Post No. 5

Because the Panama Canal is a major passageway for massive industrial ships, the ecosystem has suffered significantly. Not to mention, the land used to create the Panama Canal was taken from indigenous groups and sold to the United States Government, who permanently altered the landscape, severing North America from South America. Climate change and other forms of pollution threatens the way of life that indigenous populations lead, especially when they don't even understand why or how it is happening. Elizabeth Lindsey is absolutely correct in saying that we are not heading in the right direction in terms of how we, as people in power, choose to maintain the remaining biodiversity we have on the planet.

Endangered cultures are essentially ethnic enclaves that exist in societies disconnected from the globalized world, and are at risk of having their customs and ways of life be erased by being forced to adapt to the global community. It is extremely important that governments and corporations try to leave these communities independent, but this is rarely taken seriously as many of these communities are minuscule in population and underrepresented in their country's government. Davis mentioned Nunavut, a province in Canada that has been given autonomy as reparation for the encroachment of the Canadian government on the Inuit way of life as an example of what other countries with endangered populations should do.

Eurocentrism is the tendency for western culture, and in turn global media, to revolve around the cultures of countries of Western Europe and the United States to some extent. Going beyond eurocentrism means looking past globalized, Americanized culture and going deeper.

Post #5

a) To be honest, El Salvador is too busy dealing with gang violence and corruption to be worried about the environment. Today, “almost 85% of its forested cover has disappeared since the 1960s, leaving about 5 percent of the land area forested.” This is the sad reality of nations that are too busy fighting each other in war. They are stuck focused on individual survival and not focused on the big picture of survival of the planet. When you have gangs running around with weapons and demanding ransoms, kidnapping, raping, stealing, and murdering all over the country, you don't have a lot of time to be thinking, “Oh, we have completely decimated our forests, I wonder how that negatively affects the climate of the planet.” Not to mention the complete and total lack of human rights to the majority of people in El Salvador. Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey talks about the elders of her community putting on a veil and staying quiet for survival, well the indigenous people and really anyone that stands up to the gangs and in some cases the government is either killed or never seen again. It's a blatant disregard of those peoples basic human right to live and be free. I do think Dr. Lindsey has a valid point when she talks about how we will eventually face our own forgetting of our nature. I believe it will take form as a complete ecological collapse that will in turn collapse any sort of social structure  we have made today. It will be a world we must fight to survive and be fearful of the next day. It will be due to our own actions as humans of complete disregard for the health of the planet and ourselves. But it will serve as a great lesson for the consciousness of humanity, and humans will fundamentally be reminded of our nature. A new age in human evolution will begin, just at the end of a transition.

b) Endangered cultures are the cultures of people that are disappearing from existence. Sort of like an endangered species is getting close to going extinct. No longer in existence. In El Salvador, this takes form with the indigenous peoples of the region. The majority culture is from the Spanish settlers that came in the early discovery of the Americas. Catholicism is overwhelmingly practiced within this country, and there has been a long history of the settlers trying to end and decimate the indigenous cultures that were there before they were. I agree with Wade Davis. The elders from these ancient cultures are dying, and with them the tongue of their ancient language. This is extremely similar to the situation in El Salvador with all the oppression of the indigenous cultures.

c) Noor’s main points in “Beyond Euro-centrism” touch on determining the exact scope of the rubric of ‘human rights’ in cultures at different levels of global power, and the issue of political leaders using the concept of values to suit their own political-strategic ends. He emphasizes that “besides maintaining their own Western value system, they will have to accept their inability to force such views on the rest of the world.” (Noor, pg52) They must recognize the presence of alternatives to their own “moral and ideological paradigms” (Noor, pg52) Euro-centrism is the disregard of a wider world view and of the other cultures and history all over the world, apart from European culture and history. It is the ignorance of other values or ideas to be better or more whole than European ideologies and morals. From Oxford Dictionary, “implicitly regarding European culture as preeminent.” This is a disease that doesn't only exist in Europe, but in regards to others own culture exists in every country of the world. 

Post #5

Corona Virus continues to affect Costa Rica

As of Sunday March 8th, 2019, there are 9 confirmed cases of the COVID19 virus in Costa Rica. There are thirty four under investigation as well. According to The Health Ministry of Costa Rica, the people confirmed to have the corona virus include:

• A 49-year-old woman, who is a U.S. citizen.
• A 49-year-old man, husband of the U.S. citizen. He remains asymptomatic.
• A 54-year-old man, Costa Rican, who remains in serious condition at intensive care in a public hospital. 
• A 73-year-old woman, Costa Rican, who had contact with the 54-year-old man.
• A 41-year-old woman, Costa Rican, who had contact with the 54-year-old man.
• A 54-year-old woman, Costa Rican, who had contact with the 54-year-old man.
• A 56-year-old woman, Costa Rican, who had contact with the 54-year-old man.
• A 34-year-old man, Costa Rican, who had contact with the 54-year-old man.
• A 70-year-old female U.S. citizen, resident of Costa Rica, with a recent travel record to the United States, including to two airports in that country.

According to a report compiled from official sources, Theres been a total of 109,032 confirmed cases with 3,792 deaths.

5.4 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Costa Rica

Late Friday night, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake shook the country of Costa Rica. Data from the National Seismological Network (RSN) says that the earthquake occurred at 8:40pm. The center of the quake was near Buenos Aires in the providence of Puntarenas and rippled through the country of Costa Rica. There has not been any reported infrastructure damage following the earthquake. However, regional authorities were reporting that there has been slight "material fall" on some major roads.

Costa Rica had inflation of .29% in the month of February

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), Costa Rica had an inflation increase of .29% in February. That is .11% higher than January. Definitely a worrying number but still it is lower than the expected target. The INEC reported that the major influencers in the increase were "education (1.96%), transportation (0.69%) and health (0.33%)."

Scandal in Costa Rica after Minister of the Presidency resigns

The Minister of the Presidency of Costa Rica, Victor Morales, resigned on Wednesday after a mere 7 months in his position. The reason being a recent scandal involving a illegal data collection of citizens. Morales continues to say that he is innocent but has resigned because of public pressure. Two other resigned as part of the scandal as well. President Alvarado had this to say about the matter "I thank Víctor Morales Mora for his work as Minister of the Presidency. Our commitment to building a solid democracy and a prosperous country continues."

Blog #5

Millions of people are already suffering from natural disasters accelerated by climate change, from long-term droughts in sub-Saharan African to devastating tropical storms that swept Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. In 2018, shocking heatwaves and wildfires in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic to Greece, Japan, Pakistan, and the United States, killed hundreds of lives

We have only understood climate change as an impact on the natural environment. Climate change, however, raises urgent human rights issues and will continue to cause them. This is mankind's disaster Climate change magnifies and exacerbates existing inequality. Its adverse effects will grow larger over time, becoming a clear threat to present and future generations. The ease of governments that do not cope with clear scientific evidence beforehand can be one of the largest intergenerational human rights violations in history.

97% of climate scientists agree that most global warming is caused by humans. The overwhelming consensus has already formed on mankind's responsibility for warming. The biggest cause of global warming is the use of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil. This increases the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Clearing for agriculture is also one of the reasons for increasing global warming are as clear as tobacco and lung cancer. In 1992, 165 countries gathered to adopt the United Nations framework convention on Climate Change. At the annual meeting of the governing bodies, each country will focus on setting goals for reducing climate change, discussing ways to mitigate them, and addressing visible impacts. Currently, 197 countries are covered by the UN framework convention on Climate Change.

Unless the government takes action, climate change will harm both the present and future. However, this damage is likely to have a greater impact on certain groups. Climate change will be even more damaging for those in agriculture and fisheries, as well as for the underprivileged, vulnerable and discriminated.

The fact that culture is dying out may seem natural. For example, if all people who used the same culture were killed by natural disasters, the culture would disappear without a trace. Many scholars, however, have come to speak and say that the extinction of culture has never been faster.

This series of processes also implies violence. Countless examples are found in the history of the world, including Europe, Africa, the United States, and Indians. And if you keep looking at these examples, you can see that much has been caused by relatively recent air currents, from imperialism in the 19th century to two world wars, globalization, and urbanization in developing countries. While recent trends such as urbanization and globalization cannot be condemned or sold, cultural extinction is a human-induced disaster and most deadly for the survival of culture.

Eurocentrism is a view of Europe as the center of the world. In other words, it implies values, attitudes, ideas, and even ideological orientations that assert the uniqueness and superiority of European civilizations over non-European civilization. This is because European centralism not only considers Europe important but also companies 'strategic neglect' of non-European existence. European centrism consists of European exceptionalism and orientalism. European exceptionalism is that Europe has developed the concept of economic development into the invention of Europe by developing private property rights, secured autonomous cities to secure business activities and civil liberties.

Post #4

In order to solve the problems caused by climate change such like global warming, the whole world has already established a cooperative system. The 1997 Kyoto protocol is the most representative climate change agreement. In December 2015, 195 ministers from the participating countries met in Paris to establish a new climate change system following the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2020.

The key points of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Climate Convention are:

Although similar measures are taken to prevent global warming by reducing carbon emissions, the main component of smoke from factories, industrial facilities, and automobiles, unlike the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which was the main content of only 37 developed countries having the obligation to reduce greenhouse gases. The biggest difference is that all 195 Parties to the Paris Climate Convention has a duty to reduce greenhouse gases.

Here is a summary of the key points of the Paris Convention on Climate Change.

•        Temperature: Efforts will be made to keep the temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, especially below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Funding: Beginning in 2020, developed countries will need to support developing countries’ climate change initiatives at least $100 billion annually.
•  Reduction Goal: The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, so that global greenhouse gas emissions will be ‘pure zero’ by 2050.
• Responsibility: Developed countries should take the lead in reducing GHG emissions and developing countries are also encouraged to reduce GHG emission, encouraging gradual implementation to the reduction standards.
•   Damage: We will try to help countries that are vulnerable to damage caused by climate change, for example, island countries that are likely to suffer significant damage from rising sea levels.

Environmental Organization in Puerto Rico.

As a beautiful natural environment is one of the best tourist attractions, many people are interested in the conservation of the country. Many environmental groups are active in Puerto Rico. Among them, Amizade and Global Giving are the most active.


Amizade

The group focused on education about why the environment should be preserved in Puerto Rico.  Through this organization, people who participate in volunteer programs mainly learn about the nature f PuertoRico and learn why they must keep it. Their activities are the first to improve people's consciousness and there is not direct activity yet. It is an organization that supports and adapts activists who work directly to protect and improve the environment.

GlobalGiving

This organization is a more direct environmental activity in Puerto Rico than Amizade. The donated budget is to help people suffering from environmental problems directly and to plan the program to prevent the next environmental problem from occurring. In recent years, the hurricane-damaged schools have been rebuilt to help Puerto Rico people recover quickly.

Greenpeace's activities are very similar to those of GlobalGiving. They focus on dealing with real problems, rather than environmental movements, by sending relief supplies and providing shelter to people in Puerto Rico who are constantly suffering from natural disasters.

In accordance with the place, humans have changed their behavior and have been influenced by them to develop civilization. The wisdom that places give to people varies from region to region, but the warnings that places give to people are the same no matter where they are. The place that Larsen says is the earth we live on, which means we must protect it through environmental conservation.