Environmental Performance Index - EPI - Costa Rica

Brought my friends to a waterfall beautiful 3 weeks ago. Truly enjoyed the surrounding. And 3 weeks has passed so quickly and that reminds me of Costa Rica. Before that, I want to explain one of the technical health reasons why most people enjoy going to waterfalls.

"Remember that feeling you've experienced near a waterfall? It is one of the places that thousands of negative ions occur. They create an effect on human biochemistry."

The fresh air is created by nature. The fresh air is we breathe that we feel so good is because of the oxygen ions. This oxygen ions are made of negative ions, a molecule that has an extra electron attached.

Negative ions have been proven to have a positive impact on health, mood, and energy, affecting serotonin levels in the brain. Negative ions also bond with impurities in the air, adhering to suspended particles and removing them.


Negatively charged molecules are missing electrons and when they come into your body they will grab free-roaming electrons and make them apart of the water; they clean up your body. The other thing this water does is get into your cells much more easily. This is why people are so drawn to waterfalls and snow runoff water from mountains. Mountains are natural negative ion generating structures so water from mountains tends to be even more negatively charged.

The ions we are concerned with, oxygen ions, are most commonly produced through disturbance of water molecules, such as in fast flowing rivers. The disturbance of water molecules occasionally displaces an electron, causing it to break off from its host.

IONS PER C.C. EFFECTS

0-100 Dead air, oppressive, difficulty of concentration; virus and germs flourish.
500-1000 Normal air found indoors where pollution is low and the building has open windows.
1000-5000 "Country fresh air," the minimum level one should sleep, work and live in .
5000 + Exceptionally fresh, clean and invigorating air, "mountain air."
50,000 + Pure air, very stimulating, exhilarating and relaxing, germs cannot live in this air.


Concentration of Negative Ions in Different Environments

Environment
Concentration *
Waterfalls 95,000 – 450,000
seashores, breezy forest 50,000 – 100,000
Breezy country meadow 5,000 – 50,000
Cities 100 – 2000
Rooms and offices 40 – 100
Rooms with Air Conditioner 0 – 20


The next topic about be spring water. A whole new topic. Spring water ( water that comes from the mountain is still best water you can get ). Not distilled water ( dead water ). If you use distilled water to rare fishes in aquarium, the fishes will die. It happened to me. You can search on the net so much about distilled water or small clustered molecules of water. Naturally, water from the mountain or spring water when it flows down through the rocks, the molecules has been broken into smaller clustered.

Let's talk about Costa Rica for now.

According to the 2008 Environmental Peformance Index (EPI) Costa Rica is 5th among 149 countries of the world in protecting the environment.

The top five countries, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Findland and Costa Rica are definitely worth visiting due to its country's policy to the protect the environment. Costa Rica is the only country outside Europe to be rated at the 5th position.

The EPI ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change. The EPI identifies broadly-accepted targets for environmental performance and measures how close each country comes to these goals. As a quantitative gauge of pollution control and natural resource management results, the Index provides a powerful tool for improving policymaking and shifting environmental decision-making onto firmer analytic foundations.

Here is how Costa Rica fared in various categories (scale of 1 to 100):
EPI - 90.5
Environmental Health - 93.2
Ecosystem Vitality - 87.7
Environmental Burden of Disease - 1.0
Water (humans) - 92.8
Air Pollution (humans) - 83.8
Air Pollution (Ecosystem) - 99.3

Now, take a look at this.






and this

Now see this picture.

Why blue? Good question.
The awe inspiring Rio Celeste (Light Blue River) is turned literally blue due to the emanation of sulfur from the volcano and precipitation of calcium carbonate. Thermal springs and small geysers dot the area as do rivers, waterfalls, lagoons and panoramic views. The Rio Celeste river is located at Tenorio Volcano park, which consists of four volcanic peaks and two craters. One of the craters is sometimes referred to as the Montezuma Volcano.