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An introduction

For 17 years, I operated a daily online newspaper in Costa Rica. That country has embarked on a huge effort to modify its economy to reduce carbon and methane gas emissions.

Consequently, as a newsman, I had the responsibility to pay close attention to government actions and the scientific studies on which they were based.

There also was an international angle because Christina Figueres Olsen is a Costa Rican, and she was executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. In Costa Rica, Ms. Figueres is much admired and highly politically connected as the daughter and a sister to presidents of the country. Internationally she has been awarded many prizes for her work on climate. She is highly sought as a speaker.

As a nation, Costa Rica has adopted strong measures against petroleum. Even though the state petroleum monopoly imports all its fuel, the nation has rejected offshore drilling and even exploratory drilling on land. The national also rejects nuclear power. The country is lucky that there is heavy rainfall and much of the electrical generating is from hydro power.

As a newsman I have been skeptical of some of these policies. I have urged the country (without success) to pay more attention to mitigating sea-level rise instead of trying to reverse it. Costa Rica has coasts on both the Caribbean and Pacific, so significant increases in seal level can have serious effects.

Despite the general acceptance of the theory of rapid climate change being linked to modern carbon dioxide emissions, I also have studied territorial changes since the last glacial maximum. Like many countries, large parts of Costa Rica that once were above water now are inundated. The situation is similar to the flooding of large parts of Florida and the submerging of Doggerland where the English channel runs today. I have a hobby studying ancient civilizations, and I have noted that what is now the Persian Gulf once used to be fertile farmland with large fresh water lakes.

So I have concluded that natural processes have a lot to do with what is called climate change today.

As a newsman, I also have strong suspicions of governments and academics who seem to know the truth. I remember my university days when a pompous graduate assistant in geology humiliated me in front of a class for suggesting that South American fit nicely into the coast of west Africa. A few years later, plate tectonics became orthodoxy. I also am suspicious of unquestioned beliefs that are held by large percentages of the public.

For these reasons I have written articles on climate change, specifically directed to Costa Rica, that may be considered heresy by many. I present them here for readers to judge:

James J. Brodell
June 26, 2019


1. Feb. 25, 2015: The much-promoted scientific consensus on human-induced global warming is troubling. At one point the scientific consensus was that the earth is flat and that the sun revolves around it. Only in the 1960s did scientists begin to accept the theory of plate tectonics, something that is well-established today.  HERE!

2. Nov. 30, 2015: An estimated 150 world leaders and climate experts, non-profit organization representatives and others are starting today to meet in Paris to maintain a static world. The problem is that the world is not static. It is constantly changing. HERE!

3. Jan. 28, 2019: Costa Rica has been characterized as an emissions laboratory for the rest of the world. The country already has drafted extensive plans and created a bureaucracy to develop steps to mitigate climate change. Special programs are being promoted for agriculture, livestock producers, the transport sector and energy production.  HERE!



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All news articles on this website copyright 2018 and 2019 by James J. Brodell  and/or used with permission from Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.