Hundreds celebrate Earth Day as Balboa Park marks 34 years of celebration

The 34th annual Earth Day Celebration returned to Balboa Park on Sunday. The event, organized by the WorldBeat Cultural Center, features live music, cultural performances, and various vendors from all over the county and state.

Tucked away in the garden behind the WorldBeat Center, Nan Renner with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography showed NBC 7 a piece of technology that could potentially one day save mother earth.

“This is a weather station, it’s part of a station of weather stations that helps us to understand the variety of microclimates here in San Diego County,” said Renner.

Devices like the weather station are what Renner and other partners of the WorldBeat Center use to teach kids about studying the environment. Renner also makes it a point in her teachings to highlight the importance of expanding plant life to combat climate change.

“If we can plant more trees, more plants across the planet, that will help us to draw down excess carbon dioxide and ultimately slow the warming of the planet,” said Renner.

“The earth is art,” said Makeda Dread Cheatom, the executive director and founder of the WorldBeat Cultural Center. Cheatom, who founded the center in 1989, explained that part of the festival’s appeal is that the worlds of art and science come together.

“We’re one people and there’s one earth, and we have to protect the earth,” said Cheatom.

That very same message was echoed by the various eco-friendly vendors who set up shop at the festival. Rose Record, the owner of Rose Raggae along Adams Avenue, has various products all made with the environment in mind. Record said that philosophy is part of what has kept her in business for nearly three decades.

“There was a need for reggae and representation in San Diego,” said Record. “It’s not just selling. I’m very mindful and I’m very intentional of the people that I buy my products from,” Record added.

The Earth Day celebrations continue in Balboa Park with the upcoming San Diego Earthfest on Saturday, April 25. The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to the public.