientation of philosophy is to say
‘You know what? Real success doesn’t reside necessarily in numbers of enforcement actions
taken, but rather results on the ground.’ And that there are a whole array of tools to achieve that,
many of which are outside Washington. All Americans want clean air. They want clean water.
And real success resides in inspiring them and working with them and partnering with them. And
I think the record will tell a very good tale.”

HOST TAG: Lynn Scarlett is Assistant Secretary of the Department
of Interior’s Office of Policy, Management and Budget.

Tag: volunteerism

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