Good news, everybody! This spring break, I have the very exciting opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with UIUC's Earth, Society and Environment department to study environmental and sustainability issues. I am extremely excited for the course, and will be posting class assignments here until the trip.
As a bit of background, Costa Rica is a teeny tiny, neotropic country in central america, sandwiched between Nicaragua and Panama. Population size 4.5 million, compared with Chicago's 2.7 million, with most people living in the capital San Jose. First, let's compare how Costa Rica compared to the United States:
Size
Costa Rica: 129th
USA: 4th
GDP Rank
Costa Rica: 79th
USA: 1st
Human Development Index (A composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries based on human development)
Costa Rica: 68th
USA: 5th
Happy Planet Index (Countries ranked in index of human well-being and environmental impact)
Costa Rica: 1st
USA: 105th
Environmental Performance Index
Costa Rica: 54th
USA: 33rd
Rankings like these don't give us a full, nuanced view of Costa Rica, but it does give us a little context about where Costa Rica fits with the rest of the world. Costa Rica isn't the richest country in the world, or the biggest, but it's environmentally conscientious, and ranks respectably in human development and well-being. Costa Rica is within the "Blue Zone", areas of there world where people live measurably longer lives.
Other interesting things of note, there are 894 species of birds in Costa Rica, more than the US and Canada combined. Rain fall is 196.9 in per year on average, compared to 35 in in Northern Illinois. Costa Rica is 19,653 sq mi, compared to Illinois, which is 57,914 sq mi.
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