Colette Pichon Battle, Heinz Award for the Environment honoree and the vision and initiatives partner for the climate justice nonprofit Taproot Earth joins host Chris DeCardy. Colette was inspired to shift her career from corporate law to environmental activism after her family’s experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago.
As the United States begins recovery from the historic devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and faces increasingly serious effects of climate change, her leadership is helping address the urgent need for knowledgeable insight and direction.
“It is an emotional moment because you know that people are not going to pay attention to this issue in a deep and real way until you're hit by it,” Colette tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. “But it is also a moment where I am reassured that the work that I've committed my life to is the right work.”
Born and raised in a close-knit family in the Bayou Liberty region of coastal Louisiana, Colette spent time in Ohio at Kenyon College and West Africa after earning her law degree from Southern University Law Center.
After settling into her dream life as a lawyer in New York City, she was drawn back to Louisiana to find and assist family when Katrina struck the southern coastal region in 2005.
She founded the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy to help Gulf South communities of color in in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In 2022, the organization transitioned into Taproot Earth, widening its scope to include BIPOC communities worldwide that are withstanding the worst of climate change.
“I think the problem at the root cause of the climate crisis is capitalism and an unjust economic system,” Colette says. “We have a value system that is rooted in extraction, and I think that's wrong. I think we should value creation. I think we should value love. I think we should have a different values system.”
Colette and her Taproot Earth team are uplifting those different – and better – values, community by community in the United States and around the world.
“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, & produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos & Tim Murray. This episode presentation is a partnership between The Heinz Endowments & the Heinz Family Foundation. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest & host photos: Josh Franzos. Guest inquiries: Scott Roller at sroller@heinz.org.
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