Climate Changes Negative Effects Costa Rica

My friend and fellow ex-pat Maura Stephens  is a journalist, an educator, and actor.  She lives with her husband in Purical, Costa Rica 

Recently Maura wrote a wonderful article which was published in the Costa Rican English language  newspaper- The Tico Times. This article spoke of Climate Changes negative effects Costa Rica.  Being a climate change activist, I felt compelled to reprint (with Maura’s permission) a portion of her article.

Maura writes:  We are fortunate to live in the Democratic country of Costa Rica, a beautiful and peaceful place We are untouched by the horrors of a dictatorial government. Costa Rica has no standing army, instead she spends a large portion of her budget on public education-grades one through eleven-which is available free of charge to every child. Costa Rica is a very small country situated between enormous continents and between two powerful oceans- the Pacific and the Atlantic, making it especially vulnerable to the catastrophic negative effects of climate change.  Examples of these effects are water shortages, flooding, warming of our ocean’s waters leading to loss of coral reefs and the death of many species of fish. Additionally, there is severe negative effects on agriculture. Drought and floods lead to food shortages thus precipitating forced migration of her people. With so much sunshine, there should be government subsidized solar panels in every home and business.  Everyday trucks are spewing diesel fumes filled with carbon dioxide- polluting the air we breathe leading to serious illnesses such as asthma and chronic lung disease. Costa Ricans must work harder to promote organic farming, provide for clean unpolluted drinking water,  promote recycling especially of plastics, and fund more public transportation driven by electricity instead of gasoline and diesel.  On the positive side- Costa Rica has set aside twenty percent of its land surface for National Parks and Wildlife Preserves, thus protecting the habitat of hundreds of animals and tropical birds.  Costa Rica’s National Parks protects her primary rainforest which serve as collectors of carbon dioxide and give back our essential life support which is Oxygen.  Costa Rica is investing in wind power,  geothermal energy, and water driven generators which produce clean electricity. 

Costa Rica’s greatest assets are her people and the abundant natural beauty of the land and water.  We must all work together alongside our government to preserve this for us and for our children. 

Visit Costa Rica with  anncreed23@gmail.com     https://costaricalearn.com