Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, with greenwash all over

Might want to check the elevation first

Posted by JMG (Guest Contributor) at 3:46 PM on 03 Aug 2007

Read more about: travel | green living | greenwashing

So the guy to blame for AOL wants to create a "green resort" in Costa Rica, because if there's anything low-lying countries in hurricane paths need, it's more jet travel by rich gringos eager to experience a little pseudo-green travel.

For story: Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, with greenwash all over
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And Guilt Free Too!

Imagine the place without any development.

I had the opportunity to see a lot of Panama in the 60s before the invasion of los ricos developing the shit out of some of its pristine beaches and natural areas. It is truly disheartening to see those areas now.

Ex pats from the states are on a land buying spree all over Panama and Costa Rica. Land prices has risen to levels similar to the states.

I really cannot understand how people can live in these developments "guilt free". They must have a hell of a lot less sense of ethical constraint than I do.

Hawaii is screwed so lets go screw some fresh paradise in Costa Rica. Rich!

by justlou at 3:44 AM on 04 Aug 2007

People with a lot of disosable income

invariably use it for vacation property and or boats. His idea won't work. His clients don't want to see bugs, lizards, snakes, tarantulas, frogs and scorpions hanging around their pools. You will have palm trees, coy ponds, and caged parrots like in Hawaii in very short order. He can't control future owners of the property. He is just scratching yet another sore on the skin of the planet.

Zip lines are a royal joke. They are a low tech amusement park ride. Something for tourists to entertain themselves with.

On the other hand, I stayed in a resort in Costa Rica that truly was integrated with the jungle and it was fabulous. We had to step over lizards the size of a small dog on our way to the beach, wait for sloths to cross the road, and scoop frogs out of the pool before jumping in. No attempt was made to keep the customers separated from the wildlife. This was not intentional, the owners simply didn't bother to "maintain" the property. Of course, For Sale signs were posted at each patch of adjacent jungle and once they all have resorts in their places, there will be no more wildlife.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 11:09 AM on 05 Aug 2007

Exploitation-Tourism

I recently read about Cacique in the Aspen Times and was disgusted with Steve Case and his company, Revolution Places, masquerading as environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive when under their mask is dollar signs. Eco-tourism is a farce; a more honest buzzword is exploitation-tourism--exploitation of the environment, the local population, and everyone in which Revolution Places feeds the lie of an "eco-friendly" luxury resort. How can they justify that their resort is eco-friendly when they are destroying the careful balance of 650-acres of Costa Rican rainforest? What do they think the ecological footprint will be of the guests that visit their resort each day? How do they plan to hide 270 guest rooms, 300 private homes (ranging in size from 2,000 sq. ft. to 4,000 sq. ft.!!!), an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, and a fitness center in the rainforest? Let's call a spade a spade--what drives their venture is money, not caring for the environment. If they were truly environmentally conscious, their company Revolution Places would purchase 650-acres of rainforest and pledge to never develop it. As an eco-conscious consumer and traveler they will never receive any of my money.

by varsitygrl1 at 9:32 AM on 07 Aug 2007

Green Homes and the washed out look....

Green washing and the "not-so-clean" way of describing a home for sale.

As an internet platform for green, energy efficient and sustainable homes, Listed Green has come across some interesting and creative verbiage used by some sellers in the real estate marketplace. In the environmental business we call this "green washing".

Green washing is when someone uses "green" terminology to help drive more interest to an otherwise typical (in this case) home for sale, in a currently flat and bloated real estate market.

This "green" terminology could be words such as:

*    Solar
*    Stewardship
*    Eco-friendly
*    Environmental
*    Healthy environment

I've seen ads that would say "a solar home", when all they really had was a wall that faced south. Or maybe the home just has CFL's (compact florescent lighting) and not much else in the home. Although these improvements help in a small way, there are green homes out there that are making heads turn and ideas flourish in a BIG way.

Listed Green likes to see (and loves to promote), innovative building technologies that we believe will make the quickest (and the biggest) change in the environment regarding the way we live, the homes we live in and the way we build them. Things we take for granted every day, do have a direct impact on global warming. The toilets we flush, the indoor air we breathe, the utility bills we pay; all these everyday duties affect the environment and our health.

There currently are so many new technologies in sustainable home building and we could make a huge impact right now, not years from now. We can heat all our water with solar and not the black stuff you see on roofs, but glass tubes that absorb UV rays year-round; recycle all our grey water (sinks and showers) and redirect that water to flush our toilets; building design and orientation to take advantage of the natural heating and cooling effects in a particular location; construct living environments utilizing innovative building materials that may come from recycled or renewable sources that also offer a tremendous R-factor - a one-two punch in not only saving our limited building material resources, but also less requirement from fossil fuels and the like, to heat and cool our homes everyday.

ListedGreen.com strives to make a difference in educating the general public about what makes a home truly "green" and helping bring an elevated increased value to these exciting energy efficient improvements, to a level that they really deserve in the real estate marketplace today and in the years to come.

by listedgreen at 4:14 PM on 31 Oct 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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