Sheila Ramsey turns 60 this year. She's spent nearly her entire life in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, a community of about 85,000 in the heart of the U.S. petrochemical corridor, where industrial facilities sprawl across the coastal landscape from Texas to Alabama. Over the years, Ramsey managed to carve out a livelihood near family here, in this urban center bordered by dense southeast Texas forest, the Gulf of Mexico's jade waters and coastal prairie. The city's skyline is made up of gambling resorts and chemical refineries, but local poverty levels are almost twice the national average; some 1-in-4 residents live below the federal poverty line.
Xander Peters is a Special Correspondent at The Christian Science Monitor. His reporting focuses on environmental justice and energy issues across Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, reflecting his commitment to impactful storytelling in these critical areas. Xander's work has been featured in prominent publications such as National Geographic, TIME, and The New York Times, among others.
