About the event
On April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of the original Earth Day, a virtual climate uprising is planned all over the world. In San Diego, local organizations are collaborating to create a full afternoon of speakers, art and music, information, and interactive actions – all online and open to everyone. The coronavirus pandemic ended our plans for a massive rally and march, but cannot silence our collective voice!
We must urgently confront three converging threats – the climate crisis, the COVID19 pandemic, and the deepening economic recession – to create a safe and just future. We’re all in this together. Read more about climate action in the time of Covid-19.
What we stand for:
1. Clean energy and green jobs. Governments at all levels must fund renewable energy (solar, wind, and geothermal), mass transit, and electric-car technology. The Green New Deal will create new career opportunities that pay family-sustaining wages while protecting the environment.
2. Affordable mass transit and green options for the communities that need it most. We need to create bikeable, walkable communities with transit options, especially in underserved areas, so that people can meet most of their social and commercial needs without relying on cars. The SANDAG Forward Regional Plan must meet state emission reduction targets. The MTS transit initiative focused on economic justice should be rapidly implemented.
3. A more aggressive and accountable plan to get to 100% green energy. San Diego needs an upgraded Climate Action Plan to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2035. The current plan is inadequate and even that is being ignored. We need to follow the science, with measurable requirements and accountability.
4. Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Put a price on carbon emissions. End government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, agribusiness, and other polluters that are destroying our future. Along with a global treaty to reduce emissions, we must support AB 345 to end oil drilling in California.
Coalition
San Diego Earth Day Virtual Climate Uprising is organized by a growing coalition of individuals and environmental, social justice and labor organizations and working together to make this a huge online climate event in San Diego.
View our organizing committee, sponsors and a complete list of partners here, and please fill out this form to join us!
Earth Day History
Picture plumes of thick, black, toxic smoke pouring from factory chimneys and noxious sludge and waste dumped unfettered into streams and lakes. Before 1970, that was precisely how industry worked. Factories poisoned our air and water indiscriminately and no one could hold them to legal account.
Then on April 22, 1970, twenty million people took to the streets and rallied in cities across our nation. They protested and made their voices heard by the politicians of their day. Because of this movement, the EPA was created on December 2, 1970, and the Clean Air Act of 1970 became law by the end of the year. A few years later, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act were passed into law all because of the successes of Earth Day.
On April 22, 2020, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in the same spirit of that first day and build on its legacy. Yes, times have changed and we are in the middle of a pandemic. But we will raise our voice, advocate, protest, act, and educate. Technology makes all this possible to take place online and digitally.
This anniversary, the theme for Earth Day is Climate Action, and it’s expected to activate a billion people across the world.
For a detailed history of Earth Day, please read The History of Earth Day.
Climate Walkout – Sept 2019
The #ClimateStrike in San Diego was INCREDIBLE. Over 4,000 students walked out of more than 25 high schools and universities Friday in San Diego – our largest youth climate mobilization ever — joined by over 1,500 parents, teachers, workers and retirees, and in solidarity with more than 4 million people across the globe. Together, we demanded climate action and an end to the age of fossil fuels. We woke up San Diego and shook up the world.
Watch the recap video below, and click here for photos and media coverage: