Clean, green, pura vida

Costa Rica is hoping to become completely carbon neutral by 2030. That is, they want to lower their carbon output by 100 percent in 23 years. We in the U.S., on the other hand, are only aiming for about 80 percent reductions over the course of 43 years.

Stories like this make it all the more maddening that there is so much resistance to green efforts. Take this, for instance:

According to the United Nations, in 2003 the country produced roughly 1.5 tonnes of carbon per person, compared to close to 10 tonnes in Norway.

The United States figure is, I believe, something like "20 tonnes" of carbon per person per year. Our numbers are huge compared to Costa Rica's! Making gains, should be easy! Obviously the issue isn't all that simple. But when you're talking about such huge differences, it just is the case that it is harder for Costa Rica to erase a unit of their carbon emissions than it is for us, and this will be true for a long time. (Think about it this way. If our carbon emissions were 80 percent less than they are now, we'd still be emitting about two to three times as much carbon as the Costa Ricans.)

It should be pointed out that Costa Rica does have a major tourism industry. I wonder if these numbers take into account that, for being so lovely, Costa Rica attracts thousands and thousands of people from other countries who burn through plenty of carbon en route to vacation. Seems like San Jose bears at least some of the responsibility for those small additional emissions, but if I had to guess, I'd say the sinister tourism lobby has squelched that information altogether. I smell conspiracy!