Reversing the trend toward climate change should be on everyone's agenda, especially since the February 18 report given at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that "The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over."

A research team, headed by Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, used millions of temperature readings made by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to show a steady ocean warming. These new computer models that look at ocean temperatures instead of the atmosphere show the clearest signal yet that global warming is well under way, according to Barnett. For more information, check out this CNN feature.

With the U.S. government spurning the recently launched Kyoto Treaty and SUVs still clogging the highways, what is one to do?

NEW KEY

The recently published 17th edition of The New Key to Costa Rica details how travelers can choose to vacation in rural communities which are working to conserve their forests as part of a worldwide program to address global warming.

The 27 community–based ecolodges highlighted in The New Key have been funded by the Global Environmental Facility, which works to reverse climate change and conserve biodiversity while promoting sustainable livelihoods for the farmers and fishermen that live in pristine areas.

The GEF has been working to address global warming since its founding at the Rio Summit in 1991. Since forests capture the carbon dioxide responsible for the greenhouse effect, one of the GEF's missions is to foster private forest reserves in developing countries.

Studies have proven that unless rural communities are benefiting from forest conservation, forests will continue to be cut for firewood, cleared for farmland or sold as lumber. To give rural communities the means to act in a new way, the GEF's Small Donation Program makes grants of $10,000 to $30,000 to grassroots community organizations, enabling them to preserve forested tracts of land, build their own ecolodges, and adopt alternative energy sources to replace the use of firewood. The United Nations Development Program works closely and respectfully with the communities to ensure their success.

It is no wonder that Costa Rica, with its reputation for biodiversity conservation combined with ecotourism, has some of the most successful community-based ecolodges on the planet. With proper advance planning, travelers can support Costa Ricans who are working for change.

What you pay for lodging helps farmers stay on their land, supplement their farming income and protect their watershed. They see their culture shine in the interested eyes of visitors. You will be inspired by campesino conservationists who are actually using alternative technology—solar panels for electricity, solar ovens for baking, methane biodigestors which convert manure into gas for cooking.