VONNE BARNES, Rancho San Clemente Community Association Board President
Jeff Bezos, who spent $28 million on July 20, 2021, for a space flight, said this to Business Insider:
“Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.” Amazon turned 27 years old this month, so it is fast approaching Bezos’ 30-year benchmark.
Two hours after the space flight, Bezos said that the experience reinforced his commitment to solving climate change. Unfortunately, the proposed Amazon Warehouse and Trucking Terminal does just the opposite.
The 20-acre, grassland site, zoned by the county as “Agricultural,” is a natural open-space area that sequesters up to 13,228 pounds, or 6.6 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. Reviewing U.S. Carbon Sequestration, the carbon sequestering properties of this land mass are cumulative such that in a 10-year period of time, up to 66 tons of greenhouse gases are stored in the land. This natural and cost-free benefit of carbon sequestration lowers the Urban Heat index and cools the climate.
I believe that paving over the 20-acre grassland with asphalt, constructing a 105,000-square-foot concrete warehouse, storing 339 delivery vans, and operating an undisclosed number of large semi-tractor trailer trucks 24/7 will create an “Urban Heat Island” that will destroy all of the free benefits that nature has been providing to reduce climate change. The albedo effect of concrete, asphalt, hundreds of metal vans and semi-trailer trucks, will significantly raise the heat index. Financial impacts include, but are not limited to, a significant strain on SDGE’s power grid, interfering with power to San Clemente residents and the Business Park.
Should the Amazon Warehouse go bankrupt, or if the land lease is not renewed, our Spanish Village by the Sea will be scarred with Amazon blight. To sign the petition opposing the Amazon Warehouse in San Clemente, go to: chng.it/fg9FbMyFdz.
