Costa Rica Invest

How is Christmas celebrated in Costa Rica

2009-12-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

Costa Ricans have their own special way of celebrating Christmas or “Navidad”. Most of the traditions are based on popular religious beliefs, and many are similar to those of other Latin American countries. Of course, Costa Ricans always like to do things their way….the Tico way.

December is probably the most festive month of the year, as the Ticos look forward to vacation from work or school, eating traditional foods, meeting up with friends and family and, of course, “mucha fiesta”! Costa Ricans get together with their families to prepare for the birth of Baby Jesus and the New Year to come. Along with intense religious celebration in this predominantly Catholic country, there is another reason for an exciting atmosphere – money! Every working Tico is required by law to receive an “aguinaldo” from their employer, a Christmas bonus established by the government equal to one month’s salary. The streets become full of people spending their aguinaldo at the “chinamos”, small seasonal street vendors only around during the holiday season. Items for sale range from manger scenes called “Pasitos”, to decorations like lights and ornaments, to cheap toys for children. Also for sale in markets and street stalls are piles of gleaming apples and grapes. Visitors may wonder where all this fruit grows in Costa Rica during December. While many tropical fruits grow all year round, these are actually imported for the holiday season, as apples and grapes are a considered a special Christmas treat for Ticos.

December is also special in Costa Rica because the season changes from rainy to dry, and the days are cool and sunny. You can hear the Ticos say that it feels like Christmas or “pura Navidad” when the cool wind comes. The nights are clear and starry, and the air is crisp compared to the muggier months of the rainy season. Ticos celebrate Christmas by decorating a tree, usually a cypress, with a gold star on top and bright lights and ornaments, much like the U.S. Ticos generally prefer “louder” light decorations with plenty of odd flashing patterns. Every house in Costa Rica has a Christmas tree, specially cut to be big and round, and presents are placed underneath for adults to give to each other near midnight on “Noche Buena”, Christmas Eve. The gifts for children come on Christmas day. Instead of Santa coming to bring presents, Baby Jesus is credited with the wonderful gifts. However, as more and more foreigners influence Costa Rica, Santa is starting to make stops there! That being said, in Costa Rica you still ask the niños “What did the Baby bring you?”

Another very important tradition is “el portal”, the portrayal of the manger scene with Mary, Joseph, animals, the three Magic Kings, and all the shepherds and their sheep. Construction of each family’s portal is a well-planned event, usually culminating with inviting friends and family over to show off the decorations. Portals are filled with crafted wood, decorative papers of different colors, plant mosses, ramps to create different levels, multi-colored sawdust, glitter, and lighting.

On December 24th at midnight, not before, Baby Jesus is born and is placed in the portal where he stays until the three Magic Kings come to see him on January 6th. Ticos have a late night Christmas Eve dinner with a pork leg and tamales. Costa Rican tamales are made from corn flour and can contain potato puree, chorizo (a spicy pork sausage), a special achiote rice, shredded pork or chicken, and other vegetables wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. For a really fancy tamal, expect olives and capers in the mix. Eggnog, heavy with rum, is drunk, while people visit friends and family to give presents before midnight.

Then, the midnight mass or “Misa del Gallo” is attended. It’s a long service, and often Ticos are too tired to make it all the way through the two hour mass! With the Tico traditions of food, fun and family, Christmas is definitely the happiest time of the year

Thank you to Costarica.com for this great article on Tico Christmas traditions and you can read the full article here

Costa Rica Tops Happy Life Years Index.

2009-12-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

Erasmus University, Rotterdam has developed an index which combines life expectancy with satisfaction with life to produce the Happy Life Years Index.

This Index is published on the World Database of Happiness and this years findings were presented at the world OECD World Forum in Busan, Korea in October of this year.

And top of the pile in the Happy Life Years Index was - Costa Rica with a score of 66.7 happy life years, followed closely Iceland (66.4) and Denmark (65)

The USA came in the middle rankings with a score of 58 happy life years.

Click here to see the full listing and see how Happy your country is.

How about your own Tree House in Costa Rica!

2009-12-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

I came across this video on building your own tree house in Costa Rica and was quite taken by it.

Lots of hard work - but the end result was a four floor, rainforest tree house.

Even Better you can actually rent it out and stay there!

Here's the video.......

And you can book the rainforest house by visiting site www.treehouseincostarica.com

Festival of Light

2009-12-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Costa Rican Festival of Light (Festival de la Luz) is a traditional carnival parade held at the beginning of December in San Jose,

A great family night out, it features brightly lit floats, interspersed with celebrities, marching bands and much much more.

To read the Tico Times Coverage of this years parade, just click here

Costa Rica's Answers to Fight Climate Change.

2009-12-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

Costa Rica will propose a carbon capture plan at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held next month in Copenhagen.

According to Costa Rica's Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce, Eduardo Sibaja, Costa Rica was the first country to suggest a Carbon capture program where a mechanism was put in place to exchange clean air produced by Costa Rica's rain forests for CO2 emissions produced by industrial nations.

Additionally, there is a mechanism to measure the chemicals in the industrialized countries air versus Costa Rica's clean air.

At the conference Costa Rica will also propose a reclassification of countries incomes to reward countries which spend more on areas like peace and environmental protection.

Under the current simple classification poor countries receive the most international funding irrespective, in many cases, of what the funding is spent on. Whilst successful countries making positive global contributions receive little or no international funding.

Costa Rica will propose a reclassification of the assessment of countries incomes to reward those countries making positive global impacts with additional funding.

The Full story can be read in The Costa Rica News: Costa Rica’s answers to fight climate change

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Vic Reeves's Heaven on Earth is Costa Rica

2009-12-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

The comedian Vic Reeves describes his most memorable holiday: two weeks spent in the jungles of Costa Rica

" I had the most fabulous holiday in Costa Rica. It's the most amazing place to go if you're into wildlife: a real animal paradise.

My wife, Nancy, and I travelled to Corcovado National Park (http://ww w.costarica-nationalparks.com/) for a couple of weeks, forgot about the world outside and lost ourselves, so to speak, in the jungle's rich and diverse animal and bird life.

We stayed at a rangers' station in the middle of the park, which you reach via a boat trip down a river and a jungle trail; there's nothing for a couple of hundred miles around.

Being plunged into this other world was such a revelation: every time I looked out of the window there was something to see – a tapir (a big, pig-like creature), a spider monkey, a hummingbird… and I'll never forget being woken at four in the morning by the howler monkeys… boy, can they howl.

And strange as it may sound, the three hours I spent trying to get a half-decent picture of a hummingbird – which is harder than it sounds – were three of the best hours I've spent in my life.

Staying in the middle of the jungle might not be to everyone's taste. The food was pretty basic – consisting of a lot of beans and rice – and the camp itself was one of the most unsanitary places I've ever stayed. We even had a cockroach or two for company in our cabin… but in a weird way, that just made it all the better.

Of course, you have to go prepared, have all sorts of injections and resign yourself to being bitten by the odd mosquito, regardless of the amount of repellent you use. Indeed, Nancy, poor thing, got bitten on the leg by some kind of spider that left a rock-hard egg-sized lump on her neck. So, yes, there are things out there… but you really don't want to worry about them."

Read the full story in the Telegraph and you can read about Vic's trip in Vic Reeves's 'Vast Book of World Knowledge' is published by Atlantic Books (19.99).

New Free Trade Deal very Lucrative for Costa Rican Coffee Growers

2009-12-02T01:09:00.000-08:00

* Free trade deal would open China to Costa Rica coffee
* Coffee drinking growing fast in tea-drinking country
* Some growers want high-quality beans protected

By Leslie Josephs SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Nov 12 (Reuters)

A planned trade deal between Costa Rica and China might bring a bounty to coffee growers in the Central American country which has an advantage over its neighbors who are still allied with Beijing's rival Taiwan.

If a text is agreed for the trade pact, currently in the last round of negotiations, Costa Rica could become the third Latin American country after Chile and Peru to reach such a deal with China.
The tiny Central American nation is seeking "immediate access" of its high quality beans to the Asian giant, Costa Rica's chief negotiator, Fernando Ocampo said. China is Costa Rica's second-largest trade partner after the United States.

Last week, the two countries concluded a fifth round of free trade talks, but will draw up norms on coffee, sugar and other agriculture products in a sixth and final round of negotiation in mid-February.

On Thursday, coffee industry leaders from around the world are gathering in the Costa Rican province of Guanacaste for the annual Sintercafe three-day coffee conference.

Coffee demand in traditionally tea-drinking China has risen in recent years as the country's fast economic growth means a growing class of young, upwardly mobile consumers could be next to adopt coffee drinking habits.

"It's such a big market that there are always opportunities for different kinds of coffee," said Juan Carlos Vargas, general manager of Coopetarrazu, which groups 250 small producers in the lush Tarrazu region of western Costa Rica.

Vargas said the Chinese market is developing a taste for Costa Rica's fine coffee, not just cheaper, lower-quality Vietnamese robusta or domestically-grown coffee.

"They are going to be interested in our coffee. In fact, Starbucks is already there," he said.
Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), a top buyer of Costa Rican coffee, has nearly 700 cafes in China now and sees the potential for thousands of new stores. China has seen double-digit growth in coffee sales in the past couple of years.

WANTS BEANS PROTECTED

Costa Rica ended a 60-year diplomatic ties with Taiwan and forged relations with mainland China in 2007. China shuns commercial relationships with governments like Guatemala -- Central America's No. 1 coffee producer -- that recognize Taiwan as a country.

But an untapped market of China's size is not enough to win the immediate support of all farmers, who have called on the government to protect the high-quality reputation of Costa Rican coffee with a certification clause in the trade pact.

Ronald Peters, executive director of the government-funded Costa Rica Coffee Institute, said local farmers worry Chinese importers could mix their specialty beans in blends and pass it off as Costa Rican, diluting the brand.

"We have a clear position in terms of demanding a strict origin norm to inform (buyers) that the Costa Rican coffee was produced in Costa Rica," Peters said.

Costa Rica's small-scale coffee farmers, who grow the famed beans on parcels of just 5 hectares or less, comprise more than 90 percent of the country's production.

Click here to read the full story by Leslie Josephs on Reuters

10 Great Reasons to Take a Trip to Costa Rica now

2009-11-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

10 GREAT Reasons to Visit Costa Rica Now by Victor Krumm

Tired of the humdrum? Need to get away and relax? I have just the place for you. Costa Rica. Here are 10 terrific reasons to take a Costa Rica vacation.

1. You’ll find great airfares and travel bargains to Costa Rica right now.

2. There are 780 miles of pristine coastline with hundreds of great Costa Rica beaches. Uncrowded beaches on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

3. Like critters? Costa Rica has more species of butterflies than the entire African continent iincluding the only butterfly in the world that makes a sound. Not to mention almost as many different species of birds as on the entire continent of Europe or in all of the continental United States.

4. In a country about the same size as West Virginia, youll find nearly 5% of all the kinds of plants and animals on the face of the planet. Think about it. One of every five species of plants and animals in the world.

5. Visit mighty Irazu volcano that saluted John F. Kennedy by erupting on the day he visited Costa Rica. Or go to Arenal Volcano, another of the Seven Wonders, and luxuriate in magnificent hot springs, drink in hand while the monster spits out glowing lava far into the night sky.

6. Thousands of Americans travel to Costa Rica for cosmetic surgery, dental, or other medical care because the quality of care is world-class but often only about a one-third of the price in the States.

7. Some folks come to take Spanish lessons in schools that also teach them how to surf! Or yoga. Or sexy latin dancing. Or all of the above.

8. How about fantastic weather year-round? If you get too warm, drive a few miles into the lush mountains. Swim in warm waters every day of the year.

9. Like a good fish story? I do. This will not be the story about the one that got away. Bring your camera or video camera. You will have proof! You can fish every day of the year for an unimaginable variety of fish. The Caribbean is filled with huge tarpon. Sailfish and marlin (I hooked a 450 pound, 13 marlin recently) are common. Not to mention whales and sea turtles.

10. You will be just a short trip away from a place where there is a stable democracy. Costa Rica abolished its army more than 70 years ago and you will find lots of friendly, smiling courteous people who really like Americans and Europeans.

And, for being a good sport, I have your first Spanish lesson as a bonus. Remember the words Pura Vida! It means the great life and you will hear and use it every day.

About the Author:
Victor Krumm writes from Costa Rica. His popular website about Costa Rica Vacations. Ever imagined tropical surfing? Check out www.costarica-discCosta Rica Surfing for world-renowned beaches and incredible waves. See the original article here.

Costa Rica and Turkey consider Free Trade Agreement

2009-11-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

Oscar Arias, President of Costa Rica is currently on an official visit to Turkey, the first Costa Rican President to visit. Costa Rica plans to open an embassy in Turkey in 2011 and on Wednesday the Turkish and Costa Rican leaders announced that they intended to to sign a free trade agreement to boost bilateral economic relations and also enhance political ties.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul told a joint press conference with his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias that Turkey wants to sign a free trade agreement soon with Costa Rica, which has a sound economy with increasing foreign investment, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a political consultation mechanism between their foreign ministries.

Costa Rica and Panama Strengthen Ties

2009-11-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Panama and Costa Rica further strengthen cooperation by signing a bilateral agreement on the 29th of October 2009.

The agreement signed by Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and his Costa Rican counterpart Oscar Arias pledges to expand and deepen political and social dialogue on bilateral and international issues of mutual interest, the commercial ties, and cultural exchanges and to achieve integration between the two countries.

Both countries share the same democratic and social freedom values and the agreement aims to expand the cooperation between the countries beyond just economic ties.

You can read more on this in the Panama Guide

Monthly Economic Activity for Costa Rica Improves

2009-11-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

The Tico Times reports improvements in the Costa Rican Economic indices and further evidence that the Costa Rican Economy has begun to recover:

Over the past year the the monthly average decrease of the monthly Economic Activity Index (IMAE) was 3.6%. During the month of September this improved to a 0.1% contraction.

The Manufacturing Sector, in particular, showed improvement mainly due to to increased exports by businesses located in free-trade zones.

Other increases in economic activity during the month of September included sales of electrical energy and hotel revenues which have improved with increased tourist spending.

Read the full story in the Tico Times here

New Video about Costa Rica

2009-11-19T02:25:00.001-08:00

Cemetery dating from 300AD-800AD excavated in Costa Rica

2009-11-18T02:28:00.001-08:00

A pre-columbian cemetery dating from 300-800Ad has been found in Guapiles during ground preparation works for building a new schoool.

The cemetery was constructed by the Huetares tribe and the design is not a standard Huetares cemetery construction which has puzzled archaeologists.

59 ancient artifacts have already been found during the excavation.

Read the full story on CostaRicapages.com

Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

2009-11-15T02:28:00.000-08:00

Stone Balls or spheres have been discovered throughout the world. Those found in Costa Rica are the subject of many books and papers, with some authors identifying themselves as the discoverers.

However, they were actually found in 1940 during agricultural activities by the United Fruit Company. They were clearing land on the Diquis Delta to be used for banana plantations. An archaeological investigation was underway shortly afterward along with the first scholarly publication about them appearing in 1943.

Hundreds of these balls have been documented all over the country of Costa Rica. Although some have been destroyed, dynamited by treasure hunters or cracked and broken by agricultural activities. Only six are believed to be in their original locations. They range from a few centimeters to over two meters in diameter. Almost all of them are made of granodiorite, a hard, volcanic stone, possibly taken from a Talamanca mountain range about 50 miles from their location. Unlike the stone balls in Jalisco, Mexico, they are not natural in origins but monolithic sculptures made by human hands.

No one knows exactly how old they are. Costa Rica has no recorded history before 1502 when Columbus made his fourth transatlantic voyage. Archaeologists used pottery and other artifacts found near the balls to make their best educated guess. They believe the balls could have been made anywhere between A.D. 200 and 1500. Old but not as old as the pyramids or Stonehenge.

How or why they were created remains a mystery.

Thank you to the paranormal stories blog for this excellent article

http://paranormalstories.blogspot.com/2009/11/stone-balls-of-costa-rica.html

What Does Pura Vida Mean to You?

2009-11-12T03:29:00.000-08:00

I asked the question on our Facebook Page - What does Pura Vida Mean?

Kevin Peterson came back with the following response which I really enjoyed and I hope you enjoy it too…..

“Pura Vida in practice has many meanings and is used in many different contexts. It is as much an expression of a way of life as it is a commonly used phrase. Hawaiians use Aloha in a similar way, but Aloha has a different connotation. One of my favorite things is to see the huge grin on a Ticos face when you use the expression after there has been some sort of mistake or delay. It is like the Universal excuse. Anything that goes wrong can be absolved by the use of those two little words.

The other thing that I find interesting is that Pura Vida is the ultimate expression of "living in the moment". I remember in the 70s there was the whole "Be Here Now" philosophy that was going around the West. But for Westerners it really just an idea. We never really lived it. For Costa Ricans it is a way of life and Pura Vida is ... Read morethe ultimate expression of that.

Sometimes the "living in the moment" aspect of Costa Rican culture can be maddening for us westerners because we like to make plans and create a structure for our future events. But you have to give the Ticos credit. It may be difficult to make future plans with Ticos but they sure are a happy lot ........ Pura Vida.”

Kevin is the founder of the Eco-Preservation Society.

You can connect with Kevin on facebook here and on twitter at http://twitter.com/ecointeractive (over 80,000 followers follow Kevin’s Tweets!)

The Ecotinteractive website is http://unhub.com/EcoInteractive

Thank you for the fantastic and enjoyable comments Kevin and Pura Vida

Costa Rica's 2020 Vision

2009-11-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

Costa Rica's Ambassador to the UK, Her Excellency Pilar Saborio, talks about Costa Rica's 2020 vision, Costa Rica's environmental vision and how small countries can have a global impact:

Pura Vida

2009-11-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

Pura Vida – Costa Rica, Central America
By: Lisa Lubin

Pura Vida

In Costa Rica there’s a saying that permeates everyday life. Pura Vida literally translates to "pure life". It’s also used to mean "it’s all good". Here are a few examples.

“How are you?” “Pura Vida.”

“How’s the weather?” “Pura Vida.”

A pretty girl or cute muchacho is “Pura Vida".

Pura Vida is an attitude, a feeling. It’s all good. It’s relaxing, taking it easy. In the States we don’t have this outlook in everything we do.

It makes me think about how we say we want to live life to the fullest. It's so hard to do when we are preoccupied with working, making more money to buy more things, commuting, running on the treadmill, falling into bed exhausted. How do we have time to really "live life", pura vida?
We say “stop and smell the roses”, “work to live, don’t live to work.” It takes five seconds to say these words, five seconds to think about the meaning before our own daily thoughts, responsibilities and to-do lists crash into our brain.

I'm no expert. If I figure how to make "life" better, I'll let you know. Do the same for me.

Pura vida!

Thank you to Lisa Lubin for this excellent article and to read more about Lisa Lubin's travels, go here.

There's an i-phone App for that (a tour of Costa Rica)

2009-11-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

There seems to be an i-phone app for everything nowadays and here is one for visitors to Costa Rica, an i-phone tour guide to Costa Rica App.

It promises:

General information about the Costa Rica: Etimology, History, Geography, Climate,Architecture, Monuments and landmarks, Culture, Economy, Demographics, Administration, Transportation;

Travel tips on: How to get in there, how to Get around and local traffic, major language and habit, what to see there, major attractions, what you can do, event in the year and time frame, local special to buy and where, local food, price level and where to try, tips for learning or working there, where to drink and how to get there, how to choose hotel, how to stay safe, rules to follow for being polite, who to come to when in emergency, way to get out.

Photos slide of Costa Rica provide a virtual view to you to feel and smell, besides text, what you are heading to.

Shake to know：Shake your iPhone/iTouch will present topics randomly, it is designed to make your reading as a fun, and help you to know in topic by topic way when you do not have time to read a long section.

You can see the app here (cost US$0.99)

Costa Rica is the most Prosperous Nation in Latin America

2009-11-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Costa Rica has emerged as the number one amongst Latin American countires in the world’s only global assessment of wealth and well being: The Legatum Prosperity Index.

Other studies rank countries by actual levels of wealth or development, but the Prosperity Index produces rankings based upon the foundations of prosperity: those factors that drive economic growth and produce happy citizens over the long term. As the Index indicates: prosperity is security.

The Legatum Prosperity Index asseses countries in 9 Costa Rica surpassed regional heavyweights Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia in 9 key areas:

Economic Fundamentals: a growing, sound economy that provides opportunities for wealth creation. (rank 55th)

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: an environment friendly to new enterprises and the commercialization of new ideas. (Rank 33rd)

Democratic Institutions: Transparent and accountable governing institutions that promote economic growth. (ranked 28th)

Education: An accessible, high-quality educational system that fosters human development. (ranked 61st)

Health: The physical well being of the populace. (ranked 37th)

Safety and Security: A safe environment in which people can pursue opportunity. (ranked 44th)

Governance: An honest an effective government that preserves order and encourages productive citizenship. (Ranked 38th)

Personal Freedom: The degree to which individuals can choose the course of their lives. (ranked 12th)

Social Capital: Trustworthiness in relationships and strong communities. (ranked 47th)

Costa Rica surpassed regional heavyweights Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia and all other Latin American Countries to rank highest in the region at 32 of 104 countries included in the survey.

Costa Rica scored highest in Personal Freedom, surpassing countries like Japan, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Belgium at the international level. "Costa Ricans enjoy excellent freedom of movement, religion, and speech, and 91% of respondents were satisfied with the freedom to choose in their daily lives.* Tolerance of ethnic minorities and immigrants is above the international average, with 72% of people believing Costa Rica to be a good place for both immigrants and minorities.*"

Whilst ranking highest amongst its neighbouring Latin American Countries is an impressive achievement, Costa Rica has work to do in other areas (particularly education). The Costa Rican Govenrnment is making efforts to address these areas already with almost 25% of the entire National Budget to be spent on education in 2009.

Click on the link to read the full The Legatum Prosperity Index

Related Stories: Costa Rica Ranks Number 1 in the Happy Planet Index.

Costa Rica to become a Carbon Neutral Tourist Destination Right Now.

2009-10-31T07:15:00.001-07:00

Costa Rica announced plans to become the world's first carbon-neutral tourist destination.

At a sustainable tourism conference, the country's ecotourism organization (CANAECO) and the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications signed an agreement that puts in place a system to cover the offsetting of tourists' flights.

Visitors to Costa Rica will not be asked to pick up the costs of the carbon offset for their flights (approx. US$10-$30 per tourists) and offset costs will be raised from those businesses who benefit from a tourist visit to Costa Rica - from international tour operators down to the small lodge housing visitors during their stay, making the ecological effort more affordable.

This is just part of Costa Rica's commitment to become carbon-neutral over all by 2021.

While the tourist receives a carbon-offsetting certificate and the money raised will go to the nation's forestry financing fund (FONAFIFA) to plant what will basically be carbon-absorption forests. Most of the trees to be planted will be indigenous, and will have a 20-year lifespan – at that point, the trees pass their maximum carbon-absorbing ability and will be harvested, with the local farmer receiving the profit.

Full and excellent coverage of this story can be seen at the Globe and Mail

Synthetic Trees - an update

2009-10-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

Of the various geoengineering schemes being proposed to cool an overheated planet, one approach — extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using “artificial trees” — may have the most potential. But both questions and big hurdles remain before this emerging technology could be widely deployed.by David Biello in Environment 360, Business and Innovation section.

A tiny pinwheel spins in the desert breeze atop the roof of the Global Research Technologies headquarters in Tucson. For seven months, the pinwheel has endured the blazing Arizona sun, blistering heat, wind, dust, and — finally — torrential rains. At the end of it all, the synthetic resin that makes up this seeming child’s toy has pulled carbon dioxide from the air that flowed through it and, with the rains, released it again. The pinwheel is one of the first demonstrations of a technology that may one day be in great demand this century: devices that can extract from the air some of the billions of tons of heat-trapping CO2 being generated by industrial society. Known loosely as “artificial trees” for their ability to mimic a plant’s own uptake of carbon, such “air capture” technology has been touted as one of the most promising of the many proposed geoengineering schemes that could be used to cool an overheated planet.“If we really do get into a situation where we realize that we’ve changed the atmosphere too much for our own well-being, there are at least ways to back off of that,” argues climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University, an expert on geoengineering.

“There’s no fundamental limit on how much you could scale those activities up. It’s mostly a matter of how many resources you throw at it.”Recent reports from the U.K.’s Royal Society and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers singled out air capture as the safest and potentially most effective of proposed geoengineering technologies. Even if the technology is successful, scientists face the problem of what to do with the CO2. Although air capture is certainly not without its environmental impacts, the two groups noted that other geoengineering schemes — such as seeding the oceans with iron to stimulate the growth of CO2-absorbing algae, mimicking a volcanic eruption to shade the planet, or launching mirrors into space to deflect the sun’s energy away from Earth — could have far more unpredictable and potentially destabilizing effects.

Proponents of air-capture technology acknowledge it is far from a perfect solution and will not enable humankind to continue spewing CO2 into the atmosphere with impunity. First, although it has been successfully tested on a small scale, air capture is at least five years away from being tested on a larger scale and, after that, could take at least two decades before it could be widely deployed. Second, to set up enough artificial trees to make a dent in reducing the vast amounts of CO2 being produced by humanity would require massive production at enormous expense.“The cost estimates for capturing CO2 from ambient air are gross underestimates,” says principal research engineer Howard Herzog at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s actually still a question whether it will take more energy to capture CO2 than the CO2 associated with [fossil fuel] energy in the first place.”

Even if artificial trees do prove capable of pulling large amounts of CO2 from the air, scientists then face the problem of what to do with that carbon dioxide. Underground sequestration — one possible solution — is still in the experimental stages. And deploying such artificial trees on a mass scale will have significant environmental costs, including producing the electricity needed to run them, the large land area the air capture devices would occupy, and the manufacture and installation of devices using resins, plastics, and other substances that could release air pollutants.As the Royal Society report notes, air capture could “require the creation of an industry that moves material on a scale as large as (if not larger than) that of current fossil fuel extraction, with the risk of substantial local environmental degradation and significant energy requirements.”In short, to extract enough CO2 from the atmosphere to begin to lower temperatures would require decades of building millions of air-capture devices that have been refined to minimize their environmental impact.

Political scientist Roger Pielke, Jr. of the University of Colorado-Boulder estimates that 650 billion tons of carbon will need to be disposed of by 2100 to keep atmospheric concentrations of CO2 around 450 parts per million, a level that could easily lead to temperature rises of 2 degrees C (3.6 F) or higher.“You need 30 years of development time and 100 years of deployment before you start to see the effect you’re looking for,” says oceanographer John Shepherd, who led the Royal Society study of air capture and other geoengineering technologies.That said, if humanity fails to rein in its greenhouse gas emissions, the need for air capture technology could be urgent. If emissions are not reined in, the need for air capture technology could be urgent.After all, concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide have reached 387 parts-per-million (ppm), more than 100 ppm higher than pre-industrial levels and quickly moving beyond what some consider to be a safe level of 350 ppm. Since the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, fossil fuel CO2 emissions have grown by more than 30 percent and overall human-caused emissions have now reached roughly 30 billion tons per year.“Unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far,” the Royal Society wrote in its September report, “additional action may be required should it become necessary to cool the Earth this century.” Pulling CO2 from the air is simple chemistry. After all, a bottle of sodium hydroxide — also known as lye and a primary constituent of everything from soap to pulp and paper — must be kept carefully sealed. That’s because the strong base — the opposite of acid — will be neutralized if exposed to air by rapidly sucking up the CO2 and then transforming the lye into sodium carbonate and, ultimately, baking soda. The captured CO2 can then be extracted via the industrial process of heating the compound above 900 degrees C in a kiln, releasing the CO2, and enabling the sodium hydroxide to regenerate its ability to suck up yet more CO2.The process works, but as physicist Klaus Lackner at Columbia University’s Earth Institute — one of the scientists behind the GRT pinwheel — explains, “The energy to pry out the CO2 is very high.” So-called “artificial trees” mimic a plant’s own uptake of carbon.That’s why Lackner has moved in the direction of finding a strong base resin, such as Dow Chemical’s Marathon A, typically used to produce purified water. The synthetic resin in the pinwheel absorbs CO2 to form bicarbonates when dry, but then spits out the CO2 when exposed to water. “Basically, we can swing between being dry and wet,” Lackner says. “Let the resin sit in air, because air will dry it, and it will absorb CO2, taking an hour to load up. Make it wet, and it’s an hour to unload.”This type of device could be housed in an “oversized furnace filter,” about three feet wide by eight feet long, loosely filled with sheets of the resin, constituting the leaves of this artificial tree. Such a device could capture CO2 for less than $300 per metric ton, though it wouldn’t function in cold climates or the humid tropics.

A number of experiments involving air capture technologies are underway, ranging from efforts to use solid amines — ammonia transformed into compounds capable of bonding with CO2 — to technologies now used to capture some flue gases from exhaust at fossil fuel-fired power plants. Scientists also are attempting to use algae — the workhorses of the Earth’s natural carbon cycle — to cleanse the air of excess CO2. That could have the benefit of creating a new source of fuel or power, since algae incorporate nearly as much energy per kilogram as coal. But as the U.K.’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers put it, algae bioreactors “are a fledgling technology and at the moment are too expensive to be commercially viable.”Artificial trees, on the other hand, could be available as soon as next decade.

The mechanical engineers believe a demonstration could occur as soon as 2014, followed by a full-scale “artificial forest” by 2018 and global deployment by 2040. In the long term, such air capture theoretically has the potential to cancel out human emissions of CO2, according to earth system scientist Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia.Assuming that CO2 can be pulled from ambient air, that still leaves the other half of the problem: storing it safely somewhere. Efforts to capture CO2 from coal-fired power plants have seized upon geologic sequestration as a potential solution.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the continental U.S. alone has room for 3.9 trillion tons of CO2 underground, more than enough room for the 3.2 billion tons emitted every year by large industrial sources. Still, major questions remain about underground sequestration, including its impact on groundwater supplies, subterranean pressure, and the potential for the CO2 to leak back into the atmosphere.Certain geologic formations may offer a solution by mimicking the chemical transformation of air capture itself. Basalt formations — a residue of volcanic activity — can absorb CO2 and, over decades, transform it into minerals. An experiment by Reykjavik Energy to prove the concept by injecting the CO2 from a geothermal power plant into basalt beneath the surface is underway in Iceland, which is primarily composed of the igneous rock.Even if technology and storage issues are resolved, CO2 air capture will require significant amounts of new electricity to power the devices. Lackner proposes a new fleet of nuclear reactors or widespread solar power.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimates that it could take as many as 10 million air-capture devices sucking up one metric ton of CO2 per day to absorb just 3.6 billion tons — about one-tenth of current global emissions. The costs of deploying these devices could be staggering. Climatologist James Hansen estimates it would cost roughly $20 trillion per 50 ppm of CO2 removed. “It’s on the scale of the global military effort,” the Carnegie Institution’s Caldeira says. “The tragedy is there’s no reason to be considering these options at all if we could just learn to cooperate [on reducing emissions], but the evidence that we are learning to cooperate is not very strong.”Still, Lackner remains undeterred. By the end of the year, he hopes to have a small demonstration of his resin-based artificial tree — looking more like a mobile home with a large pinwheel on top — running at Columbia University.

Physicist David Keith of the University of Calgary will launch his air capture company, which uses amines to extract CO2, in October.“If we had lots of money and things went really well, we could build a pilot plant in five years,” Keith says. “I’m not saying we will be. This field is filled with people’s overconfidence.”The Royal Society’s Shepherd said that, given the expense of air capture technology, “the first line of defense would be carbon capture and storage and taking it out at the point of emission.” But air capture could be effective in offsetting emissions from sources such as airlines, Shepherd said.The challenges — and expense — of air capture also serve as a stark reminder to policy makers that the best tactic for combating climate change is to pursue energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and avoid emitting CO2 in the first place. As the Royal Society report notes: “The safest and most predictable method of moderating climate change is to take early and effective action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. No geoengineering method can provide an easy or readily acceptable alternative solution to the problem of climate change.”Not even artificial trees.

POSTED ON 08 Oct 2009 IN Business & Innovation section of Environment 360

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2009-10-25T03:41:00.000-07:00

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Costa Rica is the Safest Country in Latin America

2009-10-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

The third annual Latin Security Index developed by FTI Consulting Ibero America for Latin Business Chronicle has ranked Costa Rica as the most secure country in Lain America for foreign multinationals and their executives.

The Latin Security Index measures the danger level in Latin America based on a number of factors affecting corporate security and the safety of foreign business executives. These ratings are based on official numbers from public security secretariats, local police, governments, NGO's and institutes of criminal investigations.

Each country receives rating from 1 to 5 with 1 representing a non-dangerous country and 5 representing a very dangerous country.

Full coverage of this story is available in Inside Costa Rica.

Shameless Plug

2009-10-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Andrea Kirkby wrote an excellent extensive article on Costa Rica Invest and the opportunities in Cost Rica and Finca Di Pacifico Dos in the Overseas Property Professional Magazine and you can download the article here

Shameless self promotion!

Nature Air Ranked Number 1 Eco Friendly Airline Worldwide

2009-10-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

According to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the CO2 from aviation accounts for 1.6% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to reach 2.5% by 2050. IATA started the environmental movement for airlines by setting an important and semnificant goal – creating a zero-emissions airplane within 50 years.

Last month, the airline industry also made a pledge to halve emissions by 2050 to force the development of a new, greener technology they can use. Some airlines have went further by pioneering new eco-friendly technologies that really make a statement. The Airline Post's picked the 5 most eco friendly airlines in the world and at number 1, they placed Nature Air, Costa Rica's national airline.

The airline is built on a 100% carbon neutral aviation program. Nature Air, Costa Rica’s national airline, engages passengers in a carbon offset scheme and a commitment for fuel reduction, both on the ground and in the air. They operate 74 daily flights with 8 aircrafts and improved fuel efficiency by 7% by training their crew, reducing aircrafts’ weight and focusing on flight planning. Nature Air has developed Costa Rica’s only bio-diesel fueling station and aims to become climate neutral by 2021, when the country will celebrate 200 years of independence.

To read the full story on The Airline Post's website just click here