Meet Barbara Wiseman | Co-Founder and President of LAWRENCE ANTHONY EARTH ORGANIZATION

We had the good fortune of connecting with Barbara Wiseman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Barbara, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
In 2003, world renowned conservationist, Dr. Lawrence Anthony, asked me to help him start an international environmental non-profit. He was on his way back from having spent 5 1/2 months in Baghdad to rescue the animals of the Baghdad Zoo at the beginning of the war in Iraq. The extraordinary courage of his initiative to, on his own, go into a war zone to rescue animals that had been abandoned to starvation, dehydration, and poaching was an extraordinary inspiration; however, I had been the Executive Director of a good-sized management consulting company and felt that the work I was doing to bring about increased economic prosperity and stability to business owners and their families was more important than getting involved in “playing with Lawrence and some animals”. But I admired and respected him so much that I decided to step back and take a look at what was happening in the world of environmental restoration and education before I was going to politely tell him “no, thank you.”

I used tools I’ve learned in the field of logic and statistical analysis, and the more I looked, the more appalled I became. While there was a lot of constructive work being done, the field was also full of very well-intentioned people working on many issues that were based on poorly researched information and alarming and inaccurate statements by the media as to their cause, as well as poorly thought-out “solutions” that were not taking into account all stakeholders involved and only causing even larger problems. And, to my surprise, some of the biggest issues that desperately needed solving were barely known about or discussed at the time.

After a few weeks of looking and searching out facts for myself, rather than just listening to all the opinions and “authoritative” statements being made by people who, when questioned, were just forwarding what they’d heard, I felt duty bound to step up and help Lawrence start our organization.

At first we named it THE EARTH ORGANIZATION; but when Lawrence passed away in 2012, we added his name to it in honor of him: LAWRENCE ANTHONY EARTH ORGANIZATION (LAEO). Before Covid we had 26 chapters in 20 countries; however, it was impossible for many of our smaller chapters in severely economically challenged areas to survive the financial strain created by a world shut down. We now have 12 chapters in 9 countries, each focused on issues important in their community. The U.S. chapter based in the Los Angeles area, and our International chapter based in Durban, South Africa are focused on finding and implementing solutions to large-scale global issues; and all are forwarding our original purpose to help restore a healthy world for all the life forms that live on it.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Sadly, the field of environmentalism has been given a bad name by those who propose and try to implement or force into place proposed solutions that are irrational and more destructive than constructive. What sets us apart, in large measure, is our 6-step, standardized approach to addressing a decaying situation in the natural world:

1) Before we take on an issue, we first research to verify that the issue actually does exist and needs to be resolved;
2) If it does exist and we decide to take it on, we then research deeply to find the true source of the problem, which, from our experience, is always at least somewhat different than what is being asserted to be the source;
3) Once we have found the true source, we then research to find a logical solution that benefits all elements involved – people, jobs, the economy, commerce and industry, as well as the natural world;
4) Then, depending on each unique situation, we either implement the solution or get it into the hands of another group that will competently do so;
5) We then create educational materials about it to preserve the lessons learned;
6) Rinse/repeat…. in other words, we then find the next environmental issue to take on and take it through the above 5 steps.

Utilizing this series of steps has made it possible for us to take on a wide variety of issues – wildlife rescue, habitat restoration, identifying truly workable science solutions to major environmental issues, and more – and effectively find and get real solutions being used to address them. Here are just two examples:

A. We were the only environmental group during the massive British Petroleum oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 to identify the most effective product on the market that could be used to actually clean up the mess without creating other problems or environmental or human health “tradeoffs”. Unfortunately, the U.S. EPA only allowed one, highly toxic product to be used on the oil during the course of that event and we wrote a paper for government and industry officials to educate them on this issue. Our work has significantly contributed to that effective product being used to clean up massive oil spills in over 70 other countries.

B. While enormous areas of the planet are turning to desert because of poor farming practices and mismanaged water resources, we have identified the missing piece in water management that can help to turn around the issues related to freshwater scarcities. From our research, we’ve found that, in fact, there is a body of knowledge regarding vast reservoirs of water that are far below the shallow aquifers standardly drilled into for freshwater resources.

Shallow underground water reservoirs and surface waters like streams, rivers and lakes are becoming more and more contaminated by surface pollution, and in many places, they are being drawn down faster than they can be replenished by natural precipitation and water flows. By tapping into these deeper and very abundant water resources that have been proven to exist, it can allow shallow aquifers and surface waters to be restored.

After ten years of our own research and contributions by various scientists in this field over the past 80 years, we now have a proprietary technology for locating and drilling for near-surface access points to these much deeper water resources. With our technology, if one or more of these fissures exist on a property that are bringing this deepwater up close enough to the surface to be able to drill into it, we can find it with a high degree of certainty. Over the past five years we have located these deep-seated water resources for farmers, ranchers, a water company, and land and business owners from California to New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Australia, and Chile. And, on multiple occasions, our science team of hydrogeologists have repeatedly found good sources of water where others have insisted no water could be found.

We are extremely proud of the work we are doing, but, as a non-profit, it is not easy to bring in the funding necessary to identify real solutions like this and then scale them up so that they are having the kind of broad scale impact that they have the potential of. There have been endless lessons learned along the way, and many more to come. But with the dedicated team we have, and the growing support of our donors and volunteers, we are continuing to expand our impact.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Dinner at Geoffreys Restaurant in Malibu. Brunch at Le Chene Restaurant in Agua Dulce
A daytime hike on trails at the top of Mt. Pinos and an after-dark picnic with stargazing.
Dinner at The Perch in Pine Mountain Club.
A day trip to the Getty Museum.
A day trip drive up the coast.
Universal Studios.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to Dr. Anthony and the staff of the LAWRENCE ANTHONY EARTH ORGANIZATION and our members and supporters. Without their support, encouragement, dedication, mentorship and work, I would never have been able to accomplish what we have accomplished in this field.

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Image Credits
The credit for each photo should be the following: (c) 2024 – The Earth Organization