Upon our arrival to Arenal, I was immediately stunned by the massive volcano. This was unlike anything I had ever seen before. From our hotel we had a perfect view of it. The sheer mass of the structure combined with how luscious and green it appeared was what made it so special for me. I literally could not take my eyes off of it. We learned about how this volcano, and all volcanoes in general, contribute to climate change by releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, accelerating the greenhouse effect. This lesson served as an introduction – and a point of contrast of sorts – to this week’s main topic of anthropogenic climate change. The takeaway from this tidbit was not that volcanoes are a considerable contributor to climate change. In fact, relative to the impact of human activities on the carbon cycle they are essentially insignificant. Rather, it was to get us thinking about how external sources – like volcanoes or humans – can impact the atmosphere and to tie in the volcano at Arenal into what would become the main academic focus of our week: anthropogenic climate change.
Aside from wrapping up our research projects, the activities we did in Arenal included going on a hike near the volcano and at the hanging bridges park, visiting a large waterfall, and going into town. I enjoyed all of these, but the waterfall and our visit to town were my favorites. After trekking down hundreds of stairs to the waterfall, I was pretty blown away. It was a lot larger than I expected. I was even more surprised, though, by how cold the water was. I guess I expected it to be somewhat warm since Costa Rica is hot all the time, but that was not the case. I didn’t mind it at all, though. It was quite refreshing to jump into and become fully submerged by the water. I felt like it woke me up and gave me a boost of energy for the next few hours. After hanging out at the waterfall for a bit, we climbed back up the stairs and went into town for an hour before heading back to our hotel. Feeling energized from the cold water and in a mood of deep curiosity, I decided to strut around town on my own for a second and explore. Shortly into my exploration, I walked by a coffee shop and was stopped by a man who said to me, “Are you Irish?” I responded with the negative, to which he apologized and said he thought I was someone he met the previous day. From there, we got to talking and then I ended up walking around town with him for the whole hour. He told me about how he was from Nicaragua, where he protested against the dictatorship and thus had to become a political refugee in Costa Rica. We touched on some interesting topics, including his perception of Americans and how they are always so unnecessarily stressed, his view on God/the Universe and the value of embracing your true self, and how to just relax and enjoy being present. He also emphasized to me that I needed to be grateful as an American to have the privileges that I do. It was honestly one of the best conversations of my life. I believe I was supposed to meet him.
Our dive into climate change took off with full steam with Dr. Wasserman’s presentation at the research station in Monteverde and our subsequent UN mock climate change debate. As someone who has taken interest in the issue of climate change over the past few years, I was already familiar with some of the basic information in his presentation, but it served as a good refresher while also enlightening me on some key points. For instance, the statistic showing how many Earths would be required to uphold each country’s level of consumption/activity was something I was not familiar with, but it really stuck with me as noteworthy. In particular, the whole idea Dr. Wasserman stressed of getting every country on board with reducing their impact to that of Costa Rica’s as a blueprint for positive change going forward was compelling, especially in light of the clear policies Costa Rica has implemented that can easily be replicated elsewhere. At the same time, it was a little bit unsettling to see that even a country as sustainable as Costa Rica was at 1.5 Earths. However, with countries like the US requiring 5 Earths, a global effort to get down to this mark would be a monumental improvement from where we are right now. Furthermore, we have to start somewhere; getting countries down to 1.5 Earths buys us more time to figure out how to get everyone down to/below 1. The major takeaway for me is that solving this issue is going to take incremental changes. Every little thing counts. Even this concept of getting every country down to 1.5 Earths would require multiple policies to be enacted, one at a time, until large-scale impacts are realized. This is by no means to say that there shouldn’t be a sense of urgency or support for radical efforts, but rather that we cannot afford to neglect the gradual adjustments from the status quo necessary to move the needle. Every little thing counts.
After Dr. Wasserman’s lecture, we began preparing for the UN mock debate. Nick and I were paired together and assigned China as our country. This proved to be a difficult assignment, as China is arguably the worst country in terms of its negative impact on climate change, currently emitting the most greenhouse gasses of any nation by far. We quickly realized that we needed to propose a resolution that significantly addressed our own impacts, since we were such a large contributor to the problem. If we were to genuinely address the issue of climate change, it only made sense that a country like ours that essentially got everyone into this mess (along with other major contributors like the US) should have to make large sacrifices. This led us to propose a resolution in which we pledged to increase our dependence on renewable sources from 15% to 30% of our total energy by 2025 and to greatly accelerate our reforestation efforts. In order to further the overall outreach of our proposal, we also vowed to transition all foreign BRI power plants from coal-powered to renewable sources and to contribute a substantial initial donation to a global fund for investment in renewable energy. I was proud of how we were able to come up with a reasonable, multi-faceted plan that sacrificed some of our country’s own interests in exchange for the greater good. Unfortunately, in the real world a resolution like this is unlikely to be seen, with large countries like China wanting to protect their industries. For the changes we need to slow down climate change, though, it seems unavoidable that the big players will have to make difficult decisions. This is why we chose to make the sacrifices we did. Countries like the US and China simply have to be at the forefront of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order for our planet to be saved.
We finished up our week with a two night homestay in Monteverde, which was an awesome experience. Our family was incredibly warm and caring. Leia, Nick and I did our best to speak Spanish to them, and we were able to have some really enjoyable conversations. Their awareness of climate change was quite noticeable, and I think it speaks to the cultural differences between the US and Costa Rica. In the US, a very large portion of the population is dismissive and/or in denial of anthropogenic climate change and what it threatens. With this homestay family, and with all of our other experiences in Costa Rica, that sentiment was never shared. People here seem to be very knowledgeable about and aware of the implications of climate change. Our host family spoke about how the climate in Monteverde was much cooler and less humid 20 years ago but has changed fairly drastically as a result of global warming. They also applauded us for making the effort to study climate change here and to be part of the “solution” going forward. I was uplifted by the strong awareness of climate change that we saw throughout Costa Rica, but it also made me sad to think about how Costa Ricans – and in particular our homestay family – could be impacted by it in the near future. Ophelia, the woman from our homestay family, gave us a tour of her family farm on our second evening there. I couldn’t help but be weary of the changing climate and how that could affect her family’s livelihood, especially after experiencing how amazingly warm and generous they were to us. On the brightside, the farm was absolutely beautiful, and they had invested in an AirBNB rental located near the farm that they were supporting their income with. Nevertheless, the visit made me more aware of how climate change could really wreak havoc on less privileged communities as its effects amplify. I am leaving this trip with great love and fascination for Costa Rica, as well as an increased sense of responsibility to be someone that pushes the needle in the right direction when it comes to climate change. I will continue seeking out opportunities to help the cause, generate greater awareness, and to increase my sustainability. Visiting Costa Rica has been an absolute pleasure, and I can’t wait to return sometime in the near future.
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