On Saturday, Los Angeles-area elected officials, advocacy groups, and community members convened in Pasadena for what was billed as a "People's Hearing on Extreme Weather."
Organized by the Climate Action Campaign and its member environmental activist groups, the event drew testimony from wildfire survivors and health officials. They criticized the Trump administration and are seeking to put pressure on California to safeguard climate change programs.
Many speakers cited recent Environmental Protection Agency decisions they claim have weakened climate protection, including the announced intent to roll back the agency’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, in a prerecorded video, contended that climate change is taking a toll in Los Angeles communities, from poor air quality to the devastation brought by wildfires, which a recent study suggests were more deadly than previously reported. "If they can’t even admit that climate change is real," Padilla asked, "then how can they protect us from it?”
Reps. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) underscored the urgency of action. "This is the human cost of climate change," Chu said, pointing to displacement, financial insecurity, illness, and deaths. Friedman called the recent EPA actions "part of this administration's attack on all science."
The heart of the gathering within Pasadena's historic Maxwell House was testimony from residents, including survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, and community leaders, who sat in front of signs with such slogans as "people over polluters" and "stop EPA's climate chaos." The event had political overtones, and many of the two dozen speakers came with prepared speeches.
"These disasters aren’t rare any more. They're becoming constant," said Pasadena resident Rosanna Valverde, whose home was damaged in the Eaton fire. "Instead of helping families prepare for what's clearly already happening, they're [the current administration] making it worse."
Fellow Eaton fire survivor Sam Stracich described climate disaster as "not only the abnormally intense and frequent fires … but the long and stressful aftermath," adding that denying climate change "puts more people's health, homes and futures at risk."
Dennis Higgins recounted returning to his home in the Pacific Palisades to find "just rubble." Referring to the Trump administration's plan to revisit federal findings from 2009 that declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health, Higgins warned that homes rebuilt in the area would "burn again if we don't get these protections."
A student from Palisades High School said she believed policy failures compounded the wildfire's destruction. "It wasn't just the fire that destroyed my neighborhood," said Sophie Smeeton, a rising senior. "It was the systematic denial of risk, the dissolution of safeguards, and the refusal to treat the climate crisis with urgency."
Chris Chavez, deputy policy director at the Coalition for Clean Air, said air pollution used to be his primary concern.
“I know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night being unable to breathe due to asthma. I also know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night, being confronted with an approaching wildfire," Chavez said. "Many Californians can speak about both of those experiences.”
Dr. Alfred Glover, a podiatrist in Los Angeles, described patients with cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses as "suffering with the consequences of climate." He said the mounting health impacts are "really, really destroying our community."
Marine biologist Barbara Gentile described the effects fires and extreme weather have had on ocean ecosystems, from toxic algae blooms to chemical pollution. The ocean "can't testify for itself," she said. "If we don't speak for the ocean, who will?"
Panelists repeatedly criticized recent federal rollbacks, including cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research.
"As a citizen, as a resident, as a physician, why do I feel nation-less at this time?" asked Dr. Jerry Abraham, a hearing board member for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. "No federal government to protect us?"
"I don't think anybody could hear these stories without being moved,” Chu said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Comments