Students from Palisades Charter High School and Santa Monica High School directly affected by the 2025 Palisades fire will present a global livestream Jan. 24 to recount the crisis, call for climate action and pressure fossil fuel companies to pay for damages caused by use of their products.
The panel will feature students from Palisades Charter High School, which has been closed for fire-damage remediation for a year, and neighboring Santa Monica High School. The schools previously united for a protest calling on officials to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, known as Make Polluters Pay, which has stalled.
"We are urging lawmakers to bring back this critical legislation," said Maria Knierim, a Palisades Charter High senior who has moved seven times since losing her home to the fire. "We barely escaped alive. I saw my neighborhood disappear. Polluters must pay for their part in this."
The students are collecting signatures on a petition urging elected officials to make polluters pay for their role in climate change.
Organizers include Fridays for Future, a student-led movement inspired by Greta Thunberg, and aligned groups including Climate Talks for Everyone, NAZCCA.org, Resilient Palisades, Climate Action Santa Monica and Third Act SoCal. They are urging youth and adults worldwide to hold watch gatherings for the livestream.
Palisades Charter High School students are expected to return to their campus by late January. They have been attending classes in a former department store less than a mile from Santa Monica High School.
What: Students Unite to Fight Climate Change, a global livestream panel by students displaced by the 2025 Pacific Palisades fire
When: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, 11 a.m. PST
Where: Register for the livestream at https://www.fridaysforfuture.org or to organize a watch gathering at https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/watch-gatherings
Edited by SMDP Staff