Pollution In Costa Rica

Pollution is a common topic of discussion in both the news and in casual conversation, but I never stopped to question my own country’s role in the issue. I had blindly believed that the United States was doing all we could, but my views were reversed when I took a school trip to Costa Rica, a small Central American country. Costa Rica has made incredible environmentally beneficial changes to their electricity production, factories and way of life that the United States defiantly needs to take example from. In the United States, just by looking out your car window, it’s easy to spot a plant burning and producing energy. Over eighty five percent of the United States’ energy is made from nonrenewable resources, which not only are being diminished,

First to an oxcart factory and then to a coffee plantation. One of my first observations was that both were solely powered by hydroelectric energy. They had long pulley systems moving both huge machines and small ones alike. Although I personally couldn’t judge how these would work for different products, it was working fine for Costa Rica. On the contrary, passing a factory while passing a factory on the United States looks like you’ve entered a storm. With clouds of smoke and steam climbing up into the atmosphere it’s no wonder we have a problem with smog. Mass production is a thing that US factories do well, but the quality is lessened by the fake sugars and shortcuts that are taken. Costa Rica on the other hand produces beautifully handmade oxcarts, the highest quality coffee, and chocolate made without palm oil. Obviously, although less products are produced, Costa Rica thrives in environmental safely in factories and quality of goods compared to the

I’ll admit Costa Rica is mostly rural, but San Jose is extremely similar to US cities. It even has restaurants like taco bell and TGI Friday’s. The difference comes from rules in the cities. In the United States, there are hardly any laws that limit drivers from actually driving. I will say that there have been improvements in the number of cars on the road with Uber, Lyft, or a plain old taxi becoming more popular and encouraging carpooling. In San Jose however, there is an actual law that prohibits a certain amount of people to drive on a specific day of the week according to the number on their license plate. This run not only limits traffic, but it also regulates the amount of exhausts being released into the atmosphere and makes me ask myself if the US could do