Why should I care?
A walk through the Costa Rican rainforest, and UGA’s carbon offset program
Our first encounter with the Costa Rican wild came on a hike through the Sendero Camino Real in the late morning of our first full day. The camino, the longest of a number of trails on UGA’s campus, takes about an hour and a half to traverse, with added time to stop and learn about the plants and wildlife from one of the campus naturalists.
The experience in the rainforest confirmed what had occurred to me about the land during our surreal bus ride the night before, when I became aware of a profound sense that everything you could see was proud to be there- proud to exist and to be precisely itself. And if the cows and hills and live fences had whispered of this pride the night before as they whirred by under the setting sun, here in the rainforest the same sense was proclaimed in every detail of every rock; every leaf and flower; every living thing that participated in the forest’s existence.
This pride in the beauty of Costa Rica can be discerned simply by looking at the nature itself. Out of the exploding life of the rainforest seems to spring this sense of pride- not a pride of self-importance or vanity, but an authentic gladness that comes from an understanding that each unit of life is but a small (albeit miraculous) part of something far greater.
Nature doesn’t have an ego.
Our guide Gina explains that every one of the dozens of species of fig trees in the cloud forest (and hundreds more worldwide) has its own corresponding species of wasp whose life’s work is to pollinate that fig tree. In turn, that fig provides a location for the female wasps to lay their eggs; a perfect example of one of the forest’s defining characteristics- that everything works together, because of, rather than in spite of, the continuous state of competition that shapes the forest.
Fig trees are known as a keystone species in the cloud forest, meaning that they play a critical role in the ecosystem as a whole. One fig tree species, known as the strangler fig, start out as a sort of vine, climbing and eventually enveloping its host tree. As the
vines of the strangler fig meet each other, they fuse together, forming a sort of spiraling network of curved branches around the tree. Often times, this host tree within will die, leaving only a hollow column that winds up like natural art built into the forest’s bizarre architecture.
As we see and learn about life in the forest, a thought occurs to me that moves me from a mere fascination to true awe of my surroundings.
This forest is not here for me. The wasps and the strangler figs were here doing what they do long before humans became aware of them (nearly a hundred million years ago, actually). And if the whole human race was suddenly wiped out, this tree would not notice. It is not here for my amusement or interest, and it is certainly not here for me to write a story about.
It also does not take the kind of fascination with itself that I give it. This natural phenomenon, so remarkable to us, doesn’t think it is any more remarkable or miraculous than the small beetle crawling hidden under a pile of decomposing leaves hundreds of yards off the path.
# 3 Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.
And yet, the terrifying fact remains; what we do as humans affects the world around us.
Fabricio Camacho, UGA Costa Rica’s general manager, speaks passionately to our group about the campus’s carbon offset programs and, more generally, why sustainability is important.
Fabricio explains with an eloquent simplicity how we as humans are disrupting the natural carbon cycles on the planet by extracting natural, underground CO2 for fuel and releasing it into the atmosphere at an unnatural rate.
“It’s not too smart. We’re investing so much energy and effort to be able to extract that carbon so that we can power our factories and we can build our computers, so that we can fly wherever we wanna go, but at the end, what we’re doing is switching one of the process that allowed life on this planet. So we really have to think about this seriously because we inherit this planet.”
He explains to us just a few of the countless number of sustainable practices the UGA CR campus has adopted. For example, all of the buildings on the campus are built out of teak wood rather than concrete or stone. The wood helps to absorb carbon dioxide. The campus also puts a lot of emphasis on water and energy conservation. As we discovered the first night as we tried to find our way to the bungalows, the campus has basically no outdoor lighting, which saves energy as well as reduces the disturbance to nearby wildlife.
The biodigestor is one of the most impressive sustainability features of the campus. Nearly all the waste from both animals and humans goes into a tank to produce methane, which goes up into a sort of balloon. The campus then uses this methane gas exclusively as an alternative to propane.
But the biggest way that the campus offsets carbon is through the distribution of carbon credits. Fabricio informs us that each student or professor who travels from Athens to Atlanta to San Jose to Monteverde- and back- causes a carbon emission of one ton.
One ton. Per person.
This would seem to go against UGA CR’s sustainability goals. That’s what UGA Costa Rica thought, so they did some research on how to combat this. The solution is this: through some studies done in Costa Rica, they discovered that one tropical tree (such as a guava or cecropia tree) in a 25 year lifespan can sequester . . . you guess it- 1 ton of CO2.
UGA actually plants four trees for every person that visits the campus in order for the carbon offset to occur in just an eight year span instead of the tree’s entire lifespan of twenty-five years. Each student and professor on our trip, as is required for UGA Costa Rica, paid twenty-five dollars to fund the planting of four tropical trees; thus, each of us offset our own carbon emissions.
One of our last days on campus I got a chance to talk to Kate Wofford, who plays a critical role in the further development of UGA CR’s carbon offset programs. Kate moved to Costa Rica with her family last July for a one-year commitment. Kate works extensively with the campus tree nursery, learning about the crucial process of monitoring the trees that the campus plants to sequester carbon.
But there is one more reason UGA brought Kate down to Costa Rica, and that is that they are considering entering into the voluntary carbon market. This means that UGA would be certified to be able to sell carbon credits to corporations or individuals who wish to participate in offsetting their own carbon emissions. Those participants would then fund the planting of tropical trees which would sequester carbon, just as UGA did for us.
“UGA’s program is very internal,” Kate says. “They are planting a lot of trees and sequestering a lot of carbon. So they are doing very well. But if they chose to enter this voluntary carbon market, it would give them the opportunity to scale up the operation so they could have the funding to work with a lot more landowners and farmers to grow a lot more trees.”
The process to become certified is a difficult one. It requires a lot of documentation and Kate has been a huge part of beginning to make that happen.
From Fabricio’s perspective, issues of sustainability are real and urgent. Even as he speaks, Fabricio seems to grow almost frantic as he tries to convey to us the seriousness of the situation on planet earth.
“Even the most pristine places are now affected by this whole idea of growth and development,” he tells us. “ That really bothers me. Excuse me for showing my passion on this. But we really need to move forward to find alternative ways to do things.”
It bothers him.
As I listen to Fabricio speak on a subject I frankly know nothing about, I slowly begin to realize its weight. It is easy to get caught up in the science and numbers game and forget that sustainability is ultimately a human issue. It forces you to ask yourself huge questions about human nature and purpose. Why are we here? Who says this is my responsibility? Why should it bother me if future generations suffer?
Why should I care?
A simple question, but a difficult one to answer. For Fabricio, his concern for the earth stems from his upbringing and the unique perspective it gave him on sustainability issues.
“Somehow I have a natural affinity with the environment. And that’s probably because I come from a very poor rural Costa Rican family. My grandparents were barefoot and they struggled. I saw that they were very connected with the environment, but then I received a system shock. I was a kid, 8 or 9, and I found myself living in the city in a place that I was not very familiar with and I didn’t know at the time what was happening, but it struck me that people really didn’t care about the environment. I saw this big mess that I wasn’t used to.”
Fabricio went on to study forestry at the National University of Costa Rica (forestry in Costa Rica has more to do with conservation than the production of wood), and has been in Monteverde working for UGA ever since.
Of course, Fabricio and UGA Costa Rica can’t single handedly reverse the pattern of carbon emission across the globe. But the problem starts with the attitude we bring to the issue. For me, Fabricio’s passion is, at the very least, enough to turn my thoughts towards what I can do to change mine.
