HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0089.004 2020-2022 ORWC
Rcs.55.21
cOMM.89
From: Tom Coffman
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2021 4:28 PM
t;, �-Ee -I 5 6
To: Council Testimony fsE.:'.< }
Subject: Supporting Resolution 35-21
Aloha e Hawaii County Council Members,
I am writing in support of Resolution 35-21 to share reasons for your establishing your
own green jobs corps in light of the twin catastrophes of the pandemic and economic
collapse. The multicrisis profoundly challenge us to pick ourselves up and move forward.
An entire young generation of Hawai'is people is acutely at risk. In 2020, we produced
14,000 high school graduates and 5,000 college graduates for a job market with
historically high unemployment. From study of previous disasters, we know that
damaging effects run on many years and even lifetimes:
"...almost half of the loss in employment persists until the affected workers retire. Both
the polio pandemic and the Great Recession left young adults permanently scarred. The
startling reality spawned by COVID-19 is that the current crisis in Hawai `i is much larger
than the 2007-2009 economic crisis and is on track to generate much more damaging and
pervasive scarring of Hawai `i's young adults. " (Dr. Sumner La Croix, and Dr. James
Mak, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization).
While most of the government response understandably is devoted to minimizing
income loss, inspiration and vision are urgently needed as well. We need hope. A high-
visibility youth service project can be both effective in the moment and transformative.
It can be a multi-pronged initiative that the community can embrace enthusiastically. By
working in, and learning about, ecology from the mountains to the sea, participants can
come to understand interrelationships and see the issues of human settlement whole.
Such a program could include:
■ Upland forest conservation and renewal
■ Watershed recharge
• Streambed cleanup
■ Point-source and brown-water pollution cleanup
▪ Sustainable, diversified agriculture
• Kalo cultivation Comm. Not,‘ loq-4
• Community gardening Ref.To: rIGOMDL
1 Ref. Date FEB - 2 2021
• Regulation of tourist-intensive nature resources
■ Restoration of historic and cultural sites
Protection and cleanup of beaches and reefs
■ Aquaculture
■ Nearshore fisheries
■ Fishpond restoration
By creating jobs of this sort, you will give meaning to the lives of young people and
make their families and communities proud.
My personal testimony is from my experience working in the Glacier National Forest in
Montana as a teenager. It was challenging and formative, and it was one of my best
experiences. In my work life, I wrote and directed the PBS film "May Earth Live" about
preservation of the native forest (2003), recently reprised by the nonprofit Ulana Inc. in
Hilo. In the past year I have been involved in conversations with legislators as well as
the service providers KUPU, KUA and others, as well as visiting conservation sites.
The State of Hawaii initiative of 2020, in which the contractor KUPU used CARES
money to support 360 young people, demonstrated community capacity to mount
such an effort. With years of background, KUPU placed young people in no fewer than
150 community partners. I am sure this merely scratched the surface of demand.
On the government side, as a result of fumbling between the Governor and the
Legislature, available CARES money shrank from $36 mil to $10 mil to $5 mil. The time
window for doing the field work likewise shrank. Had government performed better,
the results could have been more far-reaching.
Now, with an environmentally-conscious national administration, prepared to spend
money on economic recovery, we in Hawaii have a big opportunity. The biggest
challenge and barrier is to activate government's capacity to serve as a facilitator of a
CARES-funded program stretching across 2021 and 2022.
Likely the question will arise as to why Hawaii County and not the State. First, these are
not exclusive of one another. Second, counties often have led the State on
environmental issues. Hawaii Island especially is nature-blessed and nature-conscious.
You are a logical leader. This is an opportunity sitting right in front of you. If you act,
the benefits will-return1',manyfold.
2
Wishing you well,
Tom Coffman
Writer
Board Member, Hawaii Thousand Friends
3