Antonia Juhasz

Host Antonia Juhasz is joined by Ariel Ross with Stop Fracking Payne County from Stillwater, Oklahoma, home to one of the larger recent bursts of fossil fuel production spawned by fracking, and the state with the highest number of earthquakes in the lower 48–a result of the fracking process. And Rossmery Zayas of Youth for Environmental Justice with Communities for a Better Environment from South East LA. Rossmery lives in a community in which fossil fuels are refined, burned, shipped, and waste products were – prior to a major victory on the part of local organizers, including her — dumped. Ariel has described these elements as points in the “constellation of problems associated with oil and gas production and fossil fuel dependence.”

Two new polls released this week by Gallup find that 73% of Americans now support alternative energy over oil and gas production; including a whopping 89% of Democrats and, for the first time, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents. The poll also found that, for the first time, a majority of Americans oppose fracking.

Juhasz visited Stillwater last year and followed both Ariel and Rossmery in Paris during the COP21 United Nations climate negotiations in December. She wrote about their experiences and stories, as well as those of two other women from Bahrain and Ethiopia, in her recent feature article in Ms. Magazine just out on newsstands this week entitled, “Women take on Climate Change.”

Visit Ariel’s blog, “Living with Induced Seismicity in Oklahoma.” And Rossmery’s blog, “I am here to echo the voice of my community.”