This is my third year here in Decarbonize & Decolonize, and through out this years I have learned countless lessons and I have made changes, that even if they are small, they have a big impact of the environment. I'm proud to say that my school as of this year has the "Blue ecological flag" that here in Costa Rica is a reward for the effort and volunteer work of the different committees that seek to improve hygienic and environmental conditions to help the planet. We continue to work as a community, but also individually to be more environmentally conscious and sustainable because even small changes make a wide difference.
 

How does your footprint reflect the economy/ status/ location/ politics of your country?

Even though we sometimes think that our carbon footprint has nothing to do with our country, it does affect it in many ways: 

Economy: Costa Rica is still a developing country were the economy is affected a lot by our carbon footprint. Our country is surrounded by ocean and a lot of the people live near it. If we are not conscious about our footprint and eventually the sea levels rise, then there will be a problem because lots of houses, roads, and infrastructure in general will be affected. And because of this we would lose lots of tourism, and that is our country's biggest economic income.

Status: Costa Rica has always had a very good reputation because we are a very green country filled with taint forests, beaches, and home for lots of animals. We currently produce 98% of our energy with renewable resources. We are working on transforming that into a 100%, but if we are not cautious about our carbon footprint, then the whole country would be affected.

Location: Our country is surrounded by water so because if we don't reduce our carbon footprint, the coast will disappear because the sea level will rise. If we aren't more aware of our footprint, there is going to be a lot more deforestation and we are going to lose the rain forests that are home for lots of animals that we have in Costa Rica.

Politics: Our government is trying to keep the country in the same direction we are right now, and try to get to be carbon neutral. They are creating laws to protect certain places in our country that are endangered. Banning things such as the use of polystyrene is going to help us reach the goal of becoming a carbon neutral country, and if we don’t help by being cautious about our footprint, then this won’t work. 

How does your footprint relate to power imbalances & justice when it comes to carbon mitigation plans?

The plan is for Costa Rica to be a carbon neutral country but the public transport is not efficient, if we ride the bus there’s a very high probability that you get robbed or assaulted in some way. This is why most of us that are students either go to school by car or ride the private bus that our school has, and this makes our carbon footprint to be higher than people that do use public transportation. Even though our country is very small most of the places are not at a walking distance so you even have to take your car to the local supermarket, and small things as such make our carbon footprint to be higher. We also have some very unjust advantages when comparing ourselves to some people that don’t have such good education when it comes to preservation of nature, reducing, recycling, or all that it takes to conserve the planet, and this makes our carbon footprint to reduce in comparison to theirs. 

I have come to realize that even though our planet is in very bad condition, there is still a chance. People are working together for the same cause. We are all worried about our planet, but even if we just stop using plastic, or start supporting our local markets to reduce our carbon footprint,  it makes a difference. Little things make a difference, and  if we work together there is a bigger possibility that we could save our planet.

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