<story><title>Costa Rica Is Now Running on 100% Renewable Electricity</title><url>http://www.fastcoexist.com/3044360/costa-rica-is-now-running-on-100-renewable-electricity</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pluckytree</author><text>When a country accomplishes something really great, it’s not because they are small and the US is big. It’s because they are smart and we are dumb.&lt;p&gt;We hear this all the time. Portugal legalized drugs and it worked, but they’re small. Iceland forged their own path after the banking collapse, but they’re small. The Nordic countries have great education systems that cost less, but they’re small.&lt;p&gt;Always a great excuse when you really don’t want to learn from others.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oh_sigh</author><text>Actually, if USAians used as many watts per person as Costa Rica(8x fewer - 1683 wpp vs 207 wpp[1]), our renewable infrastructure would be able to support us entirely(currently 13% of total generation)[2], and infact we would have power to spare.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_countries_by_electricit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;tools&amp;#x2F;faqs&amp;#x2F;faq.cfm?id=427&amp;amp;t=3&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.eia.gov&amp;#x2F;tools&amp;#x2F;faqs&amp;#x2F;faq.cfm?id=427&amp;amp;t=3&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Costa Rica Is Now Running on 100% Renewable Electricity</title><url>http://www.fastcoexist.com/3044360/costa-rica-is-now-running-on-100-renewable-electricity</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pluckytree</author><text>When a country accomplishes something really great, it’s not because they are small and the US is big. It’s because they are smart and we are dumb.&lt;p&gt;We hear this all the time. Portugal legalized drugs and it worked, but they’re small. Iceland forged their own path after the banking collapse, but they’re small. The Nordic countries have great education systems that cost less, but they’re small.&lt;p&gt;Always a great excuse when you really don’t want to learn from others.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>NittLion78</author><text>Maybe we&amp;#x27;re dumb &lt;i&gt;because&lt;/i&gt; we&amp;#x27;re big. More people = more odds of an ignoramus group having critical mass.</text></comment>