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Human Rights Group Blasts Trump Admin for Deporting Hundreds of Non-Costa Ricans to Costa Rica
"These summary expulsions violated the right to seek asylum and the right to a fair hearing and other due process protections prior to deportation," according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
May 22, 2025
Dozens of non-Costa Rican nationals who were deported to Costa Rica by the Trump administration in February say they did not receive an asylum screening interview before being expelled, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch on Thursday.
The report alleges that the U.S. government did not follow the "minimal, if deficient" protections around the right to seek asylum and the right not be returned to harm, and kept those expelled in "inhumane conditions" while they were detained in the United States.
The report explores one instance of the Trump administration expelling migrants to a country besides their country of origin, a tactic the administration has repeatedly reached for as part of its immigration crackdown.
In the report, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.S. government to stop expelling or transferring noncitizens to third countries.
In February, Costa Rica received two flights with 200 deportees, including 81 children, from the U.S. as part of an expulsion agreement, the details of which have not been disclosed, according to the report.
"I genuinely think the [U.S.] authorities treated us so poorly, held us in those horrendous, degrading conditions, to force us to sign those volunteer deportation papers as fast as possible and maybe also to tell others, so that people would be scared to seek asylum, to come to the U.S.," said one 33-year old woman from Russia who was deported to Costa Rica.
In some cases, U.S. officials separated families when carrying out the expulsions to Costa Rica. In one instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent an Iranian man and his daughter to Costa Rica but kept the girl's stepmother in the U.S., according to the report.
Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of the migrants sent to Costa Rica and heard stories from those people that, "if true, indicate that people fled persecution based on factors such as ethnicity, religion, gender, family associations, and political opinion."
U.S. law guarantees the right to apply for asylum, and while many of those who spoke to Human Rights Watch appeared to have strong claims, only two out of 36 people interviewed by the group had a screening interview for asylum in the U.S. before being deported to Costa Rica. Almost all of the 36 people said U.S. officials ignored their repeated attempts to request asylum, per the report.
Some of the people whom Human Rights Watch spoke to had been in Mexico and made appointments to present themselves at a U.S. point of entry to seek asylum through an application developed by CBP, CBP One. When the Trump administration canceled all pending appointments through CBP One, some went to U.S. checkpoints to request asylum, while others crossed irregularly, such as by climbing over or through gaps in the border wall and then sought out or "waited for" U.S. border agents, according to the report.
Once apprehended, those who spoke to Human Rights Watch reported conditions such as freezing temperatures, little access to showers, and families being separated while being held at immigration processing centers.
"In every case documented by Human Rights Watch, DHS expelled people to Costa Rica without following the deportation processes set forth in U.S. law—not even the streamlined process known as 'expedited removal,'" according to the report, referencing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "Instead, acting under the purported authority of a presidential proclamation, DHS agents sent people to Costa Rica, a country of which they are not nationals and to which they had no intention of traveling."
"These summary expulsions violated the right to seek asylum and the right to a fair hearing and other due process protections prior to deportation, in violation of statutory and constitutional guarantees and international treaties ratified by the United States," the report states.
The people interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that they were not given the necessary documents required to be issued during a deportation proceeding. They reported being taken to an airfield and given no explanation until they were about to board the plane to Costa Rica.
Human Rights Watch says those deported were then initially subject to arbitrary detention in Costa Rica, and in practice they were not allowed to freely leave the center where they were being held except under certain circumstances. The Costa Rican government says they were not "detained" and indicated instead that freedom of movement was limited for their own safety, according to the report.
In April, officials in Costa Rica told them they could obtain a humanitarian permit that would give them 90 days to apply for asylum in Costa Rica or leave the country.
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Social Democracies Keep Top Spots on World Happiness Report as US Falls to Record Low
In the U.S., "the downward trend in life satisfaction is particularly steep among young people under 30, especially women."
Mar 21, 2025
For the eighth consecutive year, the World Happiness Report on Thursday found that the countries with the happiest people are those that use their resources to invest in social welfare—and documented a precipitous drop in satisfaction among people in the United States, where President Donald Trump is pushing to destroy public services in the interest of further enriching the country's wealthiest people and corporations.
The top four happiest countries in the world were the same this year as in 2024, with Finland taking the top spot followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden.
The report, compiled by the Wellbeing Research Center at University of Oxford along with Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, found that the U.S. is continuing to fall down the list—ranking at 24, one spot lower than in 2024. In 2012, when the World Happiness Report was first published, the U.S. held the 11th spot.
The researchers measured several variables that contribute to people's happiness, including social supports, freedom to make life choices, and perceptions of corruption within their country.
Across the world, researchers recorded a drop in "deaths of despair"—preventable deaths from substance use disorders, alcohol abuse, and suicide. But the U.S. was one of two countries—the other being South Korea—where these deaths "rapidly rose," with an average yearly increase of 1.3 deaths per 100,000.
This year's World Happiness Report focuses largely on "the impact of caring and sharing" on people's happiness, noting that the prevalence of volunteering and helping strangers was high in some of the happiest countries, while social isolation in the U.S. was tied to high levels of unhappiness.
"In the United States, using data from the American Time Use Survey, the authors find clear evidence that Americans are spending more and more time dining alone," reads the report's executive summary. "In 2023, roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day—an increase of 53% since 2003."
But the Costa Rican ambassador to the U.S., Catalina Crespo Sancho, noted at an event hosted by Semafor presenting the annual report, that the way the Costa Rican government invests public funds has helped push it into the top 10 happiest countries for the first time, with Costa Rica ranking sixth in the world.
"We're one of the few countries in the world that does not have an army," said Crespo Sancho. "All that money, they invested in things that our Nordic countries here have been doing for many, many years... Education, social services, health access."
Residents of the happiest countries named in the report benefit from significant public investment in healthcare, education, childcare, and other public services, and live in societies where the divide between the richest households and working people is far smaller than in the United States.
Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and the Netherlands all score below 30 on the World Bank's Gini Index, which measures income inequality, while the U.S. has a score of 41.3, indicating a wider gap between the rich and poor.
The report was released two months into Trump's second term in the White House, which has already been characterized by efforts by Trump and his billionaire ally, tech mogul Elon Musk, to gut public spending on healthcare, education, and the environment in order to fund tax cuts for the richest households. The Republican Party is also aggressively pushing attacks on bodily autonomy in the U.S., passing abortion bans and so-called "fetal personhood" measures as well as laws barring transgender and gender nonconforming people from accessing affirming healthcare.
According to the report, in the U.S., "the downward trend in life satisfaction is particularly steep among young people under 30, especially women."
The report also contextualized the victory of Trump and rise of far-right movements like the president's nationalist, anti-immigration MAGA movement, noting that far-right supporters of "anti-system" political leaders like Trump "have a very low level of social trust."
For the populist right, this low trust is not limited to strangers, but also extends to others in general, from homosexuals to their own neighbors. The xenophobic inclination of the populist right, well-documented worldwide, seems to be a particular case of a broader distrust towards the rest of society. Right-wing populists throughout the world share xenophobic and anti-immigration inclinations. The Sweden Democrats, the Danish People's Party, the Finns Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, Greece's Golden Dawn, the Northern League and Fratelli in Italy, the National Rally in France, and a fraction of the Republican Party in the U.S. are all built on strong anti-immigration foundations.
Meanwhile, "far-left voters have a higher level of social trust," leading them to support "pro-redistribution, pro-immigrant" political groups that offer an alternative to the political establishment with "more universalist values."
In the United States' two-party system, citizens "with low life satisfaction and low social trust" tend to "abstain" from political engagement, according to the report.
"The fall in life satisfaction cannot be explained by economic growth," reads the report. "Rather, it could be blamed on the feelings of financial insecurity and loneliness experienced by Americans and Europeans—two symptoms of a damaged social fabric. It is driven by almost all social categories, but in particular, by the rural, the less-educated, and, quite strikingly, by the younger generation. This low level of life satisfaction is a breeding ground for populism and the lack of social trust is behind the political success of the far right."
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To Prevent Coups Like Niger's, Ban the Recognition of Military Regimes
The institutionalization of such principles under international law would foster democracy and better governance throughout the world.
Aug 04, 2023
The recent military coup in Niger highlights a major weakness in worldwide efforts to promote democracy. It also underscores the need to establish a binding international precedent to ban the recognition of military regimes, particularly those that result from military coups. The institutionalization of such principles would foster democracy and better governance throughout the world.
In international law, the issue of recognition of illegitimate governments has ancient roots. The Tobar Doctrine, proposed in 1907 by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador Carlos Tobar, calls for denying recognition of de facto governments emerging from revolutions against the constitutional order. However, this doctrine never gained widespread acceptance.
The Estrada Doctrine, formulated in 1930 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Genaro Estrada, landed a similar fate. This doctrine also denies recognition to the government that has assumed power by extra-constitutional means. Although both doctrines are known in international law, they did not get the wide recognition they deserved.
It can be argued that non-recognition of de facto regimes will not by itself restore democracy. However, it is, a significant initial step that could be followed by stronger collective measures.
Politics is the driver behind the recognition of illegitimate governments; world powers have often encouraged overturning a constitutional government, as happened in 1973 when the U.S. supported Augusto Pinochet's takeover of the legitimate Allende government in Chile. Overt or implied recognition by Western democracies through ambivalent signs of disapproval have also encouraged military officers to overthrow constitutional governments.
Anthony W. Pereira, Director of the King's Brazil Institute at King's College in London, observed that since the end of World War II, military rule has occurred almost exclusively in developing countries. Military coups d'état reached their height in the 1960s and 1970s.
The playbook in these cases is similar. Although the military often promises a quick return to civilian rule, this almost never happens, and the military remains in power for long periods of time, often through a puppet regime. The military relinquishes power either when forced by popular will, or when its own incapacity to govern makes its position untenable. This happened to the Greek military junta in 1974 after its debacle in Cyprus, to the Chilean regime under Pinochet in 1990, and to the Argentine military after the Malvinas-Falklands conflict of 1982.
The United Nations General Assembly and its International Law Commission could be called upon to draw up appropriate legislation to declare the illegality of all military regimes. As the late U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold observed, the United Nations is "the most appropriate place for development and change of international law on behalf of the whole society of states."
The non-recognition of military regimes as a universal principle raises some practical questions. First, is it possible to apply the precedent retroactively, when military regimes have already been recognized and established? This issue was relevant in the 1923 Tinoco case.
Federico Tinoco Granados was a Costan Rican general who overthrew the constitutional government of Costa Rica in 1917. Two years later Tinoco Granados left the country, after multiple accusations of corruption. The new government in Costa Rica nullified all agreements signed by Tinoco, among them a concession to a British oil company. The matter was submitted to the arbitration of U.S. President William Howard Taft.
The Costa Rican government argued that Great Britain could not enforce the contract because both Costa Rica and the U.S. had not recognized the Tinoco regime. According to Taft, however, Tinoco, who exercised de facto control of the state, even if he had not respected the constitution, had the right to incur debts on behalf of the State. Taft's decision created a debatable precedent whose consequences are felt even today.
Second, what if military forces stage a coup against an oppressive or corrupt civilian regime? An ousted civilian government that has been freely elected by the people should not be denied recognition in favor of a post-coup military regime unless the overthrown government was responsible for gross human rights violations. Further, after a coup, recognition should be withheld until another civilian government is chosen in free and democratic elections.
It can be argued that non-recognition of de facto regimes will not by itself restore democracy. However, it is a significant initial step that could be followed by stronger collective measures. To the contention that non-recognition implies undue interference in a state's internal affairs, this objection loses validity if non-recognition is a consistent precedent of international law as established by the United Nations.
Consistent with this approach, both the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have condemned the coup in Niger.
Non-recognition of military regimes is a response to increasing worldwide demands to eliminate the plague of military coups d'état. Once established as a legal precedent, it could become a significant step toward world peace, justice, and democracy.
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As COP27 Failure Looms, Climate Movement Demands: 'Phase Out All Fossil Fuels'
"This COP must be the one where fossil fuels come to an end," one organizer with the youth-led Fridays for Future movement asserted.
Nov 16, 2022
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference winds down in Egypt, and with little progress apparent on key issues from loss and damage compensation to a clean energy transition, activists on Wednesday underscored the imperative to include a fossil fuel phaseout in the summit's final text and keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground.
"By 2030, we need to reduce emissions by between 30% to 45%, but since COP26 we've shaved off 1%."
"Those who've traveled across the [world] to fight for 1.5degC at COP27, and their communities at home, are sick of waiting as delegates avoid, delay, and greenwash," the climate action group 350.org tweeted, referring to the Paris agreement's preferential global heating target. "We need ALL fossil fuels phased out, gas included--keep it in the ground, and keep 1.5 alive!"
As rich nations ignore pleas from campaigners and Global South stakeholders to pursue loss and damage payments to the countries that have contributed the least to--but suffer the most from--the climate emergency, and as fossil fuel interests and the governments they influence work to ensure fossil fuels are included in COP27's final decision text, activists are growing more strident in their calls to action.
"This is our rallying cry--from actions, press conferences, to side events, today is the day where we, the civil society movement, are holding governments to account and demanding that an equitable, managed, and just phaseout of all fossil fuels must be in the cover decision of COP27," 350.org executive director May Boeve said in a statement.
Climate Action Network head of global political strategy Harjeet Singh said that "we came here to demand climate justice, but we know what's happening. There are more than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists who have turned this COP into an expo, and they are making the climate crisis worse. The fossil fuel industry is directly responsible for the death and destruction we are seeing around the world and this same industry is profiting from the crisis, making obscene profits."
Inger Andersen, who heads the United Nations Environment Program, lamented that "we've barely scratched the surface" of what needs to be done to salvage 1.5degC.
"The one year since Glasgow, frankly, has been a year of climate procrastination," she added, referring to last year's COP26 conference in Scotland. "By 2030, we need to reduce emissions by between 30% to 45%, but since COP26 we've shaved off 1%. So, we have a long way to go."
According to the International Renewable Agency, just 29% of global electricity generation currently comes from renewables, while carbon emissions continue an upward trend and new fossil fuel projects are ramped up in the face of fuel shortages caused by factors including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and production decisions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Omar Elmawi, coordinator of the Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) campaign, argued that it's "unacceptable to even consider huge projects" like EACOP "when rapid and deep emission cuts are needed to avoid catastrophic climate impacts."
"We do not accept that the need to address the energy crisis can be used to greenlight fossil fuel projects, including risky gas developments," Elmawi added. "This message needs to be heard, acted on, and commitments made to halt such projects. Finances should be channeled into a just transition to community-led renewable energy. We need true and real solutions for the African continent."
Fridays for Future Germany organizer Luisa Nebauer said that "this COP has turned into a fossil fuel energy theater. I can't believe that I am here, with two days left till the end of these climate talks, fighting for fossil fuel inclusion in the final text, when we know that the climate crisis is being caused by fossil fuels."
"Just because some industry leaders might be hurt when we tell them the era of fossil fuels has ended, their model does not work," she insisted. "This COP must be the one where fossil fuels come to an end."
Some countries are earnestly working toward a fossil fuel-free future. On Wednesday, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kenya, and Chile joined Italy, Finland, and Luxembourg as "friends" of the Beyond Oil and Gas (BOGA) Alliance. Launched last year by Costa Rica and Denmark at COP26 in Glasgow, BOGA--which counts 11 countries and territories as members or associate members, and now seven others as "friends"--is working "to facilitate the managed phaseout of oil and gas production."
Joseph Sikulu, 350.org's Pacific managing director, said in a statement that "the expansion of oil and gas is a threat to the existence of many small island developing states."
"The leadership shown from Tuvalu and Fiji as friends of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance comes just as our Pacific leaders fight to have the phaseout of fossil fuels included in the final text of the COP27 climate talks in Egypt," Sikulu added. "This is a David vs. Goliath fight for many of our islands, but this announcement is a resounding call that the Pacific is not standing down in the fight against oil and gas expansion."
There was a glimmer of hope Wednesday as U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said his country would support a proposal to phase down all fossil fuels, if it focused on projects with "unchecked emissions."
"It's a step in the right direction to see John Kerry state U.S. support for a fossil fuel phasedown," 350's North America director Aube Giroux said. "The nuance however is in the details and the loopholes. The U.S. delegation is making a distinction between 'abated' and 'unabated' fossil fuel projects and ramping up their desire to use carbon capture and sequestration and carbon tax credits as means to mitigate the climate crisis."
"Fundamentally that is an insufficient approach that continues to provide cover for the fossil fuel industry to continue to drill for and burn fossil fuels that are destroying our planet," Giroux continued. "If the U.S. wants to be a real leader on climate, we need to see them push real solutions including investing in solar and wind."
"The U.S. needs to incorporate a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies with no caveats," she added, "and create a mechanism for these companies to pay for the damage they've caused, reinvesting the finances into a renewable energy economy."
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Global Climate Movement Warns Nations Have Just 6 Months to End Fossil Fuel Finance
"The pandemic has shown that governments can rapidly mobilize massive sums of public money," says one campaigner. "This is the moment to do it, and accelerate the transition."
May 19, 2022
More than 120 civil society groups from around the world on Thursday warned that nations have only six months left to meet a collective commitment made at last year's United Nations Climate Conference to end public financing of fossil fuels.
"The world must immediately stop all new fossil fuel investments to meet the survival target for many vulnerable and poor communities, island nations, and fragile ecosystems."
The organizations detailed steps nations must take as soon as possible to comply with their obligations under the Glasgow Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition, a product of last year's COP26 summit.
The 39 nations and financial institutions that signed the statement promised to end "direct public support" for the fossil fuel sector by the end of 2022, "except in limited and clearly defined circumstances that are consistent with a 1.5degC warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement."
Letters were sent Thursday to leaders of Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Portugal, and New Zealand. U.K. and U.S. leaders previously received similar letters; the groups will soon write to the governments of Costa Rica and El Salvador. Collectively, letters have been signed by over 500 groups.
"The Glasgow statement has the potential to directly shift at least $24 billion a year in influential trade and development finance from governments away from oil, gas, and coal towards the clean energy transition if it is implemented well--and much more if these initial signatories can convince peers to join them and bring their commitment into other multilateral settings like the G7 and OECD," Oil Change International, which signed the letters, said.
The letter addressed to U.S. President Joe Biden urges him to "seize this moment to end our dependence on fossil fuels by building an equitable, just, and renewable energy system for all."
"Rather than using this moment to cave to the oil and gas industry, the Biden-Harris administration must end U.S. financing for international fossil fuels and promote a sustainable, renewable energy future."
Noting the "cascade of emergencies" faced by humanity, the message urges Biden to stop supporting the fossil fuel industry, which causes "air, soil, and water pollution, species extinction, and biodiversity crises," as well as wars "driven by our collective dependence" on oil, and "enormous ecological destruction," while entrenching "global systems of colonialism, racism, and ecocide."
"Fossil fuels are also the primary driver of the climate crisis and sow the destruction captured in the United Nations report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," the letter continues. "The International Energy Agency showed that the world must immediately stop all new fossil fuel investments to meet the survival target for many vulnerable and poor communities, island nations, and fragile ecosystems."
Kate DeAngelis, international finance program manager at letter signatory Friends of the Earth U.S., said in a statement that "President Biden started his presidency with bold statements on the need to end overseas fossil fuel financing, but has spent the past year taking little real action. Rather than using this moment to cave to the oil and gas industry, the Biden-Harris administration must end U.S. financing for international fossil fuels and promote a sustainable, renewable energy future."
Oil Change International communications campaigner Nicole Rodel noted that while "Russia's war in Ukraine and the current fuel prices spikes have prompted some Glasgow statement signatories to suggest they may backtrack and use their international public finance to lock in new fossil infrastructure," countries should eschew falling back on dirty energy.
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"What is desperately needed instead is for global leaders to double down on the Glasgow statement and support rapid decarbonization packages for renewables and energy efficiency in the areas that need it most," Rodel stressed. "The pandemic has shown that governments can rapidly mobilize massive sums of public money. This is the moment to do it, and accelerate the transition to a clean and fair future without fossil-fueled conflict."
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Why Costa Rica Tops the Happiness Index
How a focus on peace is helping this Central American country top the Happy Planet Index
Jan 31, 2019
A child growing up in the Costa Rican countryside is surrounded by some of the most beautiful and biodiverse landscapes in the world. The government of this tiny Central American country aims to keep it that way. But preserving this land of tropical rainforests isn't Costa Rica's only accomplishment. The government ensures all citizens have access to health care and education, and the country actively promotes peace around the world. So when the New Economics Foundation released its second Happy Planet Index, a ranking of countries based on their environmental impact and the health and happiness of their citizens, the No. 1 spot went to Costa Rica, population 4 million.
The United States' ranking: No. 114.
What can our neighbor to the south teach us about happiness, longevity, and environmental sustainability?
"Costa Rica enjoys a privileged position as a mid-income country where citizens have sufficient spare time and abundant interpersonal relations," says Costa Rican economics professor Mariano Rojas. "A mid-income level allows most citizens to satisfy their basic needs. Government intervention in the economy assures that all Costa Ricans have access to education, health, and nutrition services." Costa Ricans, he added, have not entered the "race for status and conspicuous consumption."
Created in 2008, the Happy Planet Index examines sustainable happiness on a national level, ranking 143 countries according to three measurements: how happy its citizens are, how long they live, and how much of the planet's resources they each consume. The HPI multiplies years of life expectancy by life satisfaction (as measured by the Gallup Poll and the World Values Survey), to obtain "Happy Life Years," which are then divided by pressure on ecosystems, as measured by the ecological footprint. (The ecological footprint, in turn, measures how much land and water it takes to provide for each person.)
The Happy Planet Index "strips down the economy to what really matters," says New Economics Foundation researcher Saamah Abdallah. It measures "what goes in, in terms of resource use, and the outcomes that are important, which are happy and healthy lives for us all. In this way, it reminds us that the economy is there for a purpose--and that is to improve our lives."
Abdallah calls the importance of family, friends, and community "social capital." People who live in countries with higher levels of material wealth often report less happiness than people in countries with less wealth but stronger social networks. According to the HPI, a Costa Rican has an ecological footprint one-fourth that of the average person in the United States.
The United States is one country where social capital is falling, according to a study conducted by the economist Stefano Bartolini.
"It is not surprising that social capital should be falling in the U.S.," Abdallah says. "Americans work the longest hours in the Western world and have the shortest holidays. All their time is spent making money, rather than building social bonds, which are just as important to well-being."
The Importance of Peace
Domestic and international peace has long been a priority in Costa Rica. In 1948, the country abolished its military, allowing it to spend more on health and education. Its University of Peace, established in 1980, offers a master's degree in peace and conflict studies as well as ongoing workshops--like a recent one on corporate responsibility offered to international business executives.
In September 2009, the Costa Rican legislature created a Ministry of Justice and Peace , emphasizing the role of peace promotion and conflict resolution in preventing violent crime. Shortly afterward, the country hosted the 2009 Global Alliance Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace, where representatives of 40 countries gathered to work on developing peace infrastructure in their own governments.
Central to Costa Rica's promotion of peace is the Rasur Foundation, which organized the summit and lobbied for the creation of the Ministry of Justice and Peace. Rasur is a teacher in a Costa Rican poem who tells a group of children, "Before directing the lightning in the sky, we must first harness the storms in our own hearts." Through its Peace Academy, the Rasur Foundation works with the Costa Rican Ministry of Education to introduce techniques of conflict resolution and "being peace" in Costa Rican schools.
Costa Rica's Nobel Prize-winning president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, who attended the Summit, is quoted on the Foundation's website:
"Peace is not a dream. It's an arduous task. We must start by finding peaceful solutions to everyday conflicts with the people around us. Peace does not begin with the other person; it begins with each and every one of us."
There is little difference in life expectancy across income levels, unlike in the United States.
Costa Ricans are not only reporting happy lives, they are living long ones. In the second measurement of the Happy Planet Index, longevity, Costa Rica scored an average of 78.5 life years, compared with 77.9 for the United States. Some studies have suggested that Costa Rican men live longer than men anywhere else in the world. There is little difference in life expectancy across income levels, unlike in the United States. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found an "enormous gap" in U.S. life expectancy, depending on race, income, location, and other factors.
Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world's "Blue Zones"--places where the inhabitants frequently live to be over 100 years old. The residents of these zones generally eat well, get plenty of exercise, and have a genetic predisposition to longevity. Nationwide, Costa Ricans benefit from a combination of government-run and private insurance options. Costa Rica promotes good health among its citizens even before they are born, sending doctors and nurses out into the countryside to provide prenatal care and teach parents how to raise healthy children.
Protecting the Landscape
The Costa Rican government's promotion of peace and health for its citizens extends to a peaceful and healthy relationship to the planet. The size of its ecological footprint indicates that "the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ... consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources," according to the Happy Planet Index.
Costa Rica has pioneered techniques of land management, reforestation, and alternatives to fossil fuels.
Spurred by rapid deforestation of its pristine rainforests due to logging and agriculture, the country began converting parts of its territory to national parks in the 1970s and prohibited the export of certain trees. Even so, by 1987, illegal logging, cattle ranching, and development had reduced the country's rainforest from 73 to 21 percent of the landscape. So in 1996 Costa Rica introduced the Payment for Environmental Services Program (PES). Oil importers and water-bottling and sewage-treatment plants now have to pay a special tax to do business in the country, while other businesses contribute via a voluntary carbon-offset fee. The money is used to pay local people to protect the trees, water, and soil in their surrounding environment by abstaining from cattle ranching and illegal logging.
The PES program has had mixed results. In some areas, cattle ranching and illegal logging remain more profitable, and the government has had to scramble to raise enough money to finance the program. But overall, because of the country's new environmental policies, including a massive UN-sponsored tree-planting program begun in 2007, more than half of Costa Rica's territory is once again covered with rainforest.
In a further effort to go green, the country has banned oil drilling within its borders and invests heavily in renewable energy sources like hydroelectric, wind, and geothermal power, which now provide 95 percent of its energy. In the capital, San Jose, vehicles are permitted downtown only on certain days, depending on the license-plate number. A planned commuter train will also cut down on automobile pollution. The country has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2021, the year of its bicentennial.
"The position of Costa Rica is that we all have to make ourselves present on the issue of climate change," said Gerardo Mondragon in a telephone interview with YES! Magazine. He is with Paz con La Naturaleza (Peace with Nature), an advisory agency to President Arias on ecological planning. "We want to get the message out that all countries have to support one another in this , and in particular, industrialized countries should support those countries who have clear initiatives."
Critics of Costa Rica's green policy, like Rachel Godfrey Wood of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, have pointed out that no amount of tree planting can completely undo the damage done by fossil fuels.
The Costa Rican conservation organization FECON posts regularly on its website about continuing ecological problems in Costa Rica: deforestation by landowners, pineapple plantations that cause soil erosion and pollute community drinking water with pesticides, and a new mining development in Las Crucitas that has local residents worried about cyanide poisoning in the region. Another controversy recently erupted in a region called Las Baulas, where environmentalists fear development will threaten the turtle population.
"We have to go slow," Mondragon said of the environmental challenges still facing Costa Rica. "But we still have to let people know what's happening." He blamed the Las Crucitas mining project on antiquated laws that don't give Costa Rica enough protection from environmental damage by companies working within its borders. "We need to change these laws so that development can proceed in a balanced way."
As a stable democracy for the past century, Costa Rica has been considered a "business-friendly" country. Though large banana, pineapple, and coffee plantations have not disappeared, ecotourism and high-tech companies have increasingly invested in Costa Rica.
"Good lives need not cost the Earth."
But a recent struggle between proponents and opponents of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement that passed last year, highlighted divisions over the issue of liberalizing trade laws. In one camp are those such as President Arias, who support CAFTA because they believe it will bring additional foreign investment; in the other camp are those who fear trade liberalization and privatization will allow businesses to be unaccountable to Costa Rica's labor or environmental regulations. The controversy over CAFTA illustrates an innate dilemma in Costa Rica's green strategy: How can a country that relies on corporate investment for its economic survival demand that those same corporations abide by the country's ecological guidelines? And what clout does it have in enforcing those guidelines?
No country, not even Costa Rica with its No.1 ranking, has reached the goal of "one planet living" that the creators of the Happy Planet Index believe we should all aspire to: consuming our fair share of the Earth's resources. "We want nations, regions, and cities to assess how well they are doing based on well-being and environmental impact," says Abdallah of the New Economics Foundation. "We would like to highlight the message that good lives need not cost the Earth and that 'one planet living' can actually mean a better life."
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Copenhagen to be 1st Carbon Neutral City by 2025 and Other Wind Energy Good News Stories
Denmark, Costa Rica, and India are pioneering crucial models to avoid the worst effects of our climate crisis
Jan 21, 2019
Wind power is falling rapidly in cost, with turbines becoming bigger and more efficient.
Alexandre Jeanblanc at Investor's Corner explains that Copenhagen plans to become the first carbon neutral city in the world by 2025! Denmark is blessed with abundant wind energy sources, which is part of the explanation for the capital's ability to put forward such an ambitious goal. Some 22% of Denmark's electricity is produced by wind turbines, but the country intends to increase that proportion to 50% by 2025, only six years from now. But Jeanblanc points out that the city has greatly increased the efficiency of its public and older residential buildings. (A lot of buildings still don't have proper insulation, a simple fix that significantly reduces carbon dioxide production). Copenhagen is also addressing transportation, making the city bicycle-friendly and hoping to account for 75% of trips inside the city by bicycle. The remaining automobiles and buses will be electric or hydrogen.
Some ten percent of greater Copenhagen's households will be powered by wind turbines set up on 9 artificial islands off its coast, with the complex to be named Holmene. Holmene will itself be net carbon zero, and a major new center of industry, including pharmaceuticals. It will have 5 huge wind turbines, each producing 6 megawatts.
Denmark is a small country of 5.7 million and the main significance of its ambitious decarbonization plans is that they are a demonstration model available for adoption by others likewise endowed with wind resources.
Wind now generates 10% of India's electricity, and is the largest source of renewable energy in the country. Solar provides about 7% of India's electricity. With substantial growth last year, India now has 35 gigawatts of wind energy. The country's total installed electricity capacity is 351 gigawatts. India's government has ambitious plans for renewables to account for 55% of the country's electricity by 2030. As a country with 1.3 billion people that is rapidly electrifying the countryside, achievement of that goal would forestall the production of tens of billions of tons of carbon dioxide. (The world currently produces 350 billion metric tons of the dangerous heat-trapping gas every decade, with current lackadaisical policies likely to increase that total substantially by 2029).
Costa Rica has increased its installed wind capacity to 407 megawatts, up from only 66 megawatts in 2009. Wind now accounts for 11.5% of Costa Rica's electricity mix, coming in only behind hydroelectric power. As of summer, 2018, Costa Rica had since 2014 generated 98.53% of its electricity from renewables, including wind, solar, geothermal from volcanoes and hydroelectric. Costa Rica's main carbon footprint now comes from vehicles, concrete and agriculture, but its progressive president, Carlos Alvarado, has ambitious plans for electrification of transport.
Costa Rica is only a little more populous than Denmark, so it, again, is offering a model to other countries- a crucial model, the adoption of which is crucial if the world is to avoid the worst effects of our climate crisis- tropical temperatures, sea level rise, frequent extreme weather events, and insect, animal and fish die-offs.
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Make America More Like New Zealand, Costa Rica and Ethiopia
“A country where our environment is protected, where we look after the most vulnerable, where we support our families, where we make sure people have the most basic of needs, like a roof over their head.”
Jul 09, 2018
FOR DECADES, AMERICANS have accepted rule by a mendacious and meretricious elite. Today we have reason to believe that our situation is worse than ever. Our president is a hate-mongering bully who promotes foreign wars, the destruction of our natural environment, the further enrichment of the rich, and the impoverishment of everyone else. Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress are cynical money-grubbers who grovel before corporate power. The Supreme Court twists the Constitution to promote the most anti-democratic forces in our society. Founders of our republic would howl in anguished rage if they could see how fully our political leaders have defiled their liberating vision.
The decline of democracy in the United States might logically lead us to conclude that our political system has failed -- that democracy is intrinsically unable to resist the power of those who profit from undermining it. That view, however, is contradicted by what other democracies have recently achieved. With hardly any notice in the American press, three very different countries have recently produced leaders who are unapologetically pursuing policies that benefit their people and the world. They are magnificent examples for the United States -- unless they lead us to weep in envy.
Perhaps most provocatively, she has asserted that the homelessness problem in her country proves the "blatant failure" of capitalism.
Eight months ago a 37-year-old firebrand named Jacinda Ardern emerged unexpectedly as prime minister of New Zealand. Upon taking office, she pledged to create "a country where our environment is protected, where we look after the most vulnerable, where we support our families, where we make sure people have the most basic of needs, like a roof over their head." One of her first and most shocking decisions was to stop issuing permits for offshore oil and gas exploration. "Transitions have to start somewhere," she said. "We have been a world leader on critical issues to humanity by being nuclear-free. . . Now we could be world-leading in becoming carbon neutral."
Ardern has also challenged other taboos in her country. She supports legalizing marijuana, is the first prime minister to march in a gay pride parade, and promises that women will soon make up half of her party's caucus in Parliament. More than any of her predecessors, she has promoted the rights of the indigenous Maori people. Perhaps most provocatively, she has asserted that the homelessness problem in her country proves the "blatant failure" of capitalism. "If you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive," she reasoned, "what else could you describe it as?" New Zealanders have rewarded Ardern's truth-telling with a 73 percent approval rating.
"We have the titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energy."
Thousands of miles from New Zealand, voters in Costa Rica recently chose an exciting young leader, Carlos Alvarado, as their new president. One of his two vice-presidents, an economist and environmental activist, is the first woman of African descent to reach such a high post in Costa Rica. Alvarado, who is 38, has declared a transcendent goal: to end all use of oil and gas in his country by 2021, the 200th anniversary of its independence. "Decarbonization is the great task of our generation," he said. "We have the titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energy."
Just one day after Alvarado was inaugurated in Costa Rica on April 1, another exemplar of democratic will became prime minister of Ethiopia. Abiy Ahmed, 41, comes from the country's Muslim minority and also from a persecuted ethnic group, the Oromo. He took over a country that has long been ruled by repressive tyrants, is divided along ethnic, religious and regional lines, and has been in constant conflict with neighboring Eritrea. "Expect a different rhetoric from us," he said upon taking office. "If there is to be political progress in Ethiopia, we have to debate the issues openly and respectfully."
In just three months as prime minister, Abiy has cut a radical swath through Ethiopian politics.
In just three months as prime minister, Abiy has cut a radical swath through Ethiopian politics. He fired five senior officials who were known for corruption and brutality. Then he announced that he would accept the ruling of a border commission as a way of making peace with Eritrea, even though it requires handing over territory that many Ethiopians consider theirs. He ordered the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners. When a member of Parliament protested that his order was unconstitutional, he replied: "Jailing and torturing, which we did, are not constitutional either. . . Does the Constitution say anyone who was sentenced by a court can be tortured, put in a dark room? It doesn't. Torturing, putting people in dark rooms, is our act of terrorism." On June 25 Abiy's enemies tried to kill him in a grenade attack. "The people who did this are anti-peace forces," he said afterward. "You weren't successful in the past and you won't be successful in the future."
Over the brief history of the United States, Americans have shown ourselves ready to seize anything we covet, anywhere in the world. If we could maintain that tradition, we might now arrange an "extraordinary rendition" operation to kidnap Jacinda Ardern, Carlos Alvarado, or Abiy Ahmed so one of them could be installed in the White House. Lamentably, that is impossible. The alternative is to concentrate on encouraging homegrown leaders who share their humanistic vision. Americans once believed that we could inspire and lead the world. Now we can only hope to catch up with New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia.
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How Costa Rica Gets It Right
How has a country of under five million people become a world leader in developing holistic policies that promote democratic, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth? The answer lies in its people's belief that focusing on the welfare of all citizens not only enhances wellbeing, but also increases productivity.
May 12, 2018
SAN JOSE - With authoritarianism and proto-fascism on the rise in so many corners of the world, it is heartening to see a country where citizens are still deeply committed to democratic principles. And now its people are in the midst of trying to redefine their politics for the twenty-first century.
"One hopes that the spirit of cooperation fostered by the cooperative movement, and ingrained in so much of Costa Rican culture, will make it work. If it does, Costa Rica, despite its small size, will be a beacon of hope for the future, showing that another world is possible."
Over the years, Costa Rica, a country of fewer than five million people, has gained attention worldwide for its progressive leadership. In 1948, after a short civil war, President Jose Figueres Ferrer abolished the military. Since then, Costa Rica has made itself a center for the study of conflict resolution and prevention, hosting the United Nations-mandated University for Peace. With its rich biodiversity, Costa Rica has also demonstrated far-sighted environmental leadership by pursuing reforestation, designating a third of the country protected natural reserves, and deriving almost all of its electricity from clean hydro power.
Costa Ricans show no signs of abandoning their progressive legacy. In the recent presidential election, a large turnout carried Carlos Alvarado Quesada to victory with more than 60% of the vote, against an opponent who would have rolled back longstanding commitments to human rights by restricting gay marriage.
Costa Rica has joined a small group of countries in the so-called Wellbeing Alliance, which is implementing ideas, highlighted by the International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, for constructing better welfare metrics. Recognizing the shortcomings of GDP that the Commission emphasized, the Alliance seeks to ensure that public policy advances citizens' wellbeing in the broadest sense, by promoting democracy, sustainability, and inclusive growth.
An important part of this effort has been to broaden the scope for the country's cooperatives and social enterprises, which are already strong, embracing in one way or another a fifth of the population. These institutions represent a viable alternative to the extremes of capitalism that have given rise to morally reprehensible practices, from predatory lending and market manipulation in the financial sector to tech companies' abuse of personal data and emissions cheating in the automobile industry. They are based on building trust and cooperation, and on the belief that focusing on the welfare of their members not only enhances wellbeing, but also increases productivity.
Like citizens of a few other countries, Costa Ricans have made clear that inequality is a choice, and that public policies can ensure a greater degree of economic equality and equality of opportunity than the market alone would provide. Even with limited resources, they boast about the quality of their free public health-care and education systems. Life expectancy is now higher than in the United States, and is increasing, while Americans, having chosen not to take the steps needed to improve the wellbeing of ordinary citizens, are dying sooner.
But for all of its successes, Costa Rica faces two critical problems: a persistent, structural fiscal deficit and a gridlocked political system. The economics of fiscal deficits are easy: boost economic growth, raise taxes, or lower expenditures. But the politics are not easy at all: While every political leader wants economic growth to solve the problem, there is no magic formula to achieve it. No one loves the two remaining options.
Most governments in such circumstances cut items like infrastructure, because the costs go unseen for decades. That would be an even graver mistake for Costa Rica, where infrastructure has not fully kept up with economic growth and, if improved, could itself be important in promoting growth. Of course, government could always be more efficient, but after years of retrenchment, further rationalization is unlikely to deliver much. Almost surely, the best way forward would be to raise taxes.
To reconcile taxation with an overall economic strategy that seeks to maximize all citizens' wellbeing, the tax system should adhere to three central principles: tax bad things (like pollution), rather than good things (like work); design taxes to cause the least possible distortion in the economy; and maintain a progressive rate structure, with richer individuals paying a larger share of their income.1
Because Costa Rica is already so green, a carbon tax would not raise as much money as elsewhere. But, because virtually all of the country's electricity is clean, a shift to electric cars would be more effective in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Such a tax could help Costa Rica become the first country where electric cars dominate, moving it still closer to the goal of achieving a carbon-neutral economy.1
With inequality still a problem (though nowhere near as acute as elsewhere in Latin America), more progressive and comprehensive income, capital gains, and property taxes are essential. The rich receive a disproportionately large share of their income through capital gains, and to tax capital gains at rates lower than other forms of income exacerbates inequality and leads to distortions. While economists differ on many matters, one thing they can agree on is that taxing the revenues or capital gains derived from Costa Rica's land won't cause the land to move away. That's one reason why the great nineteenth-century economist Henry George argued that the best taxes are land taxes.
The biggest challenges are political: a presidential system like Costa Rica's works well in a polity divided into two main parties, with rules designed to ensure that minority views are adequately respected. But such a system can quickly lead to political gridlock when the electorate becomes more fractured. And in a fast-changing world, political gridlock can be costly. Deficits and debts can explode, with no path towards resolution.
Alvarado, who is just 38, is attempting to create a new presidential model for Costa Rica, without changing the constitution, by drawing ministers from a range of parties. One hopes that the spirit of cooperation fostered by the cooperative movement, and ingrained in so much of Costa Rican culture, will make it work. If it does, Costa Rica, despite its small size, will be a beacon of hope for the future, showing that another world is possible, one where Enlightenment values - reason, rational discourse, science, and freedom - flourish, to the benefit of all.
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Costa Rica's New President Promises 100% Green Energy, Aims to Be 1st Such Nation
“We must impel decisive and coordinated action by all sectors of society to initiate and speed up this process permanently."
May 10, 2018
Carlos Alvarado, 38, has had his inauguration as the Americas' youngest head of state, coming to power in Costa Rica. Standard-bearer of an ambitious platform aiming at slashing corruption, government costs, poverty and unemployment, the journalist and author stands out for his dedication to decarbonization and a completely green energy grid. His new cabinet, by the way, has 14 women and 11 men.
He said that he wants his government to have a plan for moving toward a completely renewables-based society within six months. In the past he has tied this goal to Costa Rica's tradition of progressive exceptionalism, in not having a national army (this country's exceptionalism is somewhat different from that of the United States, let us say).
He said, "We must impel decisive and coordinated action by all sectors of society to initiate and speed up this process permanently, not only promoting [green] transportation and electrical and hydrogen power production, but modernizing our institutions."
Alvarado arrived at his inauguration in a hydrogen-powered bus.
Costa Rica is well on its way to having a completely green electricity grid. Some 78% of its electricity comes from hydro, and wind and geothermal provide 10% each. Costa Rica has a vast untapped solar potential, since less than 1% of its electricity currently comes from photovoltaic cells. The government has invested heavily in making sure electricity from these sources can be efficiently transported to cities where it is needed. Costa Rica benefits from the stabilizing effect of hydroelectric power, which serves as a baseline source when wind fluctuates. In the UK and other countries without big hydroelectric potential, that role still has to be played by natural gas (nuclear plants cannot be scaled up and down quickly enough to play this role).
The country hopes to have a completely green electricity grid by 2021, less than three years from now.
The big carbon-producing sectors Costa Rica needs to improve on are transportation, construction and agriculture.
Even the former government had announced a goal of 37,000 electric vehicles by 2023, some 2.6% of the fleet of 1.4 mn. automobiles in the country of 5 million.
Alvarado will want to move more quickly and ambitiously than that. Even before his inauguration, the Costa Rica Institute of Electricity announced the purchase for $3.5 mn. of 100 Hyundai electric sedans, as part of a demonstration project urging government institutions and private business to go to EVs.
Costa Rica is a small country and cannot by itself make much of a dent in global heating, which is caused by human burning of coal, petroleum and gas. But by setting a realistic goal of going 100% green, it makes itself a model and a demonstration project for the rest of the world. Alvarado's message: it can be done.
Alvarado faces enormous challenges in implementing his reforms, since he heads a minority government (parliament is divided by six parties) and a powerful Evangelical party opposes many of his initiatives.
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