Costa Rica Plants More
Trees To Become Carbon
Neutral
Costa Rica will plant
seven million trees in
2008 to soak up as many
greenhouse gas emissions
as it produces, in a bid
to become the world's
first carbon neutral
nation, a top official
said Monday.
"The stated goal is to
be the first neutral
country as far as
greenhouse gas emissions
is concerned," said
Energy and Environment
Minister Roberto Dobles.
"To get there, this
administration is
betting on halting
deforestation and on the
'Plant a Tree' project,"
he added, referring to
an ongoing government
initiative to plant as
many trees as possible
in the country.
The project aims to
"plant seven million
trees this year, meaning
that in our country
there would be 1.5 trees
for each Costa Rican.
He added that in 2007
the country managed to
plant five million
trees, spurred by the
desire to forestall an
impending environmental
catastrophe.
"Climate change is the
main threat facing
humanity and, even so,
the world still can't
agree to fight this
problem," Dobles said.
Every country can help
in the struggle, even a
small nation like his
own, Dobles said.
"We all know developed
countries and big
developing nations like
China, Brazil and India
are chiefly responsible
for most of the
greenhouse gases that
destroy the ozone layer.
"That doesn't mean a
country like Costa Rica
should stand by doing
nothing. On the
contrary, we're working
on a series of
initiatives on the
national and global
levels to lessen the
impact" of climate
change, the minister
said. |
