FROM IMPACT TO ACTION
Community Center | Port O’Connor, TX
November 14-15, 2025
Day 1: Tiny Pollutant, Big Impact
Join leading scientists and environmental experts as they share the latest research on microplastics, their widespread impact on ecosystems, human health, and coastal communities.
Day 1 will feature in-depth presentations and discussions exploring how microplastics move through our environment—from oceans and rivers to the food we eat—and what current studies are revealing about their long-term effects.
PLUS, enjoy a special screening of the award-winning documentary Plastic People, an eye-opening film that sheds light on how plastic pollution has infiltrated nearly every corner of our world and what we can do about it.
Rutgers University, research microplastics and nano-plastic impact on human health
Dr. Phoebe Stapleton
Dr. Sandra Metoyer
University of Houston, Oceans and One Health.
Texas A&M, emerging nano/microplastics body burden in oysters and fish in Matagorda Bay
Dr. David Hala
More speakers and updates to come! Register to stay in the know.
Plastic People is one of those essential state-of-our-world documentaries.
– OWEN GLEIBERMAN
Variety
The award-winning feature documentary Plastic People investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made breaks down into “microplastics.” These microscopic particles drift in the air, float in all bodies of water, and mix into the soil, becoming a permanent part of the environment.
Now, leading scientists are finding these particles in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue, and even the placentas of new mothers. What is the impact of these invisible invaders on our health? And can anything be done about it?
Acclaimed author and science journalist Ziya Tong takes a personal approach by visiting leading scientists around the world and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and her body while collaborating with award-winning director Ben Addelman (Discordia, Bombay Calling, Nollywood Babylon, Kivalina v. Exxon) in an urgent call to action for all of us to rethink our relationship with plastic.
Day 2: Grassroots Action
A day of workshops, focusing on actions citizens can take to safeguard themselves and their communities against microplastics and industrial pollution from the plants that manufacture them.
Plus a private screening of the documentary:
Hellcat tells the extraordinary true story of shrimp boat captain Diane Wilson and her decades-long battle to protect the Texas Gulf Coast from petrochemical pollution. Over 35 years, Wilson transforms from a fourth-generation fisherwoman into a relentless activist, taking on multinational corporations like Formosa Plastics, Alcoa, and Exxon.
Through vérité footage, archival news, personal films, and testimony from allies and whistleblowers, the film captures Diane’s fearless journey—organizing community meetings, staging hunger strikes, facing retaliation, and enduring personal loss. Despite sabotage, jail time, and intimidation, she secures the largest Clean Water Act lawsuit in history and later forces new environmental reviews that halt dangerous dredging plans.
As Diane earns the Goldman Environmental Prize, her fight continues against new threats, including Exxon’s proposed massive plastic pellet plant. At 77, she remains unwavering, declaring she will battle for clean water “until my last breath.”
More than a personal chronicle, Hellcat highlights the broader struggle for environmental justice in frontline communities worldwide—revealing how polluters evade accountability, exploit vulnerable regions, and imperil the planet’s most vital resource: water.