Originally Posted by
crtreedude
...The key is that Costa Rica values the environment and the environment itself is perceived as not something you can damage without care.
How much of this is because Costa Rica depends to a large part on tourism as a major portion of its GDP? Wreck your enviornment and tank your entire economic system.
Other places do not have that incentive. I'm not trying to argue with you about CR, just pointing out that incentive is required for emphasis on environmental concerns to become policy.
I tend to agree with the comments when viewing them as a perspective, rather than absolutes. For example: Every little bit helps. It is true. Me riding my bike to work instead of my car really does nothing for the macro environment. True, I didn't burn gas to get here, and if lots of other people would do it the impact
could be dramatic. But, I do not think we will ever see a situation where the majority of people ride their bikes as a means of transport, so in the grand scheme of things, what have I done to help? In that context it makes sense, even when on the face of it, me not driving does prevent me from burning a gallon of gas.
Basically, people will only change if they have a reason to change. Those reasons can be based on ethics, religion, finances, or mere survival [not all inclusive]. The priority placed on reasons to change depend on what they are. In order to successfully affect change on a large scale, we need to balance the reasons for people to change in such a way that we don't tip the scales so far that people no longer care about the environment because they simply need to survive. Since this point varies for all people, its a tricky prospect, and its why I think the change needs to be gradual, and based on incentive, rather than making the change punative.
My $.02