All Entries in the "Environment (Medio Ambiente)" Category

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 close [...]

Boosting Biodiversity and the Global Economy by Saving a Species

“Forty-nine”, a researcher whispers.
After counting the slimy, round white eggs just laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole dug in the sand under bright moonlight on Playa Grande beach in Costa Rica; researcher Tera Dornfeld marks the site of the eggs after the female turtle has filled in the hole with her giant [...]

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; Costa [...]

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 is [...]

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 acre [...]

Thriving Sex Industry Bumps Costa Rica from List of Most Ethical Destinations

When travel magazines and sites come out with top ten “eco” lists they’re usually the top ten places who did a good job marketing themselves as green. Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. They are usually places that are actually doing things responsibly because no editor wants to get a stack of hate mail or a [...]

Break Me Off A Piece Of Costa Rica

Nicholas Kristof has a happy-go-lucky column yesterday in the New York Times about Costa Rica that reads as part tourism advertisement, part political common sense.
He goes on and on about how the country is consistently ranked high in “happiness” surveys. This is true. How, then, did they get that way?

What sets Costa Rica apart [...]

Costa Rica’s Caldera Highway, a Direct Route to the Pacific Coast

A 30 year road project is finally nearing reality in Costa Rica.
UPDATE: Costa Rica’s San José to Caldera Pacific Highway now Open (click here for article)
The 77 kilometer highway from San José to Caldera is expected to cut 45 minutes off travel to the Central Pacific Coast, which is currently accessible via Aguacate along [...]

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 Rica’s [...]