Costa Rica: The Land that Hates Nature

Tourists (usually North American, i.e. U.S. Americans and Canadians) that come to Costa Rica, come and they see this:




… beautiful rainforests and magnificent beaches. However, they do not see the reality of the country. A reality that is far from being "nature loving". The country, promotes itself to the world as a country that is "one with nature", so to say.





But this is what really happens:




The previous administration, of Oscar Arias, was marked by one thing: Uncontrolled development (and international treaties) and destruction of nature. He may have won a Nobel Peace Prize, but he's incredibly corrupt (re-elections were illegal until he bought the deputies so they could correct that), and did nothing to help preserve CRn nature. (And who can't win a Nobel Peace Prize nowadays? Even Obama won one, whilst the US military is still invading Iraq. So much for "peace".). Not only that, but as you can see in the picture above (the cartoon), he let a Canadian company (Vannessa Ventures) come and try to open up the biggest mine in Central America, the now-famous Crucitas. Ironic, since this type of mining is not legal in Canada. (Tar-sands is another issue.)

Crucitas is something that should never happen, and a country as CR should be ashamed of itself (at least its governors should), for even approving it. Thousands of trees will be cut, rivers will be polluted, and animals will be killed and moved. What's more ironic is that the government only takes 3% of all the money that the company will make out of the gold extraction. But perhaps someone else is taking a bigger share….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-YZqZH_ZvQ&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6YUVOnyNzI&feature=related



The current president (as seen in this link "http://www.nacion.com/2010-06-06/AldeaGlobal/NotaPrincipal/AldeaGlobal2397984.aspx" ), of the same party as Oscar Arias (Liberación Nacional) thinks that everything is solved by planting a few trees. My opinion: Rubbish. Unless the country has a sustainable and controlled development, and rejects ipso facto projects like Crucitas, we will never stop being hypocrites. Remember: There can't be development without nature.