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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
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COSTA RICA NEWS
BRIEFS
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Monday 20
December 2010 |
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Coverage
Prompts
National
Climate
Change
Strategy
in Costa
Rica
An
investigative
series
by Costa
Rican
journalist
Pablo
Fonseca,
one of
this
year’s
Climate
Change
Media
Partnership
(CCMP)
Fellows
in
Cancun,
helped
prompt
the
government
to enact
new
policies
to
address
climate
change
and
environmental
issues.
With
colleagues
Alejandra
Vargas
and
Marcela
Cantero,
Fonseca
wrote a
series
of
investigative
reports
on the
affects
of
climate
change
on Costa
Rica for
the
daily,
La
Nación,
the
largest
national
paper in
Costa
Rica.
The 2007
five-part
series
covered
sea
level
rise and
coastal
erosion,
floods,
endangered
species,
biodiversity,
health
and
carbon
emissions.
“The
series
we did
on
climate
change
brought
the
issues
home for
Costa
Ricans.
Before,
most
people
thought
of it as
a
problem
in
Africa
or some
other
place,
but
never
realized
how much
climate
change
was
affecting
our
daily
lives as
Costa
Ricans,”
said
Fonseca.
The
series
prompted
the
government
to act.
Shortly
following
its
publication,
the
government
created
the
National
Strategy
for
Climate
Change.
President
Oscar
Arias
Sánchez
declared
that
Costa
Rica
would be
carbon
neutral
by 2021,
and
personally
spearheaded
the
creation
of Peace
with
Nature,
a
presidential
initiative
with “a
strong
political
commitment
to fight
against
environmental
degradation.”
“If the
government
says
they are
going to
do
something
next
year, to
change
something,
and if
they
don’t do
it, [the
media]
are
there
pushing
and
pushing,
asking
and
asking.
Politicians
in Costa
Rica
feel big
pressure
from the
press,”
said
Fonseca. |
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