A “People’s Hearing on Extreme Weather” took place Saturday in Pasadena, bringing together Los Angeles-area elected officials, advocacy groups, and community members. Organized by the Climate Action Campaign and its member environmental groups, the event featured testimony from wildfire survivors and health professionals.
In the wake of devastating fires, residents, leaders, and students demand an end to fossil fuels and the restoration of environmental safeguards. Residents shared harrowing stories of extreme weather at Pasadena Climate Action Hearing
On Saturday, August 9, community members from across Los Angeles County gathered at Pasadena’s historic Maxwell House for a powerful public hearing on extreme weather and climate action. The event opened with remarks from Congresswoman Judy Chu and Assemblymember Laura Friedman, both longtime advocates for environmental protection and community resilience.
Congresswoman Chu cited recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that more than 400 lives were lost in the months following January’s catastrophic wildfires—deaths attributed to the toxic after-effects, health complications, and trauma stemming from the disaster. “These numbers are a grim reminder that the cost of climate inaction is measured in human lives,” Chu told attendees.
Assemblymember Friedman shared that in recent meetings with groups of NASA and JPL scientists, they expressed alarm that the climate crisis was not being treated with the urgency it demands. “We are terrified,” she recounted them saying. “The only thing we got wrong is how fast climate change is happening.” Still, Friedman insisted there is hope if decisive action is taken now. She praised the scientific community for developing technologies that could save the planet and emphasized the global race to create clean energy. “Whoever develops it first is going to have the best economy for hundreds of years,” she said. “Although we in the U.S. are perfectly positioned to do that, this administration has been hellbent on rolling us back to the 1800s. Unless things change drastically from this administration’s attack on all science, China, the U.K., and India will eclipse us as leaders in science and in building robust economies.”
Many speakers at the hearing voiced frustration and disillusionment with the Trump administration’s dismantling of existing climate policies. They pointed to weakened fuel economy and emission standards, the rollback of rules aimed at reducing methane emissions and other pollutants, and even reconsideration of the EPA’s Endangerment Finding—the scientific and legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases. Panelists stressed that these actions not only undermine national and international efforts to address climate change but also harm public health and put vulnerable communities at greater risk.
The program featured five panels of speakers, each sharing deeply personal accounts of how increasingly severe weather events have upended their lives. Many described losing their homes to the fires; others recounted the pain of losing friends and neighbors. Updated regional data suggests that fatalities from direct and indirect wildfire impacts have continued to rise in the months since the blazes.
Among the speakers was Audrey Ma, a student from Polytechnic School representing Pasadena 100, a coalition advocating for Pasadena’s energy portfolio to become 100% carbon-free by 2030 and for the passage of Resolution 9977. Ma acknowledged the lasting scars of climate disasters—“the smoke, the fear, and the feeling of helplessness that stays with you”—but insisted that passivity is not an option. “We don’t have to stay helpless,” she said. “We can take bold and immediate action and demand that we get off fossil fuels. The climate crisis reaches across zip codes and generations.”
Her fellow Pasadena 100 member, Sam Berndt, warned of the stakes ahead: “These events will get worse, and every day we will be reminded of what we should have done.”
Pasadena City Councilmember Steve Madison closed the panel discussions with a reflection on the resilience and resolve he witnessed: “I have been buoyed by hearing of the clarity and strength of so many voices. I was awestruck how our community diverted from ‘The Best Day Ever’—the theme of this year’s Rose Parade—to the worst day ever, just six days later.”
The event concluded with a call to action for attendees to write to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, urging the agency to reverse the dismantling of key environmental protections and to recommit to bold national climate action.
Lee Zeldin, EPA Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004
Pasadena 100 is a coalition of concerned people that advocates for clean energy. Membership is free. Join us! https://pasadena100.org/
We know the human toll that extreme weather is taking. The people affected by these reckless policies must stand up and speak out. It is a matter of life—or no life.
Suzanne York is a retired Pasadena Unified teacher and a member of Pasadena’s Environmental Advisory Commission
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