San Carlos protesters
win accord on highway


Residents of San Carlos thought they had their highway when the government of Taiwan agreed to put up the money and select a contractor.

The highway was begun but then the Óscar Arias Sánchez administration turned its back on Taiwan in favor of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese agreed to build a soccer stadium in La Sabana but not a highway.

So San Carlos residents, many being members of the Comité Pro-Carretera, staged a rolling protest Tuesday from their town to Casa Presidencial in Zapote. They have been seeking such a highway for 40 years.

The bottom line was that government officials agreed to come up with $140 million for the project, which includes nine bridges. President Laura Chinchilla was out of the country, but the demonstrators met with Vice President Luis Liberman, Fernando Herrero, the minister of Hacienda, and Carlos Acosta, the director of the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad. Acosta's organization is in charge of the highways.

Casa Presidencial said that the $140 million would be requested in a proposed amendment to the nation's so-called extraordinary budget that is being considered in the legislature. There was no mention of where the money would originate.

San Carlos residents argued that much of the nation's agriculture comes from that area and that the region is important to tourism. The highway will be 30 kilometers  some 19 miles, from Sifón de San Ramón and La Abundancia de San Carlos. The road is proposed as a four-lane highway.


U.N. agencies proposed
partnership to save coral


A new United Nations report urges a global partnership, backed by commitment and resources, to tackle the threats posed to coral reefs by climate change, including damage from increasingly severe tropical cyclones and ocean acidification.

About 20 per cent of the original area of coral reefs has been lost, with a further 25 per cent threatened in the next century, according to the report “Climate, Carbon and Coral Reefs” by the World Meteorological Organization and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Tropical coral reefs contain about 25 per cent of marine species and are worth an estimated $30 billion annually to the global economy in terms of coastline protection, tourism and food.

For the past 20 years, they have been “under siege” from a growing global threat: increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the two U.N. bodies said in a joint press release.

“High CO2 emissions lead to double trouble for coral reefs,” states the report, which was launched at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is currently taking place in the Japanese city of Nagoya.

“First, the trapping of heat in the atmosphere leads to ocean warming which can cause extensive coral bleaching events and mass mortalities. The global devastation of coral reefs from record warming of the sea surface in 1997/1998 was the first example of what is likely to occur in the future under a warming climate.

“Second, high CO2 levels lead to ocean acidification which reduces the ability of the coral reefs to grow and maintain their structure and function.”

The report calls for more financial and technical development assistance for the protection of coral reef ecosystems and makes a number of recommendations for future action, such as the need for meteorologists to be well informed about the potential impacts of weather and climate events on coastal and coral reef ecology.

It also recommends that concise summary reports on the global carbon threats, together with the ongoing regional and local disturbances to the world’s coral reefs, be presented to policy makers and governments, and that further research and investment are needed to improve the ability to assess and predict the impacts on coral reef systems of climate change and associated extreme events.



Jo Stuart will be speaker


A.M. Costa Rica columnist Jo Stuart will present "The Ten Best Kept Secrets in San José" when she meets with members of the San Ramón Community Action Alliance and other community members Friday. An earlier date was rained out when roads were damaged.

The lunch is at Casa Amanecer, which specializes in Peruvian food.

Ms. Stuart has published a book on her years in Costa Rica and writes a column once a week on Costa Rican themes.

More information is avilable on a San Ramón Web site.

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