The Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas face a petrochemical and fracked gas export boom. Super-heat-charged hurricanes strike almost every year. As a result, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Low-Income Communities, face an interrelated number of issues including environmental justice; voting suppression; and access to housing, healthcare, clean water, energy, and safe fresh produce, just to name a few.
Our guest, Roishetta Ozane, started the Vessel Project of Louisiana [https://www.vesselprojectoflouisiana.com/] to assist the most vulnerable communities by meeting their emergency needs in times of crisis.
As an organizer for the nonprofit Healthy Gulf [https://healthygulf.org/team-member/20227/], her work includes stopping a rush of new fossil fuel facilities slated for the Southwest Louisiana region. If the fossil fuel companies get their way, 17 new Liquefied Natural Gas export terminals would be built nationwide, most of them in the Gulf of Mexico, which will guarantee more climate chaos for the entire planet.
Roishetta's mix of building community, inspiring mutual aid, and organizing in solidarity with environmental justice leaders and regional and national nonprofits, brings hope to overcoming this managed chaos.
Roishetta Sibley Ozane has over a decade of experience representing organizations as a community outreach specialist. Not only is she the founder, director and CEO of The Vessel Project of Louisiana, she is the Clean Energy Organizing Director with Healthy Gulf [https://healthygulf.org/] for the Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas region. Roishetta is also She Leads Fellow alum and Environmental Justice Coordinator for the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice [https://powercoalition.org/], where she empowers women of color to go out into their communities and make positive change.
Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40.
EcoJustice Radio is a weekly program that presents environmental and climate stories from a social justice frame, featuring voices not necessarily heard on mainstream media, co-hosted by Jessica Aldridge and Carry Kim. We investigate solutions for social, environmental, and climate issues with an eye to advance human health, steward wild landscapes, and solve the climate crisis across the USA and the world. It is a project of the nonprofit environmental organization, SoCal 350 Media, based in Los Angeles. The show is featured on KPFK Los Angeles and KPFT Houston, syndicated through the Pacifica Network and PRX, as well as via podcast.
