From Sustainability to Regeneration
By Kyle Rausch
“Even if it is just a little impact, if someone pushes you, is it alright?”
This was the question that Elias Robles, President of the Green Building Council of Costa Rica posed to our group at the beginning of our lecture on sustainability, eco-tourism, and the global challenges brought about by climate change. With the obvious answer being “no,” Elias’ point was that even the smallest of our actions can have damaging effects on our planet. After all, how many of us have happily taken a plastic straw for our drinks thinking “it’s just one straw, what harm could be done?”
Elias, a LEED-certified engineer, architect, and global leader in green design and architectural practices, delivered a passionate and informative lecture arguing that “…sustainability is useless. What we need to talk about is regeneration.” To underscore this point, he shared the alarming fact that if we were able to stop global warming today, it would take the Earth 300 years to stabilize. Clearly, the longer we take as a global society to address climate change, the longer it will take for our planet to heal, and before long we just may pass the point of no return.
Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse countries on our planet. It is home to vibrant rainforests, active volcanoes, and more than 500,000 species of plant and animal life. Its biodiversity, commitment to protecting the environment and natural resources, and political stability make it a rich case study for a variety of global topics and disciplines, all reasons for why we selected it for the inaugural First Year Flames Abroad program host country. With ecotourism being among Costa Rica’s chief economic activities, Costa Rica has developed a hyperawareness of conservation and sustainable practices. Since 2016, Costa Rica has been fully reliant on green energy – in fact, Costa Rica produces so much green energy that they are selling the excess energy to other countries in Latin America. However, Costa Rica cannot change the course we are heading on alone, a point which was made abundantly clear as Elias explained that Costa Rica’s CO 2 emissions account for only .005% of the word’s total emissions compared to the United States, which accounts for 30-40% of emissions.
As our group absorbed this sobering information, Elias used the opportunity to impress upon us that all of us can make a difference, no matter our major or career. He encouraged us to turn our fields upside down and to think about things in a different way. One of our cohort members is majoring in art and pondered how this could apply in her context, to which Elias shared about fractal art. Fractal art is based on geometry and has been shown to help quicken the rate of recovery by as much as 40% for some patients when used to decorate hospital rooms. A quicker recovery means less supplies used, less waste produced and so forth. The list of examples across fields and disciplines stretches on and on; all we must do is push ourselves to reconsider the ways in which we do things and ask ourselves how we can leave something better than it was before.
As a guest of the beautiful country of Costa Rica and an avid traveler, it is this last point which resonated with me the most: we should endeavor to leave the places we visit a little better than how they were before our arrival, for it would be a massive loss for our world if future generations are not able to witness the wonders of bathing in the cool and clear waters of La Fortuna waterfall or enjoying the goofy grin of a three-toed sloth just as our group was fortunate enough to experience.
