{"id":5601,"date":"2015-04-22T17:55:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T21:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=5601"},"modified":"2015-06-11T05:56:20","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T09:56:20","slug":"earth-day-2015-going-green-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/earth-day-2015-going-green-world","title":{"rendered":"Earth Day 2015: Going green around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nHappy Earth Day! On this day of all things green, let’s think about ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint with a trip around the world. Some countries are making green innovations of mind-blowing proportions, cutting their ecological\u00a0footprint in half. By learning about these foreign initiatives to save the environment, we might be able to develop solutions at home to contribute to the effort.<\/p>\n

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Costa Rica and Nicaragua<\/a><\/h3>\n

Recently in the news, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have\u00a0made headlines for their significant increase in renewable energy use. Costa Rica ran\u00a0on 100% renewable energy<\/a>\u00a0for the first few months of 2015, while Nicaragua has set a 94% renewable energy goal<\/a> for 2017. For two countries not usually in the running when it comes to technological innovation and its funding, this feat is impressive, but not surprising. As Nicaragua and Costa Rica\u00a0are situated in the midst of a tropical\u00a0rainforest, they\u00a0have a front row seat to witness the effects of deforestation and global warming. Fortunately, the region also has\u00a0a number of\u00a0natural energy options,\u00a0like\u00a0geothermal energy from volcanoes, that can help to transform the process of energy consumption and save the rainforest before it’s too late. If you visit for yourself, you can see just how fascinating the green energy transformation of Costa Rica and Nicaragua can be.<\/p>\n

Stockholm and Copenhagen<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Stockholm and Copenhagen are two of the most environmentally conscious cities in the world, full of windfarms, green housing communities, and other renewable energy intiatives. See Stockholm’s\u00a0Hammarby Sj\u00f6stad, a 25,000-resident community designed to halve the environmental impact of urban housing and house, or take a\u00a0solar-powered boat tour of Middelgrunden, Copenhagen’s largest offshore wind farm. Learn about all these green innovations and more when you visit these beautiful, environmentally friendly Scandinavian cities.<\/p>\n

Panama<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Panama is brimming with\u00a0lessons about organic, sustainable farming and biodiversity. Panama City is home to a\u00a0number of zoological museums, including the Punta Culebra Nature Center, an open-air museum dedicated to marine science and conservation. Or you can get out into the wild and see nature up close and personal, with a visit to Chagres National Park. Home to\u00a0900 native plant species, 114 mammal species and 396 bird species, Panama abounds with subject matter for your environmental and zoological studies.<\/p>\n

Germany and France\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Germany and France are pretty popular places to visit, but these industrious European countries are at the forefront of green innovation, too.\u00a0In Germany,\u00a0the\u00a0energy-efficient Solar Settlement uses\u00a0the Plusenergiehaus\u00ae, a home engineered to generate more energy than it consumes. The remaining power is then distributed amongst other homes in the area.\u00a0In France, you can visit the\u00a0hometown of the Smart Car, now called\u00a0“Smartville.”<\/p>\n

What are you doing for Earth Day 2015?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Earth Day! On this day of all things green, let’s think about ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint with a trip around the world. Some countries are making green innovations of mind-blowing proportions, cutting their ecological\u00a0footprint in half. By learning about these foreign initiatives to save the environment, we might be able Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[473,475,476,474,477,250],"class_list":["post-5601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorica-news","tag-earth-day","tag-environmental-science","tag-environmental-sustainability","tag-green-tours","tag-renewable-energy","tag-science-class-trips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5601"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5712,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions\/5712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}