All Entries in the "Carbon Neutral" Category

Costa Rica’s 10 Most Unique Hotels

Costa Rica is a place where competition for travelers’ dollars is intense and hotel property owners work hard to be different.

How does a “Hobbit Hotel” or secluded resort of geodesic-dome “jungalows” sound? Here are some of the ‘most unique’ hotels from all corners of Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica a Third World, Second World or Developed Country?

There is a multi-million-dollar mega-mall in Escazú, west of San José, which sports outlets of some of the world’s most exclusive stores. But, according to the State of the Nation report in November, at least 16,000 Costa Rican homes are “without basic services,” such as electricity and running water.

A constant feature of this disparity in the makeup of Costa Rica is that, while certain areas of the country are surging ahead, there are many areas in which the country is not keeping up or is, indeed, falling behind.

El Niño and Pathogen Killed Costa Rica Toad – Not Global Warming

The Monteverde golden toad, vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s. The role that climate change played in the toad’s demise has been fiercely debated in recent years.

According to a new study, global warming did not kill a Costa Rica amphibian often cited as an example of climate-triggered extinction.

Costa Rica’s “La Gloria” Guanacaste Wind Farm Now Online

Costa Rica in its quest to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth has reached new heights toward its goal with the completion of the Proyecto Eólico Guanacaste or “La Gloria” electric generating wind farm. 55 wind turbines located at a spectacular site near the Miravalle Volcano (Volcán Miravalle) in Cordillera de Guanacaste, in [...]

Costa Rica Remains an Environmental Index Leader as U.S. Falls

A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. In the 2008 version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by a consortium between Yale University and Columbia University researchers; [...]

Rutgers GREEN Team Students Studied Renewable Energy in Costa Rica

The dreams of Rutgers University‘s Global Renewable Energy Education Network Team (GREEN Team) transformed into reality over winter break when their renewable energy program in Costa Rica launched its pilot session. Students landed at the San Jose airport on January 5, 2010 and spent 12 days learning and applying renewable energy ideas, enjoying the environment [...]

A Tale of Three Different Caribbean Countries

One of the happiest countries on the planet shows that protecting biodiversity has a lot to do with wellbeing HAPPINESS IS a state of mind, but if it were a place, it might well be the central American republic of Costa Rica. Located just a few hundred miles west of the benighted Haiti, Costa Rica [...]

EARTH University – Carbon Neutral, Sustainable and Bananas Over Paper

EARTH University in Costa Rica opened in 1990 as a private, non-profit international institution dedicated to education, research and the generation of value through production, transformation and commercialization activities centered around agricultural sciences and the rational management of natural resources. Officially named Universidad E.A.R.T.H. (Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda), EARTH University’s 990 [...]

Costa Rica’s President: It’s Not Easy Being Green

From the ubiquitous T-shirts sporting a red-eyed tree frog clinging to an Imperial beer bottle, to the best-selling postcards featuring the flamboyant poison-dart frog holding court in the rainforest, Costa Ricans today identify with frogs the way Russians relate to bears. That’s because Costa Rica over the past generation has built a reputation as one [...]

Why is Costa Rica Smiling?

This Central American country tops the Happy Planet Index. A child growing up in the Costa Rican countryside is surrounded by some of the most beautiful and biodiverse landscapes in the world. The government of this tiny Central American country aims to keep it that way. But preserving this land of tropical rainforests isn’t Costa [...]

Blogger’s View of ‘Hopenhagen’ Climate Summit featuring Costa Rica

My name is Aubrey Ann Parker, I am 24, from Traverse City, and I am one of 12 student representatives from The University of Michigan attending the 15th Conference of the Parties United Nations Climate Change Convention beginning this week in Copenhagen, Denmark. I will be blogging for the Detroit Free Press from Tuesday to [...]

Rutgers University GREEN Program Explores Renewable Energy in Costa Rica

Rutgers clean energy program is coming to Costa Rica to study renewable energy and associated post-graduation jobs. A new renewable energy program, which began as the vision of three Rutgers University students, has come to fruition. The Global Renewable Energy Education Network (GREEN) — a 12-day program taking place in Costa Rica — is designed [...]