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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