Tag: Environment
-
Gerardo shares important Costas Verdes updates; Recaps Nosara’s journey from cattle fields to failed golf course project to potential model community for the world, asking new residents & visitors to step up support & explains why
We hope you enjoy this episode with our long time friend, Gerardo Bolanez, and will consider supporting Costas Verdes & Barriguiones efforts!
-
Dr. Edgeworth Goes OFF on Nosara’s homeowners using Airbnb data, Asks renters to leave 1 star ‘no flush’ reviews at homes & restaurants, Wants owners to either ‘F&$ing fix it or just sell and leave Nosara’
In this Nosara Podcast episode, Dr. Robert Edgeworth unloads towards Nosara’s homeowners, especially any and all rental homes and restaurants, to either update their septic treatment systems or ‘Sell your property and leave’ in addition to starting a campaign asking renters to leave ‘one star’ reviews for any house or restaurant asking for toilet paper not to be flushed. He goes through Airbnb’s analytics and cites his reasons for taking these stands. His opinion is anyone with a rental home of any size or magnitude is under an ethical obligation to adjust their septic systems or sell and vacate the community.
There’s a ton of info in this episode… Much of it which will not be received well by many.
What are your thoughts? Is Dr. Edgeworth taking this too far? Or is he doing the right thing?
-
NP #175: Meet Marco Villegas; The Nosara Civic Association’s Executive Director
Marco Villegas moved to Nosara to serve as the new Executive Director for the Nosara Civic Association. He earned an MBA in Business Administration and Sustainability and has over 10 years experience helping NGO’s and is ready to put his skill set to work for Nosara. We hope you enjoy this conversation and getting to know Marco better!
-
Nosara Social Science Study Report to the Community: Four Perspectives on a Sustainable Future in Nosara, Costa Rica
Dr. Alvaro Salas Castro is a frequent quest on the Nosara Podcast. You may remember him as the leader of the community round table event at El Local last July 29th. This event was hosted to share & gather information for the Nosara Social Science Study.
A team of high level social scientists including Dr. Alvaro Salas, Tina Nabatchi, Christian Freitag, and Greg Munno are conducting the study focusing on Nosara’s ability to become a model community for the world, or just another standard beach town.
There are many different levels to the study which evolves around the sustainable future of Nosara. After the event they have been working hard on processing the data further with the first results now coming out.
We just received the publication of the research which we’ll include here below as a downloadable PDF as well as the Abstract from the publication:
The town of Nosara on Costa Rica’s Nicoya peninsula is home to a vibrant community of diverse residents and is adjacent to an important turtle nesting site. However, tensions between lifelong residents, more recent transplants, visitors, and developers have increased as more of the
world discovers this once-isolated haven. Climate change, income inequality, and alienation from a
distant government apparatus have further complicated effective land-use planning and fractured
social cohesion. Using a mixed-method approach of in-depth interviews (n = 67), Q methodology
(n = 79), and public deliberation (n = 88), we explored residents’ priorities for the future of their
town. The results indicate four different perspectives on Nosara’s future. Despite the tensions among
those four perspectives, they show consensus on one overarching community issue: the need for
a sustainable development plan. The case also shows how Q-methodology can assist scholars and
practitioners who embrace participatory approaches to policy development and conflict resolution in
the environmental arena.For more background on this also include below is one of the earlier Dr. Salas episodes if you haven’t heard about this research before. More news and updates about the next steps and process will follow soon, so keep an eye out for any new updates!
-
Did anyone else get sick from surfing during red tide? My luck may have run out
I’ve been surfing through this entire red tide experience and taking my chances… However, it might have caught up to me.
Throughout this high season, I’ve been receiving emails and photos and hearing from several community members asking about this and others claiming to have gotten sick… But unfortunately nobody seems to know why the red tide is getting worse in our area.
To be upfront about it, I’ve grown used to red tide and just kept surfing. So I 100% acknowledge I knew I might get sick, yet paddled out anyways. Surfing is my primary source of entertainment and exercise, so I decided to paddle out most every day this high season. However, my luck may have run out.
This past week or so I’ve been experiencing an array of physical issues. First a constant head throbbing about 10 days ago. I’m quite used to my head hurting from a TBI injury so I didn’t pay it too much attention. But about 7 days ago my fever spiked up significantly along with strong stomach issues.
Taking a shower itself was challenging with shivers from freezing immediately followed by profuse sweating. About 4 or 5 days ago, as my head continued to pound, the fever started to break but other symptoms came in. First were sores in my mouth then the following day hives began circulating all around my body.
Here’s another testimony sent in to me asking for anonymity, but to be published:
Hola Rich,
I have gotten poisoned by the red tide twice now. The first time while surfing, the water definitely had the red tint to where I could not see my feet hanging in the water below. But when I was wrapping up my session I found myself in a dark red patch with no visibility at all. That afternoon, my eyes, ears, and throat began itching in the worst way possible. The back of my throat was red-streaked and I was down and out for 4 days. The second time was last Wednesday, was out surfing between Bakers and Main Beach and it was not terrible at first, but then I started working my way south towards Bakers and it was significantly worse. Similar to the first time, I found myself in a dark red patch with no visibility at all. I paddled out, went straight home, showed, jumped in the pool, showered, then I used alcohol drops in my ears, and used a neti pot with iodine solution. That afternoon. same as the first time my eyes, ears, and throat began itching in the worst way possible. The back of my throat was red-streaked and I was down and out for 4 to 5 days. This time was worse as it was painful to pee.
Year-round resident surfer**The reason this is anonymous is this resident doesn’t want businesses or locals to be angry at them for potentially hurting tourism. However, they care about safety and want people to know about their recent experiences.
-
NP #120: Nick Mcalpin shares serious water knowledge & personal opinions in this 38 minute Nosara Podcast episode
Nick Mcalpin joins Rich for this new episode of the Nosara Podcast to talk about wastewater, storm water and soil management. He explains the problems Nosara has with these three topics and the possible ways we can all start to contribute to the solution. He also shares his own way of living in his property which can inspire many of us to live life differently and in a more ecological way.
Here are some links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/plain.surf/ (Nick’s instagram where he posts a lot about his property and alternative ways of living)
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/ (a book Nick mentions)
https://www.instagram.com/nosarapodcast/
https://www.facebook.com/NosaraPodcast -
NP #116: Dr’s & Scientists from the Nosara Research Project are inviting ALL area residents to participate in a survey to prepare for July 29th round table event (8 minute short version)
In this Nosara Podcast, Dr. Alvaro Salas-Castro, Dr. Tina Nabatchi, & Dr. Christian Freitag invite ALL Nosara residents to participate in an important survey.
They explain there are 3 phases to this project. Phase 1 is now complete, Phase 2 is this survey (see below links to participate & instructions), and Phase 3 is the July 29th round table event, when all of Nosara’s collected information will be shared.
They are requesting as much participation as possible from all demographics and want people to know their opinions and concerns are included and important. Their goal is to share collective information in a manner promoting unification and dialogue thus providing an opportunity to progress.
Queremos participación con todos en la comunidad!!! Inglés o español todo bien.
This was carefully written understanding there are multiple steps and it might be confusing for some.
Its in English and/or Spanish.
*SURVEY ESPANOL*
http://tinyurl.com/nosara-estudio
*SURVEY ENGLISH*
https://tinyurl.com/nosara-study
What’s happening is truly unique and an opportunity for our community to unite for a greater cause no matter our background or financial status. Participation will make a difference.
*Two important tools to help fill out the survey* 😉
VIDEO TUTORIAL (Español y Ingles)
FAQ (Ingles)
-
NP #115: Dr. Robert Edgeworth explains scientific results about Nosara’s water pollution; Asks homeowners and businesses to support a cleaner Nosara
In this Nosara Podcast episode, Dr. Edgeworth explains the ocean water pollution situation in Playa Guiones and Rio Nosara areas plus calls residents, in particular homeowners and businesses, to support a cleaner Nosara based upon the data from their water collection study.
He explains Dr. Vanessa Bezy’s efforts on this project, how it is funded, and shares some of his personal opinions about leadership in our area. Robert states: “It’s a big responsibility to apply government power against people’s property rights… So if you want to do that, at least do it well.”
-
NP #112: Guardians of Nature is on a mission… And it is working! In 23 minutes Jessica Sheffield updates how Nosara is turning into an ‘innovation lab’ and ‘faith, hope, and strategy can change anything’
In this Nosara Podcast episode Jessica Sheffield updates us about Guardians of Nature and shares her vision of increasing eco literacy throughout Latin America and beyond. The program is working already in Nosara and quickly expanding in Latin America and beyond.
Here’s my notes:
- Intro… GoN ‘Mom’ and DMA cofounder
- Nosara is an innovation lab for public schools
- Importance of trajectories
- Trees in CR almost all gone by the 1980’s yet CR changed trajectory and is now inventor of ecotourism (will put in map photos)
- DMA was not intended to ever be an island
- Local schools in Nosara having impact and ripple effect
- Step by step… Not 1 huge one
- Covid, floods, strikes, etc. Really hurt kids
- Enriching English very important
- How can people get involved?
- Can donate time, financially, or preferably both
- Could Nosara’s public school be model for the world?
- Faith, hope, and strategy can change anything
- Local businesses adopted local schools and now composting, recycling, English enrichment, etc.
- Bram recommendation of book Rocket Man
- GoN using bottom up approach, not top down
- Working with government much better in accomplishing greater reach
- Check site also 501c3 available via Amigos site
-
NP #103: SIBU Wildlife Sanctuary 7 minute update with Vicki Coan
In this episode of the Nosara Podcast, Vicki Coan from SIBU Wildlife Sanctuary updates us about the following:
– Volunteer update & transitions
– Change in direction, working more-so in conjunction with other organizations
– Specific message
– Heartbreak about trees coming down due to continued development
– Importance of insulated power lines
– Please do not let your dogs roam free they are terrorizing the local wildlife
– What we need to survive
Edit by: Garth Dyke
