Chula Vista gets off to an early start this week celebrating the earth.
Earth Day around the globe is April 22 this year, but South Bay Earth Day takes place April 15 at Chula Vista’s Bayfront Park.
There’s a bit of irony in the location, given that for decades the city and the Port District have done their darnedest to develop Chula Vista’s pristine and under utilized bayfront.
The dreams of convention centers and housing are slowly coming to reality as work progresses on Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center which of course will bring machinery, heavy equipment, housing, visitors and tourists to the area. And, of course, pollution in the form of carbon and man-made footprints.
That’s the price to be paid for progress, leisure and profit. All the while the earth keeps spinning.
Locally the Chula Vista Earth Day celebration will feature workshops and seminars teaching visitors how to dispose of their recyclables properly, the ins and outs of composting food waste, the use of “green” energy and fix-it guidance for people with electronics problems.
Visitors, of course, are encouraged to bike to the event.
While cycling to the festivities, searching for parking or standing in line for an organic food vendor some points to ponder include:
• While the beginning of this year saw a deluge of rainfall soak the county and the rest of the state, thanks to an uncharacteristic succession of atmospheric rivers, globally January 2023 was the seventh warmest the earth has seen in 104 years the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been keeping tabs.
• Though it’s been stated before it bears noting, during the period of restricted travel and stay-at-home mandates, the amount of carbon emissions decreased dramatically worldwide. But the gains were relatively short lived as that same year recorded carbon emissions reached it’s highest level of concentration and in the years since the global temperatures have risen steadily.
• The second hottest day in Chula Vista was Sept. 6, 2020 at 102 degrees. The first hottest, Sept. 5, 2004—103 degrees.
• The earth is and remains not flat.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story should have stated “The earth is and remains not flat.”
