From: Elise Swarts
To: City Clerk Internet EMAIL Group
Subject: Public comment for Agenda Item R
Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2026 2:31:32 AM
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Public comment for Agenda Item R, Camarillo City Council Meeting May 13, 2026 Good evening, honorable council members. My name is Elise Swarts, and I am a current student at UC Berkeley, and a youth leader with CFROG’s Environmental Voices Academy. As a lifelong resident of Camarillo, I have seen the environmental devastation in our community increasing throughout my lifetime, and I feel the responsibility to speak up about these issues facing our community today.
I remember celebrating Earth Day at my school when I was younger. We were told to recycle to reduce waste and to walk or bike to school to reduce harmful emissions. At the time, I thought this was all there was to saving the Earth. These simple practices are great to teach little kids. But we are not little kids anymore, and we need to do more. We need to acknowledge that climate change is a severe and systemic issue threatening our public health and our planet, and this requires immediate climate action. Our community of Ventura County has been ravaged by oil and gas extraction, and has faced a legacy of devastating consequences of that industry in high rates of asthma, low birth weights, cancer, emphysema, air pollution, and deadly wildfires.
For the past four years, I have been involved in the Environmental Voices Academy, a program for high school and college-age students passionate about climate justice and advocacy. These issues of climate change and the environmental and public health consequences are not only important to me, but also to my peers who are speaking up tonight.
Young people are disproportionately vulnerable to the health impacts that I previously mentioned because we spend more time outdoors, and our developing lungs mean we inhale more pollution per pound of body weight, making us more susceptible to the severe health consequences of a polluted environment.
One thing I have consistently heard in my science courses is that we must do more to address climate change, and the longer we wait, the more frequently we will experience devastating natural disasters. Phasing out oil will help protect our communities from future disasters because many oil projects are located in high fire hazard zones, increasing wildfire risks. Camarillo has faced these dangers many times in the past, and I have personally experienced the fear of helping my family evacuate during local wildfires.
The Camarillo City Council's own Goals & Objectives state a clear intention to engage youth; I sincerely ask you to listen to the voices of the youth here today and respectfully urge the Camarillo City Council to vote in support of passing this resolution to phase out fossil fuels, defend safety setbacks, hold polluters accountable, and demonstrate the city’s commitment to uplifting youth voices.