Costa Rica Revisted

Its now been ten years. Ten years since I last stepped foot on Costa Rican soil. Fresh out of high school and still trying to find my way in life I somehow drifted down to our continental isthmus. Into a world strange but not unkind.

In one week I'll be heading back down to that lush country, and I could not help but reminisce a little. I admit that I was young and naive when I first found myself in Costa Rica, but that only made my experiences more important. In Costa Rica I learned many life lessons: That I had been a sheltered child, a privileged child, and a child that other people would want to rob, and did. I learned that a human cannot out run a bull. That friends need not speak the same language, and are not permanent. And that Central America has an amazing array of cultural and biological diversity.

I learned these things by leaving behind what I had known and embracing difference, by speaking another language, and absorbing some cultural history found in what we eat.

Being young I traveled the rougher paths, and stayed in the cheaper hostels, and sometimes flirted with danger by drinking... tap water. And rather than other Americans joining me in these enterprises my companions were from Denmark or the British Isles, Korea or Japan. Less often did I meet fellow Americans, and less often did I want to.

Most Americans relish comfort, and it is my fear that when Americans travel in too much comfort, in too much familiarity, that they fail at traveling. Because being in another country should be to push your comfort zone, to rub abrasively against a new language and culture, and in doing so learn something about yourself and the world. Cancun is not traveling. Tijuana is not traveling. Acapulco is not traveling. Resorts, comfort, and familiarity are vacations. Americans need more travel.

Americans are poor global citizens, but I think if we can get out there and meet what's across the border that will change. The next time you travel abroad, push those boundaries, knot your tongue around another language, and I promise I'll do the same. So bring on Costa Rica Round 2. After a ten year hiatus there's nothing I could look forward to more.

Earth, Wind, and Fire: Creating True Multi-Use Landscapes

Despite recent winter congestion in my head, ideas about wind have been passing through on a regular basis. A proven technology with potential for exponential growth, wind power is an unobtrusive, clean energy source. And possibly a way to get more than just reductions in CO2 emissions.

Opponents of wind power have argued that it kills birds (true but unsubstantial, here, here, and here), degrades landscapes (a matter of opinion), or results in health problems like wind turbine syndrome (a possible reason for creating federal residential setback standards?). However, it seems increasingly clear that the benefits of wind power far outweigh its negatives. These many benefits and wind power’s increasing competitiveness with other forms of energy have led me to believe that on top of leading the charge of green energy, wind power will sustain it.

My mind conjures up images of a flat barren ground, wind whistling through the air, with turbine upon turbine stretching out over the horizon, supplying millions of kilowatts of clean energy. But recently I've realized that the barren ground in my vision could hold as much potential as the slow slinging blades above.

To get enough energy with wind power to meet growing demand will require the installation of large scale wind farms that cover vast areas. Many people have championed the idea that these wind farms be located in marginal areas, thus avoiding damage to sensitive ecosystems. That is smart planning, but can’t we do more? Even marginal lands can be used for more than just turbine installation sites.

A couple of potential land-use combinations spring to mind:

1) Biofuels and Wind - Much has been made about the potential to grow switchgrass, a source of cellulosic ethanol, on marginal lands. Why not combine wind and switchgrass production and get a two for one energy source?

2) Grazing and Wind - Picture vast herds of livestock under vast rows of wind turbines. Need I say more?

3) Prairies and Wind - Many conservationists have decried the loss of what were once two of the largest ecosystems in North America, native tall and short grass prairies. At first a marriage between wind farms and prairie restoration may seem like a stretch, but I think that with proper planning it holds a lot of potential.

4) Prairies, Bison, and Wind - Think idea number 2, but this time with herds of bison roaming through long stretches of restored native prairie. Food, biodiversity, and energy, all in one place.

So the next you think about wind energy, try to think beyond just the turbine.